Ms Sally Neighbour

Re: No lessons here, The Australian, 3/6/09

The issues raised by the rejection of an Islamic school at Camden require much deeper consideration. The value, and practical consequences, of the education that would be provided through such a school needs to be better understood both by the general community and by Muslims.

Recognised Issues

Your article suggested that concerns were expressed locally about whether such a school would pose some sort of threat (eg by: implanting a culture that is incompatible with Australian egalitarianism; being driven by a powerful political agenda; and reflecting hostility to the West).

Your article also pointed out that: (a) the issues is not going to go away, because the demand for such schools is increasing; (b)

multiculturalism is a challenge for communities such as that at Camden; and (c) there is no indication that the ‘Quranic Society’ which promoted this particular school (unlike some others) has linkages with extremism – though it is hard to get information from or about the said Society.

Analogies with Christian Schools in Other Lands

Assuming that there really is no extremist agenda underlying such a proposal, relevant parallels could be drawn with the establishment of (say) Christian schools throughout most of the world over recent centuries in terms of challenges this posed to traditional communities elsewhere. There is always going to be a contest for hearts and minds, and it is inappropriate to reject ideas that are different just because they don’t fit into the established order. Otherwise it would be impossible to justify the efforts which have been made, and continue increasingly to be made, to disseminate Western ideas and traditions throughout the world.

Compatibility with Australian Institutions?

There might well be an incompatibility between what might be taught in an Islamic school and Australian institutions. For example, Islamism (ie the view that government should be based on the religion of Islam) would be incompatible with democracy (see Spiritual and Philosophical Programs must be Compatible with Australian Institutions – which referred to possible changes to religious education practices in Queensland schools). However in the world of academia, professors who develop all sort of radical theories that are not compatible with the established order are a protected species, and are sometimes of huge value when a ‘way out’ idea proves to be just what is needed to solve a real-world problem. And in the world of business, ‘skunk works’ are sometimes established to incubate transformative innovations.

The Big Picture: What is the Consequence of Islamic Education?

The broader question that needs to be considered (as a basis for informing the community generally, rather than as a basis for prohibiting dissent from the established view) concerns the value of the education which might be provided through an Islamic school.

Muslim dominated nations have experienced centuries of political and economic weaknesses – and there are good reasons to suspect that the broader world views that Islamic scholars have elaborated around the religion of Islam (which would presumably be taught in Islamic schools as well as the Qur’an) have played a significant role in their difficulties. This point is explored further in Discouraging Pointless Extremism.and A Response to Hizb-ut-Tahrir Britain’s Manifesto.

While Islamist extremism is a legitimate cause for community concern, it needs to be recognised that the origin of radicals’ agenda for political change in the Middle East seems to lie in the poor political and economic conditions that exist in that region. In the absence of deeper understanding, a radical 15% of the population blame the region’s weaknesses on external ‘oppression’ and also seem to believe that basing government on Islam could be the ‘solution’. However, because of the intellectual baggage the Islamic religion often brings with it, this would probably merely amplify their problem.

For example, a major constraint appears to lie in the assumption that all knowledge has to be viewed solely from the viewpoint of religious assumptions. Islamic science has been said to involve a (so called)

‘intellective’ approach (ie its purpose is to help understand God, not creation). This, and apparently-unrealistic cosmological assumptions associated with ‘Islamic science’, severely limit what can be known and achieved. These issues are explored in About Arabic Thought and Islamic Science. The resulting narrow approach to knowledge seems to lead to suppression of dissent, and thus to a severely constrained social capacity for innovation.

Public awareness of the nature of Islamic education and its practical consequences (which are hinted at, rather than authoritatively stated, in the above comments) are needed at least as much as the risk of terrorist linkages by those proposing such schools. An inquiry into the practical consequences of Islamic education might even help in reducing the disadvantages that the Middle East suffers, and the extremism which that disadvantage sometimes engenders,

Regards

John Craig

Centre for Policy and Development Systems

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