07/02/2010
Remember the famous aphorism of Ayatollah Khomeini: âThere is no fun in Islamâ?
Apparently there are no symphonies either, judging from the latest culture fracas in diverse Britain. A number of Islo-parents are removing their offspring from music classes in spite of a national requirement that all students take part in them.
How extreme. What other culture prohibits music? It is so basic to humanity.
Muslim pupils âwithdrawn from music lessonsâ London Telegraph, July 1, 2010
Muslim children are being withdrawn from music lessons because some families believe learning an instrument is anti-Islamic, it has emerged.
A number of schools are allowing Muslim parents to pull their children out of classes, even though the subject is a formal part of the national curriculum.
Dr Diana Harris, a lecturer at the Open University, said she had visited schools where half of pupils were withdrawn from music during Ramadan.
By law, children are supposed to take part in all subjects and parents can only remove children from sex and religious education.
But Dr Harris claimed Ofsted inspectors sometimes turned âa blind eyeâ to the issue.
In one London primary school, 20 pupils were removed from rehearsals for a Christmas musical and one five-year-old girl has been permanently withdrawn from all classes.
The details emerged in a BBC London News investigation.
Eileen Ross, head of Herbert Morrison Primary in Lambeth, where almost a third of children come from mainly Somalian Muslim families, said some parents âdonât want children to play musical instruments and they donât have music in their homesâ.
âThereâs been about 18 or 22 children withdrawn from certain sessions, out of music class, but at the moment I just have one child who is withdrawn continually from the music curriculum,â she said. âItâs not part of their belief, they feel it detracts from their faith.â
There has been a debate in the Muslim community about music and singing, with some followers claiming that they are forbidden.
Dr Harris, author of the book âMusic Education and Muslimsâ, told the BBC: âMost of them really didnât know why they were withdrawing their children.
âThe majority of them were doing it because they had just learned that it wasnât acceptable and one of the sources giving out that feeling was the Imams particularly Imams who had come over from Pakistan, didnât really speak English and felt threatened.
And why is it again that they come to live in the West? Certainly not to share in the best our culture has to offer.