Farah Shaik
March 2006
Islamophobia in the British Educational Sector? – Looking at
possible implications of post- 9/11 and 7/7 educational
settings for young British Muslims.
This paper seeks to critically explore and lay out numerous factors, which
could be contributing to Islamophobic attitudes entailing non-differentiated
views of Muslims in relation to what today is referred to as “terrorism”,
“radicalism” and “the war against terror”. With respect to community, the
main objective of this enquiry is to point out the high level of significance
this type of Islamophobia can have for both Muslim and Non-Muslim
members of society, and what lack of understanding thereof could be
establishing within the framework of education. By being the target of
xenophobic attitudes, the Muslim youth may be well be placed unwillingly
before a loyalty-conflict between Muslim identity and British identity, which
is currently the cause of much debate in Britain and questions of community
belongingness. There is an urgent need for educators and policy makers to
be aware of the complexity of the whole situation whilst adopting a
constructive no-blame-approach and of recognizing potential victims of
such alienation and discrimination, which is often undetected and has a
major impact on lastly everyone in society.
1. Introduction
1.1.
General
In view of recent events, such as the 9/11 New York bombings in 2001 or the 7/7 London
occurrences in 2005 and both political and public reactions resulting from these events, there
is an increasing anxiety and uncertainty of how today’s society is developing or what
direction it is taking with respect to identity and partiality. The key questions arising from the
quagmire of opinions related to public safety, protection of the private sphere, “terrorism” and
1
Farah Shaik
March 2006
the causes and motives for actions, are whether there are any missing elements of
understanding about the construction of society and whether there are approaches to safeguard
each person’s opportunity to live a life of choice, without diminishing the freedom of others.
The events mentioned above have set off an increased focus on Muslims everywhere in the
world; particularly in countries of the EU and the United States (Abbas, 2005). This essay
focuses on the situation of young Muslims in Britain with respect to Education and
Islamophobia. Although the effects of recent events on Muslims are moderately discussed and
differentiated in academic research, political debate and media, the unseen implications for
the youngest members of society may often be overlooked or neglected. However,
considering the fact that in Britain for example, approximately one-third of all British
Muslims are under the age of fifteen and one-fifth are aged sixteen to twenty-four (Muir and
Smith, 2004), there is an urgent requirement to inspect possible implications of the unwilling
focus upon Islam and Muslims for the growing generations and matters of equity.
International surveys, such as the collection of country reports of Anti-Islamic reactions in the
EU after both 9/11 and 7/7 issued by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and
Xenophobia (EUMC/RAXEN), give various accounts of immediate reactions of politicians
and public in the aftermath of the said events. However, these surveys, for practical reasons,
while giving a depiction of explicit xenophobic behaviour increasing towards the Muslim
community in Britain, fail to elicit a picture of what inherent and long-term consequences
Islamophobia could have for British Muslims.
Specifically, this essay seeks to analyse firstly what Islamophobia is and whether it exists as
presented in research and political debate. Most importantly however, it focuses on different
levels of possible discrimination Muslim youth could face within today’s educational setting.
These levels include exploring possible discrimination on the level of school ethos and
2
Farah Shaik
March 2006
interaction. Moreover, as a further aspect, separate schooling and possible effects thereof will
be linked to the points above and analysed within this context.
Taking into account the complexity of the issue and the intricacies within, this essay refrains
from making any claims of finding absolute answers to the many questions raised.
Furthermore, the entire backdrop of political situations is not analysed in its entirety for
contextual reasons, notwithstanding the fact that an immense amount of literature exists
related to this subject matter, a summary of which would only confuse the actual objective of
this research. This essay merely attempts at critically exploring and laying out numerous
factors, which could be contributing to Islamophobic attitudes, consciously or subconsciously
having found their way into the Educational sector. The main objective of this enquiry is to
point out the high level of significance Islamophobia could have on the rights of members of
society, both Muslim and Non-Muslim, and what lack of understanding thereof could be
establishing within the framework of education.
