THE spectre of the Batley Grammar School teacher-in-hiding debacle has once again raised its ugly head, with further guidance imposed on schools by Labour councils which deem that children’s illustrations in art lessons ‘might be idolatrous’ under Islamic law. Laura Trott, the Shadow Education Secretary, is right to demand that such guidance is withdrawn.
Since when was Islamic law imposed on this country? And how is it that the teacher involved in the catastrophe over images drawn of the Prophet Muhammad is still in hiding, in fear of his life four years after the event? Why are those involved in the threats and fearmongering not dealt with under British law? What happened to real equality?
Besides Muhammad, schoolchildren are also being told not to draw pictures of Jesus because he is revered as prophet in the Koran. How does that sit with the fact that Britain is a Christian nation? This guidance, oddly named Sharing the Journey, advocates that some Muslim parents ‘might have a problem’ with certain aspects of teaching not only in art and religious studies but also in drama and music.
Some non-Muslim parents might have a problem with this fearmongering form of fascism too – but apparently that doesn’t matter.
What next? Banning nativity plays?
Something similar is happening within the UK Scout movement, founded by Robert Baden-Powell of Gilwell in 1908, a veteran of the Boer War and a committed Christian.
Fast forward 117 years, and the Scout movement has launched the ‘Islamophobia Awareness Month Blanket Badge’, promoted by the Muslim Scout Fellowship. Suggested activities include learning about Islamic beliefs, visiting mosques, exploring the experiences of British Muslims and running Islam-awareness sessions. (A ‘blanket badge’ is designed to be attached to a blanket or poncho rather than the Scout uniform.)
All of this is superfluous as these elements are already being pushed hard by the State education system in this country. More importantly, where are the badge schemes for anti-Semitism awareness, anti-Hindu hate, anti-Sikh hate, anti-Christian persecution – and the woke penchant for anti-British doublespeak? What happened to real DEI – or does that only apply to selected minorities?
In Scouting for Boys (1908), Baden-Powell wrote: ‘We aim for the practice of Christianity in their everyday life and dealings, and not merely the profession of theology on Sundays.’
In his last message to the Scouts, published in the Scouter magazine in March 1939, Baden-Powell said: ‘Let us, therefore, in training our Scouts, keep the higher aims in the forefront . . . The end is character with a purpose. And that purpose [is] that the next generation may be sane in an insane world, and develop the higher realisation of service, active service of love, and duty to God and neighbour.’
The original Scout Promise, ‘On my honour I promise that I will do my duty to God and the King’, was later broadened to include different faiths – or no faith – and ensuing equality legislation has increasingly pushed other institutions to promote ‘inclusivity’.
An individual working within the Scout movement recently told me: ‘Our values are already inclusive. We put our programmes together with integrity. It feels like we are being targeted. Baden-Powell was not about getting involved in politics. He just wanted to give young people skills. We teach our young people to treat everyone with kindness, respect and integrity regardless of culture. However, we don’t appear to do anything for the Jews, who have been persecuted across the centuries. This blanket badge is such an insensitive thing to do at this particular time.
‘We are increasingly experiencing, in certain parts of the country, most notably London and Birmingham, examples of hate-ridden screeching dogma, including the obscene “from the river to the sea” trope, with aggressive Palestine flag-waving on the streets. Ironically, the horrific events of October 7 did not seem to evoke the same across-the-board reaction of hand-wringing outrage in the hysterical Islamo-fixated woke left political camp.’
This hysterical ‘race’ neurosis of the North London dinner party set pervades every area of public life, so shouldn’t this at least spark robust opposition in Parliament? I doubt it under this regime, fixated as it is always on one side of the argument – not Christian, or British.
It is my long-held opinion – and that of many others – that most of this seemingly engineered ‘race-hate’ is indeed filtered downwards by the Cabinet and its cronies in various NGOs – as it was with the Tory government. Why? And to what end?
I believe the front bench’s rabid preoccupation with Islam is a method of control, a precursor to the gradual erosion leading to total abolition of freedom of speech in this country, culminating in potentially catastrophic consequences.
It really is time for some serious thinking within Westminster. The front bench is playing with fire with its continuous race-baiting and ignoring raging anti-Semitism, the like of which we have not seen since the 1930s, and anti-British hatred. The great irony is that those of us who love our country, our flag, and our Church, are being played off against extreme Islam. The far left are the common denominator in all of this conflict. They are the modern-day embodiment of Nazism.
This is beyond race-baiting. This is a government hell-bent on civil war. I place the blame for this firmly on the extremist ‘liberal’ woke left moronocracy whose obsession with all aspects of self-loathing, including hate-fuelled extremism, eco-terrorism, Anglophobia and antisemitism, is encouraged and goaded by the most toxic government this country has ever had the misfortune of experiencing.
