Sharia Law for British Schools?

A new publication on British education released by the Muslim Council of Britain reveals a push for Islamic law to be imposed in the British school system.

Reporting for the Washington Times, Diana West stated, “At the crux of the Muslim council’s document is a call for special treatment for Britain’s Muslim students that is so special as to reorient the entire British system according to Islamic law” (February 23).

Based on the fact that a British poll found that religion “appears to be more important” to Muslim youth than those of other heritage, the report infers that Muslim religious requirements are also more important than those of other religions. Hence, the report proposes that a huge range of Islamic practices be incorporated into the British school system including: wearing of the hijab, the growing of beards, halal meals (including special staff training, food preparation and storage), prayer rooms for Muslim children, special washing facilities to perform Wudu, participation in Ramadan (including the rescheduling of certain school events to avoid clashes), Arabic classes, Koran recitation—and so on. “The Muslim council isn’t asking the British taxpayer to create the perfect Sharia state exactly,” writes West, “but rather the perfect Sharia state school system.”

Of course, this is just the latest—rather audacious—move in Islam’s assault on the West. The two-pronged approach—overtly through violence, and more subtly through a cultural offensive—seeks the Islamification of Western society. Islam expert Bernard Lewis once explained this phenomenon: “In the classical Islamic view, to which many Muslims are beginning to return, the world and all mankind are divided into two: the House of Islam, where the Muslim law and faith prevail, and the rest, known as the House of Unbelief or the House of War, which it is the duty of Muslims ultimately to bring to Islam” (Atlantic Monthly, September 1990).

When seen in this context, the Muslim council’s latest attempt to change school policy in Britain is far from a simple request for religious freedom.