1.2. Islamophobia as a phenomenon
Before delving into the different facets of discrimination, there is a need to define the term
Islamophobia and whether it can be deemed a contemporary phenomenon. Generally, as
Haque (2004) points out, ‘phobia’ means an ‘unfounded or irrational fear’. She concludes that
Islamophobia can therefore be understood as an ‘unfounded fear of Islam and its followers’
(Haque, 2004: 1). Analogously, the term xenophobia is referred to by the Runnymede Trust as
‘the disdain or dislike of all things “foreign”’ (Abbas, 2005: 29). In this sense, the fear of
Islam and its followers could be seen as the result of limited knowledge about the religious
Islamic culture as such, the foundations of the belief and the practical reality reflected in day
to day life. However, with respect to Islamophobia in today’s context, lack of knowledge may
3
Farah Shaik
March 2006
be assisted by distorted knowledge. The Runnymede Trust identifies seven aspects within
Islamophobia: ‘Muslim cultures are seen as monolithic, Islamic cultures are substantially
different from other cultures, Islam is perceived as implacably threatening, Islam’s adherents
use their faith to gain political or military advantage, Muslim criticism of western cultures and
societies is rejected out of hand, the feat of Islam is mixed with racist hostility to immigration,
and Islamophobia is assumed to be natural and unproblematic.’ (Abbas, 2005: 29). The
following paragraphs assess some of these aspects accordingly, albeit in different and partly
overlapping order.
It can be argued that Islamophobia is not a new but an age old phenomenon, existing well
before any of the recent horrific events took place (Orhun, 2005). Historically, there has been
a clash between the West and what it might have referred to as the Islamic world, in terms of
territorial power (Zine, 2004). Correspondingly, Christianity might have perceived Islam as a
major threat towards its predominance as a world religion (Muir and Smith, 2004). It is
therefore highly likely that this historical process has moulded Western people’s perception of
Islam into what kind of associations it provokes today. Referring to world views, Islam seems
to have constantly provoked criticism as to its value system and the extent of which these
values reflect in day to day life of Muslims. With allusion to conflicting values, the current
Western worldview could be seen as being largely based on ‘the philosophy of secularism,
materialism and scientism’ (Haque, 2004: 7), whereas Islam, as widely affirmed by Muslim
academics, places importance on community, family and sovereignty of God and the
accountability of each person ensuing from this (Hodge, 2005). The question remains,
however, whether these are conflicting values.
Unlike most other religions represented in the West, however, the Islamic faith contains in
some respect direct guidelines referring to legal and social conduct (Hodge, 2005). Critics of
4
Farah Shaik
March 2006
Islam argue that these conflicting value systems, and often legal systems, are problematic
when positioned together within one society and contradictive towards each other (Hodge,
2005). Recent events, they concur, justify Islamophobia for reasons of national safety over
individual rights (Allen, 2005). However, the factor often neglected by public and very often
politicians, when viewing Islam and Muslims is that similar to any other religious belief and
practice, personal interpretations, extent of identification if at all, extent of ritualistic practice
and perhaps most significantly, levels of identification with each other within the Islamic
community, can differ vastly (Hodge, 2005). This is a focal point in the entire issue of
Islamophobia, because this ‘homogenous’ or non-differentiated view of Muslims in relation to
what today is referred to as “terrorism”, “radicalism” and “the war against terror” may be
causing major negative changes to the lives of Muslims living in the West, in many daily
aspects of their life. In socio-cultural terms, this would imply that a minority group is marked
out as “worthy of focused attention and monitoring”, possibly enhancing an already existing
ethnic segregation, regardless of any backlashes this kind of non-differentiated scrutiny could
have on lastly everyone in society.
