Regulations designed to protect schools from jihadist takeover have ended up targeting Jews and Christians. More on the 'Trojan Horse' scandal here and here.
Are we surprised?
No.
Archbishop Cranmer has expanded his operation in recent weeks. There is an interesting post on the new blog by a Gillan Scott who is Cranmer's deputy editor. It appears that faith schools have been told the following:
- That representatives of other faiths should be invited to lead assemblies and lessons in order for the school to demonstrate compliance with the Standards;
- That evidence needed to be provided, including within the curriculum, that the school “actively promoted other faiths”;
- That the school should actively promote the principles of the Equality Act 2010, that pupils must learn about people with protected characteristics and that the school must not give a viewpoint that certain lifestyles are wrong. Nor should the school promote a particular lifestyle; and
- That the promotion of a principle, namely the Christian principle that all people are equal before God and have inherent dignity as human beings, was not enough to demonstrate sufficient respect for other people, as set out in the Equality Act 2010.
Quoting from the blog of Adrian Warnock at Patheos.com
Mr Jonathan Rabson, Executive Director of NAJOS
(The National Association of Jewish Orthodox Schools) said: “This
confrontational approach by inspectors is a worrying trend that has never been seen before in the history of the UK Jewish community
and we fear that this suggests a shift in policy towards faith schools .
. . Ofsted inspectors have asked hugely inappropriate questions and
bullied the pupils into answering insensitive and anti-religious
questions.” (Source: Press Release NAJOS 8 October 2014.)
It seems that if these reports are accurate, the inspectors paid no regard to the fact that these orthodox Jewish children were being raised in a very conservative manner, to not interact with those of opposite gender, and to not have TVs or Internet devices. The idea that a young child from such a sheltered background should be asked whether they had a boyfriend or girlfriend by a stranger is preposterous, and frankly bordering on being abusive towards such young children.
NAJOS claims “30% of maintained Jewish secondary schools have received unannounced visits from Ofsted, and many of our independent orthodox Jewish schools have also received no-notice inspections.” This seems like clear evidence of discriminatory targeting which, unless there really was good cause, surely breaks the very Equality Act these regulations were designed to protect!
It is unsurprising in such circumstances that the Jewish community fear anti-Semitism may have played a part in these decisions. (Source: NAJOS Letter to Nicky Morgan re inspections – 24 September 2014.) The 30% figure is disputed by Ofsted. (Source: Full Response from Ofsted re letter to DfE.)
A Guardian report , not known for their support of Jewish causes, is equally damning.
The Christian Institute is reporting on Jewish and Christian schools affected by the new regime. (See also here).
According to Christian Concern the guidelines have been shelved, note, not scrapped just shelved.
Why should we be worried by this semantic difference? The LibDems, coalition partners with the Tories, have voted to scrap Christian Assemblies. They may never govern in their own right, but they are a seed-bed for secular liberal ideology. That very small, but vocal, group, "The national Secular Society" just loves it (here)
Christians and Jews need to be alert. The secularists will use Islamic terrorism and the accusation of Islamophobia to drive the God of Abraham out of schools.
It seems that if these reports are accurate, the inspectors paid no regard to the fact that these orthodox Jewish children were being raised in a very conservative manner, to not interact with those of opposite gender, and to not have TVs or Internet devices. The idea that a young child from such a sheltered background should be asked whether they had a boyfriend or girlfriend by a stranger is preposterous, and frankly bordering on being abusive towards such young children.
NAJOS claims “30% of maintained Jewish secondary schools have received unannounced visits from Ofsted, and many of our independent orthodox Jewish schools have also received no-notice inspections.” This seems like clear evidence of discriminatory targeting which, unless there really was good cause, surely breaks the very Equality Act these regulations were designed to protect!
It is unsurprising in such circumstances that the Jewish community fear anti-Semitism may have played a part in these decisions. (Source: NAJOS Letter to Nicky Morgan re inspections – 24 September 2014.) The 30% figure is disputed by Ofsted. (Source: Full Response from Ofsted re letter to DfE.)
A Guardian report , not known for their support of Jewish causes, is equally damning.
The Christian Institute is reporting on Jewish and Christian schools affected by the new regime. (See also here).
According to Christian Concern the guidelines have been shelved, note, not scrapped just shelved.
Why should we be worried by this semantic difference? The LibDems, coalition partners with the Tories, have voted to scrap Christian Assemblies. They may never govern in their own right, but they are a seed-bed for secular liberal ideology. That very small, but vocal, group, "The national Secular Society" just loves it (here)
Christians and Jews need to be alert. The secularists will use Islamic terrorism and the accusation of Islamophobia to drive the God of Abraham out of schools.
