Category Archives: Education

Iran from 1970 to 2009

By avicenna | Published: October 24, 2011

Is this a picture of transformative success or the success of backwardness? I vote for the latter.

Posted in Education | 8 Comments

apparently we’re all robert spencer now, according to the weasels at “spinwatch”

By bananabrain | Published: August 24, 2011

we at the spittoon have for some time been a target for the not-very-impressive “spinwatch” site, which appears to be the hobby-horse of strathclyde university’s answer to bob pitt, dr david miller. dr miller, we hardly need remind you, appears to think that spittoon authors are without exception rabid “neo-cons”, by which he appears to mean some sort of catch-all imperialism of liberal democracy imposed by force of arms on the bucolic, picaresque and entirely pacifist natives of the middle-east and south asia. as if this wasn’t bad (or inaccurate) enough, we are also supposed to be apostles of islamophobia; apparently it isn’t clear enough to someone who is supposed to be an academic that what we oppose is the virulent political ideology known as islamism – as well as other forms of religious and political extremism; jewish, christian, atheist, muslim, ethnicity-based – we are equal-opportunity anti-extremists, or we certainly try to be.

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Also posted in Activism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Blogosphere, Dodgy Policy Wonks, European Fascism, Far Right Extremism, Homophobia, Identity Politics, Islamism, Moral relativism, Nutters, Racism, The Far Left, The Left, The Regressive Left | 20 Comments

the big society, riots and “spiral dynamics”

By bananabrain | Published: August 15, 2011

obviously, a great deal has been written about the riots to date and a great deal of predictable outpouring has also taken place. what i wanted to offer to this debate is, however, along more behavioural lines.

i have for some time been aware of the powerful analytical frameworks for bio-psycho-social systems developed by the american psychologist dr clare graves and systematised for practical application by don beck and chris cowan in the excellent book “spiral dynamics” (i’m not affiliated with anyone concerned, incidentally). at the risk of sounding like somewhat of a “fanboy”, as i believe it is called on teh interwebs, i am convinced it constitutes an important piece of intellectual real estate for the understanding of complex socio-political systems, particularly in behavioural terms.

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Also posted in Activism, Blogosphere, Civil Rights, Communalism, Crime, Democracy, Ethics, Exegesis, Human Rights, Identity Politics, Media, Misc, Moral relativism, Multiculturalism, Political Correctnes gone mad!, Politics, The Far Left, The Left, The Regressive Left, UK Politics | Leave a comment

Asian gangs and White girls

By Guest | Published: January 11, 2011

This is a guest post by Ibn Khaldun

Last week, The Times carried a piece on its front page that discussed the seemingly growing phenomenon of Asian gangs, of predominantly Pakistani heritage, sexually exploiting young and vulnerable white girls in the Midlands and the North. The BNP have been openly using this issue for propaganda purposes for a number of years and have aimed at transforming it into an ‘Islam’ issue. The Times, however, have been much more balanced and focused on the importance of discussing the issue out in the open whilst simultaneously challenging the culture of silence that pervades such sensitive issues in this country.

The startling facts of this phenomenon are: There have been 17 court cases across 13 different towns and cities in the UK, predominantly northern towns with strong Northern Pakistani populations. In total, 56 men with an average age of 28 have been found guilty of crimes ranging from abduction to sex with a minor. Three of the 56 were white, 53 were Asian and 50 were Muslims of Pakistani heritage.

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Also posted in Racism | 8 Comments

Jews, Muslims & Power

By Ziryab | Published: December 31, 2010

This is a cross-post by Dr Farrukh Salem

The writer is the Pakistani Executive Director of the Center for Research and Security Studies, a think tank established in 2007, and an Islamabad-based freelance columnist.

There are only 14 million Jews in the world; seven million in the Americas, five million in Asia, two million in Europe and 100,000 in Africa. For every single Jew in the world there are 100 Muslims. Yet, Jews are more than a hundred times more powerful than all the Muslims put together. Ever wondered why?

Jesus was Jewish. Albert Einstein, the most influential scientist of all time and TIME magazine’s ‘Person of the Century’, was a Jew. Sigmund Freud – ego, superego – the father of psychoanalysis was a Jew. So were Karl Marx, Paul Samuelson and Milton Friedman.

