British Muslims: Boycotting Evolution But Proud Citizens (REPORT)

Last week's media coverage of British Muslims saw an onslaught on Islamic faith schools that face more difficult regulations to stay open. And Babar Ahmad's campaign for trial is being discussed again on the 5th December 2011, which is why you need to ask your MP to be there.

In other news...

Muslim students are boycotting lectures on evolution in the belief that it was Allah who created everything, not a random force. Inayat Bunglawala, founder of Muslims4UK, feels the 'Harun Yahya' publications have confused Muslims, while one London imam has approved the evolution theory altogether. Professor of University College in London, Steve Jones, however, thinks religion and science are incompatible.

He said that the students’ reasons for studying biology were “a mystery to me ... I think if you are a creationist you are basically wrong and self-deluding, but you are perfectly at liberty to go and study chemistry or English literature, but why study biology? It makes no sense.

“What they object to — and I don’t really understand it, I am not religious myself — they object to the idea that there is a random process out there which is not directed by God, who knows everything. But anyone who spins a coin knows there are random processes.”

On the Guardian, Demos's report A Place for Pride finds that that 83% of Muslims said they were proud to be a British citizen, compared with the national average of 79%. The report suggests that "people who are religious are more likely to be patriotic". So why is this surprising?

"There is a lot of misinformation about the British Muslim community. In 2009 the Gallup Coexist Index found that only 36% of the British public thought that British Muslims were "loyal to this country" as opposed to 82% of the British Muslim community. The surprise at the findings of Muslim pride in Britain is rooted in a prejudice that leads people to believe that it is paradoxical for someone to hold both their religious and national identities as important. Lazy caricatures of Islam as contradicting many of the rights and values that are seen as quintessentially British – particularly freedom and democracy – only exacerbate this problem. [...]

If we embrace opportunities to work with people of all faiths and beliefs then we can start to overcome the prejudice that leads to surprise that other people are also proud of Britain." - Mark Greer.

United Kingdom Faith School Dilemma
In the education department, Islamic schools face tighter regulations to open and pass as acceptable schooling institutions. Private schools in particular are under scrutiny by the Department of Education. Read in full on OnIslam.

100k Converts in 10 Years... We already know!
Finally, as though the rise of white British women converting to Islam hadn't been spun enough, the Independent has covered the Swansea study 'A Minority within a Minority' by Kevin Brice, again... Noted faces include eco-Muslim Kristiane Backer (read the Green Prophet interview).

Get involved in the final push to Free Babar Ahmad and get a fair UK trial.