With reference to Islamophobia enhanced by racist hostility towards immigration, it is
necessary to determine who the Muslim community in Britain consists of. Although, there
have been Muslims in Britain since the early nineteenth century, the main enlargement of the
Muslim community occurred after World War II with the immigration of Pakistanis,
Bangladeshis, and Indians for reasons of labor demands; However, in the 1990’s there was an
influx of Muslim refugees from Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq (Abbas,
2005). There are estimated to be around 1.6 million Muslims in Britain at present, 1 million of
which originate from South Asia, mostly Pakistan, Bangladesh and India (Peach, C.,
“Muslims in Britain”, in Abbas, Muslim Britain; quoted in Abbas, 2005: 27). Interestingly,
Abbas (2005) explains, a large majority of these Muslim groups are often living in poor
5
Farah Shaik
March 2006
conditions, have a high unemployment rate and have the tendency of significantly
underachieving in education. How then, can increased negative conditions of the Muslim
community possibly caused by Islamophobia be differentiated from already existing socioeconomic and social reproductive causes?
It is very difficult to determine measurable
variables or to distinguish them clearly, in order to establish whether students are being
affected by discrimination and whether this would have any impacts on their academic
performance. For this reason, the main objective of identifying Islamophobia in this essay is
to determine whether it could be one of the causes for inequity of treatment and opportunities
of British Muslims within education. To a certain level, 9/11 and 7/7 could be causing what
Allen (2005) refers to as “catalytic reinvigoration” (Ibid., 40; quoted in Allen, 2005: 6)); these
events provided the public with a catalyst of fear, which enhanced and renewed old, already
existent prejudices towards Muslims.
To a certain extent, issues of national safety and the questions raised about the Muslim
members of British society may have brought about an essential debate about identity in
general, the makings of citizenship and where the path of multiculturalism is leading (Orhun,
2005). This debate has recently caused an upsurge of political statements about ‘true
integration’ (Orhun, 2005: 6) and ‘pride in diversity’ (Phillips, 2005), whereby the continual
use of terminology such as “otherness” or “accepting and living with the other” could be
deemed highly controversial to the whole issue of what British belongingness involves.
Moreover, it seems pejorative to suggest that national identity and religious identity generally
exclude the possibility of the other.
Referring to the point about Islam being perceived as a relentless threat and Muslims being
viewed as political opportunists and social ‘sleepers’, who “might be all potential terrorists”
(Allen, 2005: 15-17), Haque (2004) argues that the rights of Muslims seem to be something
6
Farah Shaik
March 2006
‘the majority is willing to sacrifice in its war against a vaguely defined enemy’ (Haque, 2004:
10). In other words, all this focus upon the Muslim, either through politicians, the media or
public debate may have created a more legitimized and naturalized racism in the face of the
“international war on terror”. The dangers of such an intrinsically justified phobia is that
public opinion may invariably be guided and influenced by this kind of picture portrayed on a
daily basis and will therefore very likely find a way of seeping into all sectors; such as
education for example.
2. Evidence of existing Islamophobia
An important factor in determining whether there is any actual evidence of existent
Islamophobia in British society, in particular within the educational domain, is that
Islamophobia is most likely not a new phenomenon. According to Allen (2005), Islamophobia
was considered an expanding and distinctly pre-9/11 phenomenon by the global community
before the span of the last five years. This conclusion is drawn by the fact that only a few days
prior to 9/11, in the World Conference against Racism in 2001, the UN formally recognized
Islamophobia as a “discriminatory and exclusionary” phenomenon, such as Anti-Semitism or
Anti-Roma (World conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
Related Intolerance, 31 August – 8 September 2001, Durban, South Africa; in Allen, 2005: 2).
