Brussels: Muslim schools

The following article was written by Marij Uijt den Bogaard , a former social worker working for the Antwerp municipality. She was fired after writing reports warning about radicalization in the Muslim community.

The article below appeared originally in Dutch on Brussels Journal.

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The first Muslim school (in Belgium) had been opened in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek.

Let us not be hypocrites, Muslims have every right to do so. Because there are after all also Catholic, Jewish or Steiner schools, offering education from a certain viewpoint or ideology is allowed in Flanders, Muslims have equal rights. But does it go with obligations? Naturally the purpose of education can never be that kids leave school without a future of employment, or higher education.

Therefore we can ask the founders of this school several questions. And the parents who send their daughter there.

The school is for girls only, according to the BOEH women [organization supporting the right to wear a headscarf], it's our fault for the headscarf mess, look at the result! Because now some schools don't allow their pupils to wear a headscarf that "discrimination" leads to this initiative, your fault! I hope that media wakes up and has the courage to ask critical questions, since doesn't that mean you can also allow boys into such a school? Perfectly combined with girls with a headscarf, no?

I'm curious if there's enough honesty to admit that the school was set up because according to the strict Islamic principle the whole of Flemish education isn't good, the headscarf looks more like the excuse to get this discussion out of the way and look insulted towards Flemish society.

For strict Muslims, education should be separate from the age of puberty, before you know it temptation and the devil strike and you get immoral behavior, therefore after puberty free social intercourse is not allowed. Girls are especially vulnerable, rumor can wreck their future. It is for that matter totally incomprehensible to set up a separate school for girls, who are often already respectable enough, it would be better to put the Moroccan boys apart, seeing the high numbers who pick up a Flemish girlfriend at school or on the street, but apparently nobody shares this conclusion and people focus on the behavior of the future wives.

The discussion about the need for Muslim schools has been going on for a long time within the Muslim community, BOEH uses the opportunity to put down the Flemish again, hopefully nobody would dare to start up a serious dialog with those women.

But ok, a girls school, higher secondary education.

Does this high school give general or vocational education? Did those who give permission for this school take into account the level that these children will be encouraged to follow? Or will this school accept everybody since the Center for Educational Supervision (centrum voor leerlingenbegeleiding) will discriminate on that too? Nevertheless it seems to me logical that if everyone would be welcome it will lead to classes with great individual differences in learning pace between the kids. How will they get a diploma at the end? Or maybe it isn't important, since by that time we'll be obligated to accept anybody who's an immigrant to work? Also youth who come t the job market with a vague diploma, unrecognized as education according to the norm?

And how will biology be taught, or maybe it wouldn't be? And what with Darwin, listed as "haram"? What with showering, will we do it according to the strict Islamic norm, with clothes on? Fathers have pointed out to me in the past that showering naked was forbidden, certainly in the presence of a third party. Therefore those fathers wanted Muslim schools. Will girls learn this at school? Sexual education will not be given, the wedding night will teach enough about the future life as a wife?

Anyone who cares for girls of immigrant origin, who is worried about the participation of women in the job market and society, should now be concerned.

Information about sexuality should be the right of every kid, also of girls with a headscarf, especially taking into account the ignorance among adults in older traditional subgroups. This shows up during many talks and was also established by journalists Janny Groen and Annieke Kranenberg in their book about young strict Muslim women "Strijdsters van Allah" (Alla's female warriors), a book which brings clear insights.

A very strict teacher in this society can possibly also create a world view portraying the surroundings as the enemy, which leads to segregation between citizens.

Can somebody explain to me how within this school built according to Islamic principles these girls will get the social proficiencies that are necessary in order to live in a society with mixed social traffic! Will these girls take part in neighborhood parties, come to the social center open day where Jef would be standing with a glass of beer at the entrance, and will they get all the opportunities to maximally develop as an individual within this society? If yes then these schools will be an asset.

But chances are great that it won't happen, seeing the experience of Muslim schools in the Netherlands.

Therefore the initiators and parents who send their kids there must know what type of choice they're making. The whole may be Islamically justifiable but from a social perspective it's a ticket to less opportunities, if the future can include more than marriage and a matching role for women. Parents who put Islam above their daughter's social future naturally have the freedom to do so, but they shouldn't look insulted at society when their daughter has less opportunities because her schooling level is not good enough, when she has no work, with a headscarf.

And before anybody starts about the Jewish school: that comparison is gone if you compare the criminality, youth unemployment and low schooling statistics of kids of Jewish and Moroccan origins. Truly these schools show that it's only possible if you also have an answer for, for example, employment and further studies, abroad if need be.

In Flanders society restricts the place of religion. The Antwerp Jewish community accepts this and the consequences of their choice. In Islam this is not the case, there society is limited by the Koran, according to a growing number of subgroups. You can see the clash between these two starting points, religion or society with separation between church and state, more and more often and clearer. It looks to me more than logical that education that prepares girls for a world view in which religion is the starting point limits their opportunities, because society in Flanders is not restricted by religion anymore, hopefully Moroccan parents will think twice before Fatima's fate is decided.

Source: Brussels Journal (Dutch)

See also: Brussels: Muslim high school to be set up