SPAIN'S headcount has risen to its highest figure in history – for the first time ever, the population has broken the 48 million barrier.
Could teaching Islam in schools prevent Jihad indoctrination? Debate opens as Muslim leaders argue 'prevention is better than cure'
02/05/2017
SPAIN'S Islamic Commission has called for secondary schools to teach about the Muslim faith to 'prevent' fundamentalist terrorism.
If teenagers have insufficient knowledge of the faith and culture, they are more likely to look for – or stumble upon and believe – other 'proposals' about how it works, the Commission (CIE) says.
“I believe that the age group of 12 to 16 is very important in terms of proper religious training in the true nature of the Islamic faith, to stop them seeking out dangerous and flawed 'alternatives' instead,” says Riay Tatary, chairman of the CIE.
“It's far better to prevent radicalisation via social networks than to try to cure it – if young Muslims are not taught about Islam properly, they'll search anywhere and believe anything.”
Some teaching in Islam may also be beneficial for non-Muslim children, to eradicate the myths that it is a faith based upon violence and hell-bent on killing off anyone who does not follow it – a growing generalisation that leads to backlash and rejection against Muslims whenever a tiny minority commit an attack.
According to the Muslim Population Demographic Study published by the Union of Islamic Communities in Spain (UCIDE) and the Andalusí Observatory, as at February this year, a total of 290,110 Muslim pupils attended school in Spain but 95%, or 275,000, did not receive any instruction in their own religion.
Only the very basic requirements, that of a perfunctory instruction in primary school years, is given and only in certain regions – Andalucía, Aragón, the Canary Islands, Castilla y León, the Basque Country, Madrid and the two Spanish-owned city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern African coast – and is being 'considered' in Asturias, Galicia and Extremadura.
But other regions with a similar or even higher Islamic population – including Valencia, Murcia, Catalunya and the Balearic Islands, and possibly La Rioja and the province of Toledo in Castilla-La Mancha - do not provide any teaching at all, and would be candidates for a change in educational law making compulsory Islam instruction to pupils who follow the faith.
Tatary and the CIE have already started a campaign, recalling that instruction in pupils' own religion, whatever this may be, is a basic right under EU law and that Muslim parents should write to their children's schools and request it.
Although it is a 'basic right', its being put into practice is only required where demand for it exists.
As well as the EU's freedom of religious expression requirement, Spain signed a State Cooperation Agreement with the CIE in 1992 guaranteeing Muslim pupils the right to be taught about their religion in mainstream schools, including colegios concertados, which are a halfway-house between a State and a private centre.
The agreement covers all ages from infants to fifth form inclusive.
Terrorists 'have little knowledge of or interest in Islam' before 'radicalisation'
Studies in Jihad terrorism, as well as information given by Spain's Jihad prosecutor and statistics concerning so-called 'Islamic' terrorists show that the majority of those who become supporters of DAESH have little knowledge of the religion they purport to be representing through their violence.
Most are indoctrinated as teenagers or young adults, through 'unofficial' channels such as radicals on Facebook and Twitter, and the majority had no real interest in religion, no particular knowledge of Islam and did not follow its teachings beforehand.
The 22-year-old woman who blew herself up in Saint-Dénis, Paris, during the November 2015 massacre was seen walking around her suburban estate in a niqab, but swilling from vodka bottles and saying, when this was commented upon, that she 'couldn't care less about' the Q'ran, but that she 'just wanted to go to Syria'.
Also, the brothers behind the Brussels attacks used to drink alcohol in their own pub and never went to the Mosque.
More recently, the 'Islamic' terrorist who killed an American tourist, a Spanish teacher, a Romanian architect, a retired Clapham window cleaner and a police officer in the borough of Westminster, London, turned out to be British and of white English descent.
Related Topics
SPAIN'S Islamic Commission has called for secondary schools to teach about the Muslim faith to 'prevent' fundamentalist terrorism.
If teenagers have insufficient knowledge of the faith and culture, they are more likely to look for – or stumble upon and believe – other 'proposals' about how it works, the Commission (CIE) says.
“I believe that the age group of 12 to 16 is very important in terms of proper religious training in the true nature of the Islamic faith, to stop them seeking out dangerous and flawed 'alternatives' instead,” says Riay Tatary, chairman of the CIE.
“It's far better to prevent radicalisation via social networks than to try to cure it – if young Muslims are not taught about Islam properly, they'll search anywhere and believe anything.”
Some teaching in Islam may also be beneficial for non-Muslim children, to eradicate the myths that it is a faith based upon violence and hell-bent on killing off anyone who does not follow it – a growing generalisation that leads to backlash and rejection against Muslims whenever a tiny minority commit an attack.
According to the Muslim Population Demographic Study published by the Union of Islamic Communities in Spain (UCIDE) and the Andalusí Observatory, as at February this year, a total of 290,110 Muslim pupils attended school in Spain but 95%, or 275,000, did not receive any instruction in their own religion.
Only the very basic requirements, that of a perfunctory instruction in primary school years, is given and only in certain regions – Andalucía, Aragón, the Canary Islands, Castilla y León, the Basque Country, Madrid and the two Spanish-owned city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern African coast – and is being 'considered' in Asturias, Galicia and Extremadura.
But other regions with a similar or even higher Islamic population – including Valencia, Murcia, Catalunya and the Balearic Islands, and possibly La Rioja and the province of Toledo in Castilla-La Mancha - do not provide any teaching at all, and would be candidates for a change in educational law making compulsory Islam instruction to pupils who follow the faith.
Tatary and the CIE have already started a campaign, recalling that instruction in pupils' own religion, whatever this may be, is a basic right under EU law and that Muslim parents should write to their children's schools and request it.
Although it is a 'basic right', its being put into practice is only required where demand for it exists.
As well as the EU's freedom of religious expression requirement, Spain signed a State Cooperation Agreement with the CIE in 1992 guaranteeing Muslim pupils the right to be taught about their religion in mainstream schools, including colegios concertados, which are a halfway-house between a State and a private centre.
The agreement covers all ages from infants to fifth form inclusive.
Terrorists 'have little knowledge of or interest in Islam' before 'radicalisation'
Studies in Jihad terrorism, as well as information given by Spain's Jihad prosecutor and statistics concerning so-called 'Islamic' terrorists show that the majority of those who become supporters of DAESH have little knowledge of the religion they purport to be representing through their violence.
Most are indoctrinated as teenagers or young adults, through 'unofficial' channels such as radicals on Facebook and Twitter, and the majority had no real interest in religion, no particular knowledge of Islam and did not follow its teachings beforehand.
The 22-year-old woman who blew herself up in Saint-Dénis, Paris, during the November 2015 massacre was seen walking around her suburban estate in a niqab, but swilling from vodka bottles and saying, when this was commented upon, that she 'couldn't care less about' the Q'ran, but that she 'just wanted to go to Syria'.
Also, the brothers behind the Brussels attacks used to drink alcohol in their own pub and never went to the Mosque.
More recently, the 'Islamic' terrorist who killed an American tourist, a Spanish teacher, a Romanian architect, a retired Clapham window cleaner and a police officer in the borough of Westminster, London, turned out to be British and of white English descent.
Related Topics
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