With reference to the United Kingdom, some research in the field of “religious
discrimination” has been done and issued by the Home Office in February 2001, which had
the aim to determine any actual evidence of religious discrimination in both England and
Wales and to describe some patterns emerging by this evidence, which also refer to victims,
perpetrators, ways in which discrimination appeared and importantly, to establish any
7
Farah Shaik
March 2006
overlaps with racial discrimination (Home Office Research Study 220; “Religious
Discrimination in England and Wales”, 2001). It also aimed at identifying policy options
which could deal effectively with religious discrimination. The methods used were Interviews
and meetings held in Blackburn, Cardiff, Leicester and London Borough of Newham, with
318 individual members of various religious faiths and a Questionnaire survey sent out (of
which approx. 40% were returned; 628 questionnaires returned) to religious organisations,
both national and local throughout England and Wales. The Report clearly stated, that
although the questionnaire survey did not provide sufficiently precise statistical data due to
several limitations, the results did accord generally with what was found from the qualitative
interviews and could “give a reasonable impression of the views within each tradition and of
the areas of public life that cause most concern to religious groups’ (Home Office Research
Study 220, 2001: 6), education being one of these areas. The main findings related to
Education showed that within the questionnaire, a higher percentage of respondents from
Muslim, Sikh and Hindu organisations reported unfair treatment than was the case for
Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or Bahá’í organisations. Furthermore, occasional unfair treatment
was reported by a large majority of the Christian and Jewish organisations, while a relatively
high proportion of Muslim organisations stated it was frequent (Home Office Research Study
220, 2001: 23). Although the precision of the quantitative data and the national representation
thereof could be deemed questionable within this research, it is however more significant, that
evidence of Islamophobic behaviour has been recorded and was experienced by many
individuals within the Muslim community in England before 9/11.
As mentioned previously, the Reports issued by the EUMC with the help of 25 National Focal
Points (NFPs) shows records of public and political reactions to both 9/11 and 7/7 in the UK,
stating clear findings and temporary increase of Islamophobic behaviour in the time frame
immediately after the attacks until December 2001 in the first report and October 2005 in the
8
Farah Shaik
March 2006
second report. However, the report issued after the July 7th London bombings stated that
although there was a ‘sharp rise in faith hate crimes (predominantly against British Muslims)
as compared to the same period in 2004’, these levels were receding to levels recorded in
2004 after beginning of August (EUMC; The Impact of 7 July 2005 London Bomb attacks on
Muslim communities in the EU, 2005: 5). There could be a significance in the factor of
difference between racial crimes in general and faith hate crimes, which is difficult to
determine, particularly because there could be an association or overlap between the two in
many cases. Nonetheless, these findings show some evidence of explicit types of
Islamophobic behaviour recorded in the aftermath of the said events, such as verbal or
physical abuse, or damage of property (EUMC Report, 2005: 5).
Covering the span of 1999 to 2004, the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia,
set up by the Runnymede Trust, released a report about the issues, challenges and actions of
Islamophobia, after having held numerous meetings, counselling and interviews with many
national organisations, the government and public. This report shows much more recent and
qualitative evidence of existing Islamophobia in the different public sectors, including
Education and will be referred to in the subsequent chapters of this essay. Particularly
significant is the claim of the report, that despite many joint efforts being undertaken towards
tackling religious discrimination towards British Muslims, the situation seems to have only
superficially or ‘cosmetically’ improved and that the legal framework remains insufficient in
formulating explicit protection and progress (Muir and Smith, 2004: 3). A positive step
towards creating such a framework has been established through the introduction of the
Religious Hatred Bill, recently issued as an amendment of the Public Order Act of 1998,
which aims at protecting persons from acts of religious hatred (Racial and Religious Hatred
Bill 11, 2005).
