50 Christian faith schools are also involved - is it ok for them to be monitored independently (by the same body incidentally)? What is their excuse for wanting separate treatment?

A victory for Islam?? They're only following where the independent schools led....

You forgot to mention the ISI, who monitor about half of all private schools, which was set up in 1999 because "Ofsted did not understand the unique ethos of private schools."

The Association of Muslim Schools and the Christian Schools Trust represents 60 Muslim and 50 Christian schools, and another the Focus Learning Trust runs 26 schools on behalf of the Exclusive Brethren, an evangelical Christian sect have also won the right to set up their own inspectorate.

You're awfully selective in what you highlight and report.

David,

"This is an opt-out and another victory for Islam in the UK. It is also a betrayal of these young Muslim kids.

Right on both counts.

Dawkins why is it right on both counts?

Typhoo,

Because it creates yet more barriers to those children integrating in mainstream society.

Dawkins, you said David was right on both counts, please tell me how muslim schools - like Christian and Independent schools - are betraying Muslim children by setting up their own inspectorate which they say, like the Christian and Independents, is more suited to their needs??

"Ofsted will still regularly vet the new inspectorate," yet the article insists no one knows what is going on in these schools?

I have no time for Islam, but to single them out as failing their children because they chose to do what Christians are doing, and what the independents are doing is more than a little biased, don't you think?

Can you explain to me what you mean by integration. Because IMV 'main stream' society is different now than it was. How does one define "mainstream" society in multicultural Britain?

Islam is a tyranny of indoctrination and enclosing children within that system renders them unassimilable with the wider Britain, which is exactly what such schools are intended to do. That is why it is a betrayal of these children. There is a big difference in what Catholics are taught and what muslim children are forced to absorb.

Typhoo
I'm not an expert but there is a difference. I spoke to a young guy who had just left an islamic school and he claimed he did not do a-levels. He claimed that although he would have studied maths etc the school did not recognise the validity of a-levels, gcse's etc.
Assuming this guy was not lying, and assuming his experience is typical - that sort of schooling will clearly lead to more social exclusion that christian schools i know of.
In any case, in England we dont really have christian social exclusion - we do have the issue with Muslims. (I say england as i am aware that there has been arguments about Scottish Catholic schools contributing to social divicisivness - personally i dont know enough to comment).

Typhoo,

Allan has articulated my answer to your questions as well if not better than I could.

Alan, that is not all of the point is it? If you want a Britain where every one is treated the same, then lets go for comprehensive schools and do away with academci selection, or faith, or privilege.

These muslim schools are only availing themselves of what the others are availing themselves off. To disallow them on the basis that their faith is an indoctrination of tyranny is a joke. That is not grounds for discriminating against them, nor is it grounds to say they are failing their children.

Andy, we had the same problems in northern ireland. People were pushing integrated schools saying they would point a way out of our sectarian society. Infact these schools turned out to be IMO academic failures, and not many parents chose them for their children. Perhaps we started too late. Now we have Irish medium schools, are the parents of children in these schools failing them, will they integrate children in to main stream society where English is spoken?

My problem with the article is that it isn't really news, it picks up the story simply on the grounds of the schools being muslim.....at this point to not allow them the same rights as the others is nothing more than discrimination..

The courts would rule in their favour in a jot, and they'd be right.

Typhoo,

For the record I'm opposed to all faith schools, but that's a subject for another debate.

I disagree with you there, Typhoo. There is nothing wrong with 'faith' schools as such: it depends entirely on what is being taught in those schools. How many parents who jockey for places at catholic and CofE schools are actual believers as opposed to going through the motions in order to get a place for their child(ren)?
I cannot envisage sikh or hindu schools causing any difficulties but the fact must be faced that islam is uniquely retrograde and incompatible.

Is it beyond the wit of the government to ensure that OFSTED has enough correctly qualified members to be able to effectively monitor every school including those of minority cultures and specialities in the UK in a manner that recognises individual aspects of certain schools while ensuring that certain basic standards are applied in every school in the UK.

David,

I do hope somebody covers this tomorrow. This is the most glaring example of British dhimmitude I've ever encountered:

Husbands with multiple wives to get extra benefits after Government go-ahead

Husbands living in a "harem" with multiple wives have been cleared to claim state benefits for all their different partners.

A Muslim man with four spouses - which is permitted under Islamic law - could receive £10,000 a year in income support alone.

He could also be entitled to more generous housing and council tax benefit, to reflect the fact his household needs a bigger property.

Ministers have decided that, even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, polygamous marriages can be recognised formally by the state - provided they took place overseas, in countries where they are legal.

Full story here.