Andrew Gilligan at the Spectator:
After the Jason Arday disaster, here is new evidence that things have gone deeply wrong at Cambridge University.
We can reveal that a former supporter of Hizb ut-Tahrir, now banned as a terror group, has been appointed assistant research professor of education at Cambridge, in the same faculty as Arday.
Farah Ahmed has explicitly attacked ‘western education’ as a ‘threat’ to Muslims, condemned democracy and integration, and criticised British schools for teaching pupils that child marriage is wrong. During her time at Cambridge, she has written that the Islamic concept of education is sharply opposed to ‘gaining literacy and numeracy and other disciplinary skills demonstrated through qualifications’.
These statements are part of her long record of bigoted, extremist and separatist views on education. In a Hizb ut-Tahrir pamphlet, ‘Education and Identity’, originally written in 2002, republished in 2017, and obtained by The Spectator, Ahmed writes that ‘the Muslim community as a whole in Britain needs to recognise that western education is a threat to our beliefs and values.’
She attacks schools’ ‘attempts to integrate Muslim children’ as seeking to ‘produce new generations that reject Islam… if society is built on kufr [unbelief], it is our duty to tackle this challenge as a community in order to protect our young from its corruption.’
Ahmed is now responsible for postgraduate research in education at Britain’s top university, and for teaching undergraduate students, the future leaders of the profession, ‘how education shapes individuals and society.’
In her chapter in the 2002 pamphlet, Ahmed criticises the national curriculum as a form of ‘systematic indoctrination’ to ‘build “model British citizens” who will seek to actively take part in the implementation of the secular capitalist system in British society. Naturally, such a system will not be suitable to the needs of Muslim students as the aqeedah [belief system] of the Muslim is in complete contradiction to this.’
She attacks British schools for teaching that ‘polygamy or marriage under the age of 16’ is ‘archaic and discriminatory to women’, and for telling children that ‘democracy… is the only way that laws should be created.’ Democracy, she says, is a ‘corrupt tradition’, where if ‘decision makers decide to make bombing Iraq or homosexuality legal, as they currently have, there is nothing anyone can do about it’.
Worst of all, ‘religious tolerance is primarily pushed in religious education’, meaning that ‘Islam is taught as a religion like any other, putting its value on the same level as Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism and the like.’
Nor does academic study escape Ahmed’s censure. English, she writes, ‘is one of the most damaging subjects’ a school can teach. Fairy tales ‘reflect secular and immoral beliefs, which contradict the viewpoint of Islam.’ Romeo and Juliet ‘advocates disobeying parents and pre-marital relations.’
Science is a problem too, because in the ‘teaching of evolution, Muslim children will be exposed to ideas that contradict Islam’. And in any subject, boys and girls may be asked to work together. ‘As Muslim parents we try to protect our children from the rubbish that western society encourages’, but interaction with non-Muslim children in the playground, which is ‘full of the competitiveness and individualism that western culture encourages… moulds their personalities away from Islam.’ As she puts it: ‘western culture is playground culture.’
Wow. Assistant research professor of education. At Cambridge University.
Her personal profile:
My research interests lie in the intersections between: dialogic education philosophies of Islamic education ‘Southern’ theory i.e. critical and indigenous research methodologies and identity/personhood/character education. I am particularly interested in ontological epistemological and theoretical frameworks and how these influence classroom practice. My research is driven by a commitment to community-led educational initiatives generating innovative educational practice. As such my research tends to be interwoven with sustainable teacher professional development (TPD).
My theoretical research involves uses Muslim thinkers’ extensive writing on human nature; psyche; personality; including cognitive affective social emotional and spiritual dimensions; and dialogic personhood which is yet to be applied in most contemporary educational contexts. My empirical research involves trialling dialogic halaqah (a traditional Islamic circle of learning) in a range of contemporary educational contexts….
I very much doubt that the Cambridge faculty heads bothered to look into Farah Ahmed’s history. They’ll have been impressed by all the nonsense above – ooh, dialogic halaqah (a traditional Islamic circle of learning), sounds fabulous – and patted themselves on the back for their wonderful inclusivity. Just like with Jason Arday.
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