9
Farah Shaik
March 2006
It can be argued that regardless of a certain amount of analysis been done by mainly Muslim
councils and national organisations since 9/11, there seems to be much research left to be
done at present to tackle the possibly still covert Islamophobia which may continue to affect
the lives of young British Muslims in particular. As to the question whether the data collected
up to this point is sufficiently significant to justify an insight into present and future
implications of persisting Islamophobia within the educational sector, the situation could be
regarded as follows; Islamophobia seems not to be a recent phenomenon but rather may have
well existed since direct confrontation of the Western world and the Islamic world in the
eighth century of the common era until the present day (Zine, 2004). Events such as the recent
bombings may have caused a “reaffirmation” or “renewal” of already existing prejudices
against the Muslim community. This form of new racism may have attained a level of
“naturalization” or “normality” in the face of recent world events and its successive global
reactions (Allen, 2005: 29 - 30. As a consequence, many British Muslims may be suffering an
unfair treatment in some aspects of public and private life. Education, whilst being an
important factor in possibly assisting to create identity on the one hand and giving opportunity
for direction in life on the other, may have to seriously reassess the implications for students
such a form of covert racism or lack of inclusiveness could be having within the whole system
and on an individual basis. Facing inherent and not easily identifiable discrimination at an
early age is very likely to assist in shaping the young individual’s perception of self, of his or
her chances in the life course with respect to educational opportunities and lastly if not most
importantly, his or her role in society.
10
Farah Shaik
March 2006
3. Confronting Islamophobia in the modern education system
3.1 Schooling options, identity development and segregation
In view of all these possible repercussions, an important issue emerging from the discussion
of possible Islamophobia affecting young British Muslims is the matter of identity
development and how the education system today is handling pluralism in the classrooms and
schools. The lack of significant research in this area with reference to religious discrimination
and identity development would seem to suggest that the educational system is either not
being regarded as having any major influential impact on the development of the identity of
Muslim children and non-Muslim attitudes towards Islam. Or that the controversy of the issue
would invariably create a lot of questions as to the inefficiency of the present system with
respect to a multi-ethnic and non-secular Britain.
The contemporary education system of England and Wales, according to Blair and Aps
(2005), cannot be described as ‘taking place in a secular setting’ (Blair and Aps, 2005: 2).
They argue that since the foundation of the modern state education system in England and
Wales in 1944, the Christian religion may have well enjoyed a privileged position, because
the provision of compulsory and free primary and secondary education would not have taken
place without the aid of church schools entering the sustained sector. The predominance of
the Christian faith by the churches, they elaborate, was accomplished by a concession that
religious education (RE) would be compulsory in all schools and include a daily act of
worship (Blair and Aps, 2005). Reasonably, however, parents today have the possibility of
opting their children out of RE or collective worship (Blair and Aps, 2005). There will be
further elaboration in the following chapter with reference to this particular option. An
important fact is that currently, the RE syllabus and the establishment of its content is the
responsibility of a local Standing Committee on Religious Education (SACRE) made up of
11
Farah Shaik
March 2006
representatives of local (community) faith groups and is not determined by the National
Curriculum (Blair and Aps, 2005). Although, this allows for some representation of local
diversity, it is still highly significant that a large proportion of state funded schooling is taking
place in largely Christian based settings. The question remains whether such a setting allows
for an inclusive or accommodative education towards other faiths represented in the student
population attending these schools. One may argue that there is always the option for parents
to send their children to respective faith schools.
Muir and Smith (2004) inform that of approximately 7,000 state funded faith schools in
England, 33 are Jewish, two are Sikh, one Greek Orthodox, one Seventh Day Adventist and
four are Muslim. There are currently 120 Muslim schools in Britain being funded by
communities and parents. Of the approximately 750,000 Muslim children in the UK, about
one per cent attend Muslim schools and 0.5 per cent are in non-Muslim private schools.
The vast majority, however, attend schools in the mainstream state sector (Muir and Smith,
2004). Considering that the Jewish community in Britain numbers just under 260,000 and the
Sikh community just under 330,000 compared to a Muslim poulation of 1.6 million, the
disproportion of state-funded schools seems quite significant (Muir and Smith, 2004). The
situation for Muslim parents could be regarded as follows: Either to place their children in the
main stream state sector or to opt for a largely privately funded Muslim faith school. It could
be argued, that the role of the state in this matter would be then to ensure reasonable settings
for faith minority pupils in the mainstream state sector if it remains reluctant in funding faith
schools.
