Islamophobia and Muslim Schooling in Britain

1
Islamophobia and Muslim Schooling in Britain

• Claire Tinker
• University of Nottingham

2
Introduction

• Is the minimal number of Muslim schools in
  Britain due to Islamophobia?
• 36 semi structured interviews
• Politicians
• Religious and secular organisations
• Head teachers at Muslim and non-Muslim schools
• Muslim parents

3
Defining and operationalising Islamophobia

• unfounded hostility towards Islam. It refers
  also to the practical consequences of such
  hostility in unfair discrimination against Muslim
  individuals and communities, and to the exclusion
  of Muslims from mainstream political and social
  affairs (Runnymede Trust, 1997, Islamophobia A
  Challenge For Us All)

4
Historical and contemporary situation of Muslim
schooling

• Number of state funded faith schools in UK (2003)
• 4690 Church of England
• 2076 Roman Catholic
• 33 Jewish
• 5 Muslim
• 2 Sikh
• 1 Seventh Day Adventist

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Why are there not more state funded Muslim
schools?

• Politicians
• Relatively recent growth of Muslim community
• Not enough Muslims in most geographical areas to
  warrant a Muslim school
• Muslim parents, head teachers and organisational
  representatives
• Popular view of Muslims as extremists
• Comparisons with other faiths

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Factors inhibiting the state funding of Muslim
schools

• Islamophobia
• Islamophobic arguments are sometimes used to
  justify opposition to Muslim schools
• I think in a Muslim school there might be an
  assumption that there are some things that girls
  dont do. Whereas because of our western values
  and general attitude the girls can do anything

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• Social cohesion
• It is widely feared that Muslim schools will
  fragment society and damage social cohesion
• I dont think people should be cut off from
  each other. Thats where segregation starts.
  I mean, I wouldnt send my daughters to a Muslim
  school. If you live in a multicultural society
  then everything should be multicultural.

8

• Secularisation
• Does the increasing secularisation of British
  society make it inappropriate to fund more faith
  schools?

9

• Regulatory requirements
• Strict regulatory requirements can discourage
  Muslim schools from applying for state funding

10

• Desire for autonomy
• The loss of autonomy that results from state
  funding makes some Muslim schools reluctant to
  apply.
• He who pays the piper calls the tune. State
  funding naturally comes with strings. At the
  moment those strings may be fairly loose, but I
  foresee a time when they could really tighten up
  and Muslim schools which have state funding could
  be finding themselves in a very difficult
  position.

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Relationships between the factors

• These five factors are interdependent,
  influencing one another in subtle and complex
  ways.
• Well Muslims, not Asians, Muslims. Theyre the
  ones that seem to be causing all the damn trouble
  in this country, theyre the majority arent
  they. Make them separate. Do our white kids
  want their education interfering with by having
  education for Muslims within their own lessons? I
  dont think they do.

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Conclusion

• Islamophobia is one of several barriers to the
  state funding of Muslim schools.