It is wrong to assert that a small unrepresentative group of Muslim activits tried to Islamicise a state primary school in Woking. The silent majority of Muslim parents would like to send their children to state funded Muslim schools. They are not extremists who want to change of ethos of those schools where Muslim children are in majority. It is the democratic right of every Muslim parents to see that their children recieve balanced education, so that when their children grow up, they do not find themselves cut off from their cultural roots and linguistic skills. It is a question of common sense, humanity and reason that bilingual Muslim children must be educated in state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. Politicians like Damian Green and David Blunkett believe that those children who speak two or three languages are the cause of problems in education. The whole world believes that people who speak more than one language is a vital economic asset.Pupils awho speak more than one language do not cause difficulities. It is the politicians and monolingual teachgers who are the problems for bilingual pupils.

Funding Muslim groups is not going to prevent anger, frustration and extremism. Muslim youths have been educated in a wrong place at a wrong time. They have been mis-educated and de-educated by state and church schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers during their developmental periods. Muslim youths are being detained without trial in the war on terror. The policy of detention is radicalising young people in the United Kingdom.
Iftikhar Ahmad
www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk