The incompatibility of religious fundamentalism with classical liberal education

Mrs Roberts claims that Ummah Heart will be providing Muslim girls with “holistic Islamic enrichment”. What might that include? Fundamentalist strains of Islam are not known for being supportive of women’s rights. In Islamic theocracies such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and, indeed, Gaza, women face a number of legal and cultural restrictions with respect to driving vehicles, standing for elective office, obtaining a divorce, testifying in court or owning immovable property.

Last year, three women were flogged in a football stadium in Afghanistan after being accused of various “moral crimes”.[12] In Iran, a woman called Mahsa Amini died from head injuries sustained whilst being beaten and tortured by the country’s “religious morality police”. Her alleged “crime” was not wearing the hijab in accordance with government standards.[13] In Gaza in 2021, a Hamas-run Islamic court ruled that women require the permission of a male guardian in order to travel.[14] In countries which practice Sharia, girls usually receive an inferior education – if they receive any education at all.

How does all of this square with Roedean’s views on women’s empowerment? And how would fundamentalist Islam’s views on sexuality fit with the school’s attempts to be welcoming to lesbian and gay staff and students?

Most alarming of all – how will Jewish children and staff fare in an environment in which a significant number of children are exposed to daily indoctrination by a group which is aligned with Hamas? Hamas is resolutely and unequivocally committed to the destruction of Israel[15] and the extermination of Jews in the Middle East. These objectives are written into the 1988 Hamas Charter, the group’s founding document, which states:

"The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews."[16]

Hamas is not interested in a two-state solution nor in any other mediated peace agreement, declaring that “There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are a waste of time and a farce.”[17] Will Ummah Heart’s “holistic Islamic enrichment” include the virulent anti-Semitism and anti-Western propaganda that is commonplace in madrassahs across territories which Hamas controls?

More fundamentally, there is a basic failure of logic here. Of course, children of all backgrounds should be welcome (and, indeed, are welcome) at Roedean. But if a family specifically desires for its daughter to receive an Islamic fundamentalist education, why not just send her to a madrassah? Why not enroll her at Ummah Heart in Crosby? Why choose to go to Roedean – a school that is ostensibly classically liberal and Anglican Christian in its orientation – and then seek to have the girls segregated by religion so that some girls can attend a madrassah inside an Anglican Christian school?

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It is important to emphasise that the concern here is of a general nature. It would be equally unacceptable if Roedean were to partner with an organisation that is aligned with a Catholic fundamentalist organisation such as the Irish Republican Army; or a Protestant fundamentalist organisation such as the Ulster Volunteer Force; or a Jewish fundamentalist organisation such as the Jewish Defence League; or a Hindu fundamentalist organisation such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad – especially if that organisation glorifies violence.

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How Woke terminology is used to promote religious fundamentalism

The most interesting feature of this story is how Woke terminology has been used to spread regressive ideology.  

Woke activists are masters at twisting the meaning of words so that they come to mean the exact opposite of their original definition. For example, over the past 20 years, the term “non-racialism” in South Africa’s Constitution has been re-interpreted in a way that not only permits but actually mandates Verwoerdian-defined race quotas in virtually every aspect of life. In academia and the corporate world, both in South Africa and abroad, the mantra of “diversity, equity and inclusion” has, in practice, been used to promote division, exclusion and indoctrination into Marxist ideology.

This tendency is on full display at Roedean. In her email, Mrs Roberts tells parents that the Ummah Heart initiative is about promoting “true inclusivity and a sense of belonging” at Roedean. This is a strange way to describe segregating children according to their religion and then inviting a Hamas-aligned madrassah to implement a separate curriculum for the Muslim group of girls. Nor will this generate a sense of belonging, for Muslim children will likely be made to feel different from the other children whilst being cut off from important administrative information that is shared in daily chapel services.

There is a lot that can and, at least in my opinion, should be done to make schools open and welcoming to families of all faiths. Awareness of important holidays (such as Eid or Hannukah or Diwali) can help ensure that tests and sporting events are scheduled in a way that is respectful and accommodating to all. Children can be taught about other faiths, and perhaps some families can host cultural events at which those who are interested can experience different foods, music and understandings of spirituality.

The key point is that participation in these initiatives should be voluntary, and the ideological and religious foundations of the school in question should remain unchanged. Ultimately, there is a world of difference between making a school more receptive to people of various faiths as opposed to doing what Roedean proposes, which is to segregate girls according to their religion and to sub-contract the curriculum that Muslim girls learn to a Hamas-aligned madrassah.

And, make no mistake, the links between Woke activism and Islamist totalitarianism run deep. It is not at all surprising that numerous chapters of Black Lives Matter have endorsed Hamas[18] for, ultimately, these organisations share the common objective of dismantling and, in the words of the Wokes, “decolonising” Western civilisation.[19]