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Posted in Education | 17 Comments

The Mughal Caliphate

By Ziryab | Published: August 14, 2010

This is a re-post of an article by Raziq first posted in January 2010

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Islamist groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, Al-Muhajiroun and the Muslim Brotherhood claim that Muslims were ruled by a single political leadership which started from the time of the Prophet Muhammad in the 6th century and lasted until the last days of the Ottoman Empire in 1924. According to Islamists, this political leadership looked after the interests of all Muslims worldwide. The central aim of Islamist groups today is to recreate this leadership by uniting the 52 or so Muslim-majority countries in the world into a single state ruled by a single ruler (Caliph). They refer to this totalitarian system as the Khilafah (or the caliphate).

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Also posted in History, Islamism, Politics | 21 Comments

Reading, Writing and Ramadan

By Guest | Published: July 20, 2010

This is a guest post by Uncle Daud

According  to advice given to Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Muslim pupils should not attend swimming lessons in the month of Ramadan, because:

Schools with a significant number of Muslim pupils should try to avoid scheduling swimming lessons during Ramadan to remove unnecessary barriers to full participation.”

Nor does it end with restrictions to swimming lessons:

It also suggests re-scheduling sex education classes during the holy lunar month, as Muslim followers who have reached puberty are required to avoid sexual thoughts during this period.

But who is behind this ‘advice’ imposed on schools, delivered in the manner of a religious edict or a ‘fatwa’? Who else but the excitable people at the Muslim Council of Britain:

“The council said the document, produced by its Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education, was based on information from the Muslim Council of Great Britain”

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Also posted in Islamism | 12 Comments

Words of intelligence will only come from a woman of piety

By Effendi | Published: April 15, 2010

From the article, Muslim women going to college:

Hazrat maulana Masihullah (ra) said: I take oath by Allah and say: Give women Deeni education and then see their superiority. You will then witness in them intelligence, understanding and even accomplishment in such worldly affairs which pertain to them. Women who possess degrees of B.A. and M.A. cannot compete in understanding and intelligence with women who have acquired Deeni knowledge. Yes, in deception and schemes the Western educated woman may be ahead. But, remember that words of intelligence will only come from a woman of piety.“

Posted in Education | 60 Comments

The Penalty for Apostasy

By Faisal | Published: March 30, 2010

Take a look at Dr Mohammad Mukadam, chairman of the AMS-UK (Association of Muslim Schools UK).

He believes in practising the shari’ah in toto. But is reticent when it comes to stating the shari’ah penalty for apostasy in a public televised debate. When pushed, he relents and speaks his mind:

“If it’s an Islamic country, then the Shari’a is very clear. Apostasy is dealt with the death penalty. But what’s the relevance between what happens in an Islamic country and Great Britain. I fail to see the connection.”

Personally, I agree that there should not even be a notional connection between the shari’ah in an Islamic country and public law affecting muslims in Britain. I would go further and state that even in most Muslim-majority countries, administrations have been sensible enough not to institutionalise the shar’iah applied as state legislature, but rather confined it to matters of personal ethics.

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Posted in Education | 5 Comments

seven modest proposals for the british jewish community

By bananabrain | Published: March 16, 2010

the ferocious but charming miriam shaviv over at the jc is blogging a number of “daily proposals to transform the british jewish community” during march. i was discussing this with my redoubtable other half over friday night dinner and we thought the following might be worth submission:

1. transparency at the jewish leadership council

ok, we know who the board of deputies are. we know what it’s for. we know how it’s funded. we know how you get to be on it. we know who it represents. now, we have this new organisation called the “jewish leadership council”. on it, you have various movers and shakers, you’ve got the vc/banking/property tycoons, you’ve got the charity/safety/israel activists, you’ve got synagogue movement machers, you’ve got access, you’ve got international connections, you’ve got lords, baronesses, knights and the chair of ujs – you’ve got two women and no rabbis, for some reason. you’ve got no haredim, for some other reason. you’ve got leaders from the most broad-based and influential organisations in the community – but what are they for? clearly, this is an influential bunch of people, but who chooses them? who decided that there should be a jewish leadership council in the first place? how are they accountable? what is their strategy? what is their relationship with the board? how is it funded? i for one would like to know.

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Also posted in Activism, Antisemitism, Democracy, Entryism, Environmental, Identity Politics, Interfaith, Israel/Palestine, Jewish Extremism, Misc, Obscurantism, Politics | Tagged , | 6 Comments

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