08 Oct 2011                                                                                                                       Press Release

The chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools UK has condemned Professor Richard Dawkins for his “hateful and arrogant” attack on Muslim faith schools in the Times Education Supplement. Ashfaque Chowdhury called Dawkins “cowardly and shameful” for choosing to use his experience at a Muslim school, which he visited over a year ago, to publicise the imminent release of his new book.

The Muslim school in question allowed Dawkins and a film crew to have access when other faith schools had refused to speak to him. In terms of academic achievement the school is “well above the national average” in science and modern foreign languages and has an enviable record of good GCSE results.

Dawkins told the TES that Muslim faith schools fill children’s head with “alien rubbish”, adding xenophobia to his fanatically atheist views. In doing so, he is pandering to a far-right audience in a way which belies his status as an academic. Indeed, it is telling that Dawkins’ website hosts Islamophobic video clips by an individual described as “extreme xenophobic, anti-immigrant far right“, the performer Pat Condell.

According to the AMS UK Chairman, “Students in Muslim schools are taught to respect differences between people of faith and no faith, something that Professor Dawkins should seek to emulate.” Recent research, he added, showed that over 90% of Muslim schools in both the independent and maintained sector were awarded either ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted and other inspection service providers for the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development of their pupils.

ENDS
 
The Association of Muslim Schools UK is the UK’s Muslim schools umbrella body with around 100 affiliated schools.
For further information please contact AMS Chairman Ashfaque Chowdhury
 
AMS UK
PO BOX 14109
Birmingham
B6 9BN
 
Tel:     08444 820 407      
Email:   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.ams-uk.org