Foster father fights to illegalise indoctrination for Muslims
By Francine Ponticelli
A Stockport resident has founded a campaign and charity that aims to raise awareness on the indoctrination of British Muslims overseas.
Benedict Garrett created the Azadi campaign and the Azadi-Freedom charity, after informally fathering a young boy who was sent to Pakistan to study in a radical Islamic school, a Madrasah, by his mother.
Mr Garrett, more famously known as Johnny Anglais, became a media sensation this year after his previous employer, Beale High School in London, terminated his contract after discovering he was moonlighting as a stripper.
He was forced to appeal in front of the General Teaching Council, who decided on a two year suspension.
It was during this time a former pupil, Jay-J, 17, contacted Mr Garrett from Pakistan and detailed the abusive treatment he was receiving.
The young man had previously attempted to return to England, but was refused the right. As soon as he arrived back Jay-J and his prospective carer decided to up-root North to Stockport.
Speaking of Jay-J’s ordeal Mr Garrett said: “It changed his life and scarred his memories.”
Madrasahs generally are traditional institutes that specialise in the teaching of Islamic subjects and the integration of Muslim cultures into a wider society.
Unfortunately, there are radical Madrasahs that enforce students to perform rigorous recitals of the Qur’an, with no broader spectrum of education, and are encouraged to be ‘anti-Western’.
However, it is the indoctrination of British Muslims to such Madrasahs that Mr Garrett is trying to challenge.
“The concept of this charity is that a child is not somebody’s property,” he said.
Mr Garrett stated that it is illegal for children from outside of Pakistan to be educated in Madrasahs, but said: “Plenty of non-Pakistani citizens are affected by this.”
Mr Garrett named the charity Azadi-Freedom, which is both the English word for the Islamic term matched together and features in the campaign’s motto - Freedom for Young Minds and Lives.
Speaking on this he said: “Young people should be allowed to have their own belief and make their own choices.”
Mr Garrett highlighted the legal issues of forcing British Muslims abroad at the age of 16 to study in Madrasahs: “Children at this age are lawfully entitled to make their own decisions regarding education.”
The UK-based Islamic schools once caused controversy when teachers were questioned on their legal authorization to work with children.
Mr Garrett did stress: “[The charity] is not about targeting specific ethnic groups or Madrasahs.”
With connection to the events in his own life the Azadi-Freedom founder went on to say: “There’s a link here with my story - It’s about liberty.”
The aim of both the campaign and charity is to raise awareness and offer support to those from Muslim families that are based in Britain and who are expected to follow Muslim traditions, such as arranged marriage.
The Home Secretary Theresa May has recently spoken publicly about wanting to make forced marriages an illegal offence.
In an announcement earlier this month, she said: "Marriage should be one of the happiest events in a person's life, but shockingly thousands of people a year are forced into marriage against their will.
"It is an appalling form of abuse and perceived cultural sensitivities should not stop us doing more to tackle it."
After requesting access to the Freedom of Information (FOI) on this topic, Mr Garrett claimed: “We’re not much the wiser on how many people this affects, and there could be thousands of cases going unnoticed.”
Mr Garrett urged that he has to build links with religious groups in order to raise more interest on the issues.
Siddiq Diwan, who holds the leadership position of Imam at Old Trafford Muslim Society, expressed his views on Islamic education: “As a Muslim my view [is] that a 'well-balanced' education is a human necessity for all, at all times and in all places.
The very renaissance of western civilisation has been hugely influenced by this Islamic civilisation.”
Institutes that abuse their power and attempt to exploit young minds for their own radical regimes is something that Mr Diwan is all too familiar with, but he was willing to praise certain schools for their dedication to Muslim teachings.
“Testimony to the importance of well-balanced education placed by Islam and the Muslims is the wonderful Muslim civilisation in Spain and its numerous academics and universities,” said Mr Diwan.
He finally added: “The very renaissance of western civilisation has been hugely influenced by this Islamic civilisation.”
The desire for the charity and campaign to be successful is instilled within Mr Garrett, as he declared: “I’m always going to be behind this charity.”
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Almost all children now
Almost all children now believe they go to school to pass exams. The idea that they may be there for an education is irrelevant. State schools have become exam factories, interested only in A to C Grades. They do not educate children. Exam results do not reflect a candidate’s innate ability. Employers have moaned for years that too many employees cannot read or write properly. According to a survey, school-leavers and even graduates lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. More and more companies are having to provide remedial training to new staff, who can’t write clear instructions, do simple maths, or solve problems. Both graduates and school-leavers were also criticised for their sloppy time-keeping, ignorance of basic customer service and lack of self-discipline.
Bilingual Muslims children have a right, as much as any other faith group, to be taught their culture, languages and faith alongside a mainstream curriculum. More faith schools will be opened under sweeping reforms of the education system in England. There is a dire need for the growth of state funded Muslim schools to meet the growing needs and demands of the Muslim parents and children. Now the time has come that parents and community should take over the running of their local schools. Parent-run schools will give the diversity, the choice and the competition that the wealthy have in the private sector. Parents can perform a better job than the Local Authority because parents have a genuine vested interest. The Local Authority simply cannot be trusted.
The British Government is planning to make it easier to schools to “opt out” from the Local Authorities. Muslim children in state schools feel isolated and confused about who they are. This can cause dissatisfaction and lead them into criminality, and the lack of a true understanding of Islam can ultimately make them more susceptible to the teachings of fundamentalists like Christians during the middle ages and Jews in recent times in Palestine. Fundamentalism is nothing to do with Islam and Muslim; you are either a Muslim or a non-Muslim.
There are hundreds of state primary and secondary schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion all such schools may be opted out to become Muslim Academies. This mean the Muslim children will get a decent education. Muslim schools turned out balanced citizens, more tolerant of others and less likely to succumb to criminality or extremism. Muslim schools give young people confidence in who they are and an understanding of Islam’s teaching of tolerance and respect which prepares them for a positive and fulfilling role in society. Muslim schools are attractive to Muslim parents because they have better discipline and teaching Islamic values. Children like discipline, structure and boundaries. Bilingual Muslim children need Bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods, who understand their needs and demands.
None of the British Muslims convicted following the riots in Bradford and Oldham in 2001 or any of those linked to the London bombings had been to Islamic schools. An American Think Tank studied the educational back ground of 300 Jihadists; none of them were educated in Pakistani Madrasas. They were all Western educated by non-Muslim teachers. Bilingual Muslim children need bilingual Muslim teachers as role models. A Cambridge University study found that single-sex classes could make a big difference for boys. They perform better in single-sex classes. The research is promising because male students in the study saw noticeable gains in the grades. The study confirms the Islamic notion that academic achievement is better in single-sex classes.
Iftikhar Ahmad
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
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