Key debates about state funding of Muslim schools include concerns about further
segregation and the creation of ‘social sleepers’ within the Islamic faith (Muir and Smith,
2004: 50). However, in the report commissioned by the Runnymede Trust, case studies held
12
Farah Shaik
March 2006
in different, on the one hand multi-faith and on the other hand Muslim schools, have shown
that in either case, it depends largely on what kind of whole school approach towards faith is
chosen and how it is put into practice. Two case studies of one Muslim girls school and one
multi-faith girls school with an inclusive approach towards Islam, showed both successful
school atmospheres and high achievement levels despite pupil’s low socio-economic
backgrounds, largely accounted for by the accommodative and holistic ethos the schools
adopted (Smith, 2004).
3.2 Young British Muslims and dealing with Islamophobia in education
A recent poll conducted by ICM, a UK polling company, showed opinions of 500 randomly
selected British Muslims, of all age groups, about how loyal they personally feel towards
Britain, 91% of which considered themselves very to quite loyal. However, 50% of the people
perceived that relations between Muslims and other British are getting worse. (Guardian
Muslim Poll February 2006). With respect to young British Muslims, interviews conducted by
the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia showed that young Muslim women
and men both felt that despite having ‘high hopes and aspirations’, they felt ‘frequently
unwelcome in British society’ and ‘therefore uncertain about their personal future, not least
because of the offensive Islamophobia they meet in their everyday lives in interaction with
other students’ (Muir and Smith, 2004: 47). These young people are also having a
determination to assert their Muslim identities and felt the fear of not being able to express
this assertion due to possible confrontation with discriminating behaviour (Muir and Smith,
2004). Referring to this fear, Allen (2005) mentions ‘visual identifiers’ such as the Hijab worn
by some Muslim women or other symbols which are considered as representative of the
Islamic faith. He argues that these symbols, which would have been normally if not unnoticed
13
Farah Shaik
March 2006
at least ignored, now have become a ‘social stimulant’ to express antipathy toward the Islamic
faith or perceived radicalism (Allen, 2005: 4-5). With respect to ‘visual identifiers’, there
have been in some European countries, including the UK, cases in which school ethos and
regulation, which did not allow the wearing of Hijab, has caused a lot of controversy.
However, not only outward appearance could mark out youths as practicing Muslims, but
even having to establish yourself as belonging to the Islamic faith could have become in
today’s context a source of fear or self-betrayal. It would seem that Muslim youth may be
placed forcibly before a loyalty-conflict (Muslim identity versus British identity), which is not
generated simply by being placed into conflicting value systems, but rather by being the target
of xenophobic attitudes (Allen, 2005). Having to choose a widely accepted role over one
which may be the target of discrimination may well improve the young British Muslim’s
chances of fairer opportunities being offered through the life course. Such a choice however,
could hardly be deemed justifiable for reasons of national safety or in terms of basic human
rights.
Speaking of education as a human right, Blair and Aps (2005) ascertain that although the optout provision from RE for parents does certainly help in respecting the individual religious
choice and belief, the lack of inclusiveness or accommodation of a multi-faith student body
could to a certain extent be a breach of the principal education right established by the
European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) (Campbell and Cosans, 1982; Roberts, 1995;
quoted in Blair Aps, 2005: 5), which is incorporated into the UK law by the Human Rights
Act:
In addition to the substantive rights in Articles 8, 9 and 10 of the convention
and the Article non-discrimination right (Campbell and Cosans, 1982;
Roberts, 1995; quoted in Blair Aps, 2005: 5), there is a principal education
right found in the Article 2 of Protocol 1 to the convention which provides
14
Farah Shaik
March 2006
that: “No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any
functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State
shall respect the right of the parents to ensure such education and teaching is
in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.”’
(Blair and Aps, 2005, Education and the Law, Vol. 17, No. 1-2, p.5).
