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A ROW IS ongoing between a number of British Muslim groups and the UK Government over a letter sent by the communities secretary urging mosques to do more to root out extremism.
Eric Pickles MP’s letter called on more than 1,000 Islamic leaders to “lay out more clearly than ever before what being a British Muslim means today: proud of your faith and proud of your country.”
“We know that acts of extremism are not representative of Islam; but we need to show what is,” the letter continued.
“Let us assure you that the Government will do all we can to defeat the voices of division, but ultimately the challenges of integration and radicalisation cannot be solved from Whitehall alone. Strong community-based leadership at a local level is needed.”
The letter comes as security is being heightened across Europe in response to the extremist attacks that left 17 people dead in Paris and fatal police raids in Belgium over the weekend.
Security has also been stepped up for British police, who were told to withhold their home addresses from electoral lists, two weeks after attacks in Paris in which 17 people including three police officers were killed.
Extra security advice has been given to police officers, with security bolstered around police buildings and increased “levels of specialist support, including firearms officers”.
Islamophobic
Pickles’ letter has been criticised by the Britain’s biggest Muslim association, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). They and other Imams who say that Muslim communities need protection from extremists, not lectures about how to find them.
“We agree with your assertion that British values are indeed Islamic values. However, we do take issue with the implication that extremism takes place at mosques, and that Muslims have not done enough to challenge the terrorism that took place in our name,” read a response from Shuja Shafi, Secretary General of the MCB.
“The letter has all the hallmarks of very poor judgement which feeds into an Islamophobic narrative,” the MCB’s Talha Ahmad told Sky News.
Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation went further, saying he was “dismayed” by its contents:
The letter is patronising and factually incorrect and typical of the Government only looking at Muslims through the prism of terrorism and security…Last Friday, in their sermons over 1,000 Imams spoke against the Paris attacks and Islam’s teaching against terrorism, there have been no allegations of Mosques promoting extremism in recent years.
But Prime Minister David Cameron defended the letter saying it was “reasonable, sensible and moderate”.
“Anyone… reading this letter, who has a problem with it, I think really has a problem,” he said.
Labour’s former communities secretary Hazel Blears said she was “a little frustrated” that the issue of security has boiled down to a row about a letter.
The party’s shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna also appeared frustrated at the controversy when he stormed off during a Sky News interview after being asked about the letter.
Additional reporting by © – AFP 2015
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Helen Mc Entee said she’s ‘delighted’ with the new ‘bands’. But what is the positive/ the advantage of watering down, diluting, the criteria-the percentage required in order to achieve higher grades?
@Mary Linton: Can’t believe I’m doing this but going to defend the minister here. I’m an examiner for state exams and the merit was my main gripe. You have kids with little knowledge getting a merit at 55% yet at the same time, others getting the same merit on 74%. These would have good knowledge of the subject and would previously have gotten a B in the old system. Similarly, many kids who would have gotten an A in the old system, now get a Higher Merit instead of a Distinction as a huge proportion fall between 85 and 89 percent.
Everyone is a winner. Also known as dumbing down the system.
@Mark R: the grade bands have little to do with that. The whole exam has been dumbed down. At least this gives students the same chance their peers had prior to 2017.
Unions will get dog’s abuse this week but we tried to warn you. Trying to warn you about the Leaving Cert now and as usual no one will listen.
@Alan OConnor: by coincidence I had that Fatboy Slim cd on in my car at weekend — ” why try harder?”
@Mark R: not dumbing it down, restoring it to how it was before junior cycle. The highest 3 old grades were, A:85-100, B:70-85, C:55-70. Notice anything? If anything, it shows that the Junior Cycle system is a failure and Junior Cert was better.
@Mark R: that happened ages ago. It’s ridiculously simple now.
@Mark R: It’s to help all the children of our diverse nation.
So, to use a golfing ‘analogy’…..Helen has made it far easier to make ‘the cut’ ?
@Buster Lawless: she has restored what was the system for decades prior to 2017. Should never have been changed.
@Alan OConnor: indeed nothing new in the grading. It’s back to the future LOL. At least fifty years. I imagine the grading goes beyond that to the founding of the state, however that’s just a hunch.
Horray, Helen McEntee is getting the old bands back together! A lot undone but a lot more to undo. Pause the LC change. Publish the JC Reviews.
The new junior cycle is a joke. When it came in a few years back, a friend of mine working for the department said to me to just wait til they redo the leaving certificate.
It’s insane and will inevitably lead to standards dropping in 3rd level too.
It’s to make things easier for all the children of our new nation.
This is mad. I’m already struggling get my teen to study. He is bright but not interested in study. Now his is just laughing. It’s the dumbing down of society. Ridiculous
@Nat C: It’s the exact same grade branding which you used when you did your Junior Cert.
It’s great to see a load of idiots with no knowledge of the system talking about it being dumbed down. The threshold to have an opinion has been lowered to give the likes of yourselves the opportunity to speak, that’s the real issue. If you don’t have any understanding of the problem, which has been raised by the individuals involved, that have an understanding of the whole system, flaws and all, then just stay quiet. It’s people like these with zero clue about most things, other than surface level misunderstandings, that lead to a society where people know nothing, but think they’re experts.
Nothing wrong with making the exams easier for our teenagers! Too much stress on them a/way!
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