Shouts and Whispers in the Classroom.

Note: Developments in important areas like education tend to quickly disperse widely in the Western world. It is useful for readers to keep abreast of movements involving muslims and education. It will help us here in Australia get the polcy settings right when we get around to integrating the muslim schools into the State Education System.

The problems inherent in the real world of muslim education in the West are already being recognised in Italy. There is much to be discussed, as this story from the Vatican shows.




The more hawkish line of this papacy on Islam was on clear display again this week, triggered by recent comments of Cardinal Renato Martino, President of both the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Refugees. In response to a request from the Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy for religious instruction for Muslim children in Italian schools, Martino was favorable, saying that European countries "cannot backtrack" on religious pluralism.

In contrast, two senior figures in the Vatican power structure have taken a tougher line in response to the Muslim request.

Speaking to the Italian paper La Repubblica, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State, was ambivalent about teaching Islam, saying he would stress "reciprocity."

Muslim states, Sodano said, should give Christians the same rights that Muslims enjoy in the historically Christian countries of Europe. Among these rights, he said, is free exercise of one's religion.

In a March 20 address to the Permanent Council of the Italian bishops' conference, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the conference and the pope's vicar for the Rome diocese, was even stronger.

"As a matter of principle, instruction in the Islamic religion does not appear impossible," Ruini said. "It's important, however, to underline some fundamental conditions that must apply to any kind of instruction in Italian public schools: in particular, there must not be any conflict in the content of that teaching with respect to our Constitution, for example regarding civil rights, starting with religious liberty, or equality between men and women, or marriage."

"As a practical matter, up to now there's not been any representative subject for Islam that could establish an accord with the Italian state in this regard," Ruini said.

"Further, it would be necessary to ensure that teaching the Islamic religion would not give way to a socially dangerous kind of indoctrination," he said.

Ruini argued that it's false logic to say that because the state teaches Catholicism, therefore it should also teach Islam.

"Any comparison with teaching the Catholic religion doesn't hold up, given that this instruction, as article nine of the Accord of Revision of the Concordat affirms, has among its motives the fact 'that the principles of Catholicism are part of the historic patrimony of the Italian people,'" Ruini said.

"Proposals to suppress this instruction, eventually substituting it with teaching the history of religions … on the basis of greater religious pluralism born from immigration, as well as a presumed but non-existent decline in the vitality of Catholicism in Italy, don't take account of the fact that 91 percent of students freely attend lessons in the Catholic religion, to say nothing of the demand to conserve and reinforce our roots that's strongly present in the Italian people."


Comment: Muslims in Australia should not have their own schools. They currently have about 23 schools, all financed directly or indirectly from Wahhabi sources in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. This is not in Australia's interest because the muslim curriculum taught in these schools is the severest type of Islam. This Islam is deeply opposed to proper muslim integration into Australian society.

All the state requirements for these schools are met, but it is the curriculum and pro-Wahhabi atmosphere that pervades these schools which creates the problems which we (and the poor muslims) will face in future years.

Most Australian muslims do not send their children to these schools. They prefer the State or Catholic schools. These muslim parents and children are on their way to proper integration into Australia. No exceptions should be made for this 'minority within a minority'to promote a form of Islam that is incompatible with Australian norms.

The Australian people have a right to expect that all citizens integrate properly into our Nation.

The muslim schools should be integrated into the nation's mainstream school system.