This seems to further enhance the educational requirement for either funding of special
schools or the avoidance of teaching anything that ‘might potentially conflict with an
individual parent’s religious or philosophical convictions’ (Campbell and Cosans, 1982;
Roberts, 1995; quoted in Blair Aps, 2005: 5). Three levels of educational provision can be
distinguished with reference to the educational opportunity of Muslim students; firstly,
inclusive education accommodating the Islamic belief, both through a respective curriculum
and through appropriate school ethos and policy. Secondly, as an option in case of lack or
difficulty in providing the first provision, state funding of Muslim schools. Thirdly, a general
increased awareness of the possibility of Islamophobia existing within the educational
framework, either on an institutional level or on the level of personal interactions, and active
measures being taken against the creation thereof.
Particularly on the level of school ethos and interaction, certain levels of prejudices amongst
students, which could manifest themselves in less obvious ways are important to subsume;
According to Liese (2004), educators have to be aware of different levels of prejudice, such as
‘verbal slurs’, which occur in a possible attempt to ‘dehumanise’ another person or social
group, in this case Muslims, to justify committing a violent act or other harassment;
‘avoidance’ of peers with different appearance or social membership different from your own;
‘verbal or physical discrimination’ and if prejudice is taken to extremes even ‘violence or
murder’ (Liese, 2004: 66). Not taking appropriate active measures or tolerance of such
15
Farah Shaik
March 2006
behaviour can be seen as a kind of latent Islamophobia. However, reflecting reality, when
confronted with such or similar occurrences within or without classrooms, educators often
might find themselves at loss of practicing conflict resolution single-handedly in an effective
way, and not necessarily for reasons of indifference. But rather having to ensure that such
behaviour is not tolerated (zero-tolerance-practice) on the one hand, but on the other hand not
causing an increase in tensions amongst students. Such struggle amongst the teaching staff
reinforces the idea of a whole school approach, involving the support of principals, teachers,
students, and other stakeholders such as parents, and for the whole ethos of a school being
equipped for the possibility of such behaviour and having clear regulations in these aspects
(Liese, 2004).
4. Conclusion
A brief synopsis of the situation might be as follows; Islamophobia may well have existed for
a long time, since the very confrontation with the Western world. In today’s context, recent
political events may have caused a reaffirmation or renewal of old prejudices towards
Muslims and the Islamic faith and placed them into an unwilling focus and scrutiny. A
general non-differentiation or homogeneity, with which the Muslim community is being
perceived as, may be diminishing their rights to unbiased and fair opportunities in the private
and public sphere, including education. The complexity of the entire political situation may
have raised many questions amongst public and political leaders as to how pluralism and nonsecularity can be dealt with in the current society without diminishing rights of both Muslim
and Non-Muslim citizens. Identity being a key issue in this entire discussion, there can be a
direct link made therewith to questions of education and the way in which British Muslim
youth are being accommodated or not accommodated in the UK system and what effects this
might have on social cohesion or British belongingness. Separate schooling and state funding
16
Farah Shaik
March 2006
of Muslim schools is a much contested provisional issue, which may well be throwing light
on the way in which the state education system is or is not compensating for the lack thereof.
Despite some concern raised towards this phenomenon, little research has been done to
determine how or whether Islamophobia could be reducing the educational opportunities and
affecting the educational treatment of British Muslim children and youth. The reasons for lack
of research in this area may be due to the fact that religious discrimination is not an easily
determinable factor. Some qualitative research has been done in form of interviews and
questionnaires, the scale of which, however, has to increase in order to establish more
representative figures. However, this does not reduce the urgency of exploring this
phenomenon. Sufficient evidence in form of opinion polls, interview, questionnaire and case
study data has been conducted to raise concern about possible affects of explicit and latent
Islamophobia, whether institutional or on a more school policy and practical level. A further
level of exploration, not researched in this essay, could be done by reviewing the content of
religious education and the curriculum with respect to an unbiased representation of the
Islamic faith and working towards alleviating Islamophobic attitudes through the RE content
(Panjwani, 2005).
