We’ve been discussing whether Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam has mellowed with old age, and may now no longer support the creation of an Islamic State, the extradition of apostates to that state for execution, and the stoning of women. As far as we can tell, he has not publicly retracted these views.
However, people are entitled to believe whatever unpleasant nonsense they want, as long as they do not act upon it.
What I’m more concerned about is the mission statement of the Islamia Schools, whose Chair of Governors and founder is Cat Stevens. The school received state funding, from 1998 onwards.
This was its mission statement up until at least 2006:
The aim of the School is to produce total Muslim personalities through the training of the child’s spirit, intellect, feelings and bodily senses. Education at Islamia caters for the growth of students in all their spiritual, intellectual, imaginative, physical, scientific and linguistic aspects, both individually and collectively, motivating all these aspects towards goodness. The ultimate aim of Islamic education is the realization of complete submission to Allah on the level of the individual, the community and humanity at large.
(copy here)
I have to confess, I’m slightly taken aback by this. The purpose of education should be to turn out happy and balanced children, with skills which enable them to play a full part in our diverse society. Not the “complete submission to Allah” of “humanity at large”.
This statement is now not on the Islamia School’s website or in their admissions policy. Inquiry ought really to be made to discover whether the Islamia School has dropped this purpose completely from its constitutional documents, and whether its staff continue to believe that they are engaged in such an enterprise.
Hat tip: Andrew Anthony in The Fallout
