Eton Appoints Imam To Promote Understanding Islam

[Proud_Muslim]

LONDON, April 19 (IslamOnline.net) – Eton College, which has taught 18 British Prime Ministers, is to become the first public school in Britain to appoint an imam to promote an understanding of Islamic culture and thought, press reports said Monday, April 19.

"The relationship between the West and the Islamic world is likely to be one of the dominant issues for our boys for the years to come. To be effective citizens they will need a sound understanding of Islamic culture," said Tony Little, the headmaster of the Berkshire school.

The 1,290 pupils in the school will have the opportunity to learn Arabic as a language for the first time from this September to increase better understanding of the Muslim world, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Little, the headmaster of the Berkshire school, has written to parents to reassure them that the school will remain an Anglican, Christian school, the paper added.

The imam, who is a trained Muslim scholar will also attend to the needs of around 20 Muslim pupils who attend the exclusive £21,000 a year school.

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-04/19/article02.shtml

 

[Tiassa]

What a strange umich address

These are the times . . . or, is it about time?

Some links:

• Telegraph. "At last, an imam at Eton." April 19, 2004. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/04/19/dl1903.xml
• Telegraph. "Eton appoints its first imam to religious staff." April 19, 2004. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/19/neton19.xml
• Jerusalem Post. "Eton appoints Muslim cleric." April 18, 2004. See http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1082260237654
• This Is London. "Eton imam to debate war." April 19, 2004. (Evening Standard) See http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/10305023

See also:

• Karim Rida Said Foundation. See http://www.krsf.org/

I think he should lead off with the story of the story of the Sepoy Rebellion:

As could be expected, numerous tensions were in place between natives and the British by 1857. But this event was sparked in a memorable manner by native soldiers resentful at a new ammunition given to them. Soldiers were asked to bite off the casing for each cartridge before loading their rifles. These bullet casings were greased, however, with the fat both of beef and pork, so this development offended both Hindus soldiers (who are not to eat beef) and Muslims (who are not to eat pork). When several soldiers were court-martialed for refusing to accept the ammunition, a massive native uprising against the British took shape in cities throughout India. Much killing of British men, women and children was soon followed by much killing of Indians deemed insurgent by the British authority. It took 13 months for the British to regain all the overtaken cities. (see note for citation)

On the other hand, I'm not sure that would set the proper constructive tone.
___________________

Notes:

• The Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 - One of my favorite morbidities in history. It's just so ... senseless. The cited capsule comes from a PDF download (2 pages, 46k)--

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dwthomas/empirecontexts.pdf
(reference only; you don't really want this one unless you're into that kind of thing)​

--while I recommend for the brief overview, an html page from Emory University:

http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Mutiny.html​

 

[Proud_Muslim]

Thanks Tiassa for your always elegant,thoughtful analysis and posts.

Islam is increasingly making its presence clear in most European countries and indeed around the world, Islam will be the dominant religion in this world within 10 years.

I think such steps by Eton are great and need to be congratulated, it only helps to build bridges between Muslims and non Muslims who live in the same country, after all, most Muslims in the next decades will be European born, so it is in Muslims and non muslims interestes to understand each others instead of promoting the culture of hate and Islamophobia.

 

[James R]

How many Muslim schools have appointed people to promote understanding of Christianity recently, Proud_Muslim? I am interested to know.

 

[otheadp]

it's a good idea to teach arabic to westerners
this way they can understand the arabs better, and the arab media won't be able to doubletalk on different issues

it can also bridge gaps between the west and the middle east

 

[Tiassa]

How many Muslim schools have appointed people to promote understanding of Christianity recently

I hate to interrupt that discussion, but I'm not sure the question is fair.

• Eton has a long history of educating students from around the Empire. This includes Muslim lands. While I tend to think this changes part of Eton's "stodgy" image, it also occurs to me that it's about damn time they accommodated those students who would have need or desire of such services.

• How many of the Muslim schools are so sought-after that Westerners send their children there for a better education?
• Of those schools, just how many Christians attend?
• What's the student-to-chaplain ratio at those schools?

Now ... perhaps it's just my own cultural bias, but American students aspire to various schools around the world for various reasons; while we are blessed with everything from Julliard to Jesuit schools and Adventist academies, just to mention a few, most Americans don't consider John Walker Lindh a human being to aspire to imitate. I'm not sure how many post-Christian Europeans would, either. And there doesn't seem to be a rush of young, idealistic, starry-eyed Western Christians to fill the Pakistani madrassas.

I admit that it's hard to find the equivalent in Google to satisfy your quesiton, but that's also the point.

Can we start with a simple question:

• What is the "Muslim Eton"?

 

[Vienna]

Yet another sympathy vote from Tiassa - have you ever thought of becoming a muslim?

I believe you are already one, but you afraid to admit it because it just might question the validity of your logic and intelligence.

 

[Vienna]

"The appointment of the imam Monawar Hussain has been funded by the London-based Karim Rida Said Foundation, founded in 1986 to promote better understanding of Islam in the West....."

They're all Saudi funded, Wahabbi fundamentalist, therefore not exactly moderate.



"...a sign that many traditional British institutions are changing."

Yup, soon enough women won't be able to leave the house un-veiled, churches will be closed down, and about those Jews....



"The charity worth some £22 million, also runs projects in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, the Lebanon and Palestine..."

Great, four terrorist shitholes and one mythical "country" that doesn't even exist. Does the Tides Foundation provide any of their funding, I wonder?



Teaching understanding of Islam?

......"We want to conquer the world, kill all the Jews and Christians; make everybody a muslim or a slave or kill them."

Classes to include:

Dhimmi 101

Jihad 202

........."The prerequisite for all of these classes is lying and savagery."


Did I leave anything out?

Don't think so.

 

[Tiassa]

I just can't believe you missed the obvious gap. I mean, you could sail an armada through it.

 

[Vienna]

I just can't believe you missed the obvious gap. I mean, you could sail an armada through it.

Shit - You're right - I forgot this class.....

Terrorism 101

Thanks mussy

 

[Proud_Muslim]

How many Muslim schools have appointed people to promote understanding of Christianity recently, Proud_Muslim? I am interested to know.

It is nice to know James, that in our Muslim states, christians have special classes for them to be taught christianity.

We muslims UNDERSTAND christianity better than you understading Islam, we lived with them for 1300 years, how many years you lived with Muslims James ?

 

[Vienna]

It is nice to know James, that in our Muslim states, christians have special classes for them to be taught christianity.

Even in Saudi Arabia?

We muslims UNDERSTAND christianity better than you understading Islam, we lived with them for 1300 years, how many years you lived with Muslims James ?

The less the better.

 

[etonian]

Hi, as you can see from my username, I am an etonian. Although some people seem to say about time etc about us appointing an imam, I believe that this is an unfair statement. Eton was founded with a christian outlook. Indeed, when first founded, the chapel was built before the school. Now, 400 years later, we are to appoint an imam. I would just like to point out that Eton is the first major public school in the UK to do this, and even before the imam was appointed, there was teaching about Islam in their second year. A whole term of the theology course was spent studying it. So, as it stands, most etonians have a reasonable understanding of islam anyway.

I would just like to point out that I am christian through and through, but I do have a great respect for Islam and Islamic culture. It seems obvious, though, through Vienna's posts, that there is a great misunderstanding of this religion in the west. He takes the view that all muslims are terrorists, which is completley wrong. Most muslims, like ourselfs strive to rid the world of terrorism. And so, Vienna, your unjust, and quite frankly, racist view is wrong.