Consequences for young British Muslims issuing from Islamophobic discrimination could
consist of vicious circles of alienation, stigmatization, self-depreciation and further
segregation from society on the one hand and inequity in educational opportunities and unfair
treatment on the other. This inequity could be considered a breach of human rights, which are
theoretically defendable under UK law. Fact remains that a large proportion of the Muslim
population in Britain is from a relatively low socio-economic background and that students
with Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds are significantly underachieving in schools.
With reference to Islamophobia, it would be well worth exploring whether there could be any
17
Farah Shaik
March 2006
possible correlations between the fact that these underachieving pupils belong to the Muslim
population, and whether Islamophobia could increase or enhance the probability of negative
academic performance in addition to other reasons, such as socio-economic reasons and
reasons of parent literacy.
Importantly, however, is the need for educators and policy makers to be aware of the
complexity of the whole situation whilst adopting a constructive no-blame-approach and of
recognizing potential victims of such alienation and discrimination, which is often undetected
and has a major impact on both Muslim and non-Muslim youth, and lastly everyone in
society.
18
Farah Shaik
March 2006
5. References
Abbas, T. (2005) After 9/11: British South Asian Muslims, Islamophobia, Multiculturalism,
and the State, The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 21 (3), 26-36
Allen, C. (2005) Justifying Islamophobia: A Post-9/11 Consideration of the European Union
and the British Contexts, The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 21 (3), 1-23
Blair, A. and Aps, W. (2005) What not to wear and other stories: addressing religious
diversity in schools – Ann Blair and Will Aps, Education and the Law, 17 (1-2), 1-22
European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC/RAXEN) (2005) The
Impact of 7 July 2005 London Bomb Attacks on Muslim Communities in the EU. Vienna:
EUMC
European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC/RAXEN) and Commission
for Racial Equality (CRE) (United Kingdom) (2001) Anti-Islamic reactions in the EU after
the terrorist acts against the USA. Vienna: EUMC
Haque, A. (2004) Islamophobia in North America: confronting the menace. In Van Driel. B.
(ed.) Confronting Islamophobia in Educational Practice (pp.1-18). Staffordshire, England/
Sterling, USA: Trentham Books Limited.
Hodge, D. (2005) Social Work and the House of Islam: Orienting Practioners to the Beliefs
and Values of Muslims in the United States, Social Work, 50 (2), 162 -.171
19
Farah Shaik
March 2006
Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate (England) (2001) Religious
Discrimination in England and Wales (Home Office Research Study 220). London: Home
Office.
ICM, The Sunday Telegraph (2006), Muslims Poll February 2006, www.icmresearch.co.uk
(Accessed 08. Feb 2006)
Liese, J. (2004) The Subtleties of Prejudice: how schools unwittingly facilitate Islamophobia
and how to remedy this. In Van Driel, B. (ed.) Confronting Islamophobia in Educational
Practice (pp. 63 – 76). Staffordshire, England/ Sterling, USA: Trentham Books Limited.
Muir, H. and Smith, L. (2004) In Richardson, R. (ed.), Commission on British Muslims and
Islamophobia (England) (2004) Islamophobia: issues, challenges and action. Stroke on Trent,
UK/ Sterling, USA: Trentham Books Limited.
Orhun, Ö. (2005) Countering Islamophobia and Discrimination against Muslims, Equal
Voices, 17, www.eumc.eu.int (Accessed 08. Feb 2006)
Panjwani, F. (2005) Agreed Syllabi and Un-agreed Values: Religious Education and missed
opportunities for fostering Social Cohesion. British Journal of Educational Studies, 53 (3),
375-395
Phillips, T., Commission on Racial Discrimination (CRE) (England) (September 2005) 7/7:
Sleepwalking into Segregation (Press Release). Manchester Council for Community
Relations, www.cre.gov.uk.
Racial and Religious Hatred Bill (2005), House of Commons, Bill 11, Authority of the House
of Commons, London: The Stationary Office Limited.
Zine, J. (2004) Anti-Islamophobia Education as Transformative Pedagogy: Reflections from
the Educational Front Lines, The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 21 (3), 110 118
20
Farah Shaik
March 2006
21