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Muslims' fury forces schools to shelve anti-homophobia storybooks for 5-year-olds
Last updated at 09:37am on 03.04.08Two primary schools have withdrawn storybooks about same-sex relationships after objections from Muslim parents.
Up to 90 gathered at the schools to complain about the books which are aimed at pupils as young as five.
One story, titled King & King, is a fairytale about a prince who turns down three princesses before marrying one of their brothers.
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Withdrawn: The fairytale King and King and Tango Makes Three
Another named And Tango Makes Three features two male penguins who fall in love at a New York zoo.
Bristol City Council said the two schools had been using the books to ensure they complied with gay rights laws which came into force last April.
They were intended to help prevent homophobic bullying, it said.
But the council has since removed the books from Easton Primary School and Bannerman Road Community School, both in Bristol.
A book and DVD titled That's a Family!, which teaches children about different family set-ups including gay or lesbian parents, has also been withdrawn.
The decision was made to enable the schools to "operate safely" after parents voiced their concerns at meetings.
Around 40 are said to have gathered at Easton to speak to staff and another 50 at Bannerman Road.
Members of the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society said parents were upset at the lack of consultation over the use of the materials.
Farooq Siddique, community development officer for the society and a governor at Bannerman Road, said there were also concerns about whether the stories were appropriate for young children.
"The main issue was there was a total lack of consultation with parents," he said.
"The schools refused to deal with the parents, and were completely authoritarian.
"The agenda was to reduce homophobic bullying and all the parents said they were not against that side of it, but families were saying to us 'our child is coming home and talking about same-sex relationships, when we haven't even talked about heterosexual relationships with them yet'.
"They don't do sex education until Year Six and at least there you have got the option of withdrawing the children.
"But here you don't have that option apparently. You can't withdraw because it is no particular lesson they are used in."
He added: "In Islam homosexual relationships are not acceptable, as they are not in Christianity and many other religions but the main issue is that they didn't bother to consult with parents.
"The issue should have been, how do we stop bullying in general, and teaching about homosexuality can be a part of that.
"This was completely one-sided.
"Homosexuality is not a priority to parents but academic achievement is. This just makes parents think 'What the heck is my child being taught at school?'."
He said the two schools were 60 to 70 per cent Muslim but pointed out that non-Muslim parents were among those who complained.
Traditional Islamic views condemn homosexuality but there are liberal movements, such as the Al-Fatiha Foundation, which is dedicated to gay Muslims.
The schools used materials promoted by the No Outsiders project, led by academics at Sunderland University.
A spokesman for Bristol City Council said: "All Bristol schools have a legal duty to report and deal with homophobic harassment as part of the curriculum since April 2007."
She said the council had "temporarily withdrawn" the use of the materials in question and was liaising with various groups to "ensure that the topic can be addressed in an inclusive manner in the curriculum".
Ben Summerskills of gay rights group Stonewall said: "The small number of parents who make a fuss will cause children to think there is something wrong."
Reader views (32)
Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.
Salaam
Muslim schools are not only faith schools but they are more or less
bilingual schools.
Bilingual Muslim children need to learn standard English to follow the
National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve
humanity. They need to be well versed in Arabic to recite and understand the
Holy Quran. They need to be well versed in Urdu and other community
languages to keep in touch with their cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of
their literature and poetry.
Bilingualism is an asset but the British schooling regards it as a problem.
A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not want to
become notoriously monolingual Brit. Pakistan is only seven hours from
London and majority of British Muslims are from Pakistan.
More than third of British Muslim have no qualifications. British school
system has been failing large number of Muslims children for the last 60
years. Muslim scholars see the pursuit of knowledge as a duty, with the
Quran containing several verses to the rewards of learning. 33% of British
Muslims of working age have no qualifications and Muslims are also the least
likely to have degrees or equivalent qualifications. Most of estimated
500,000 Muslim school-aged pupils in England and Wales are educated in the
state system with non-Muslim monolingual teachers. Majority of them are
underachievers because they are at a wrong place at a wrong time.
- Iftikhar Ahmad, Forest gate London
Why do we need to teach children at this very tender age about those issues when the priority must be directed toward academic achievement. This is very infuriating especially that parents were not consulted at all.
- Abdulbaset Elkkari, Bristol,UK
I'm a teacher. Children as young as second graders use "gay" as a slang word for "bad" or "stupid". They pick it up from older kids and have no concept about the meaning of the word. By the time they hit late grammar school, they have started calling non-athletic kids "gay".
Let's get back to the real issue: bullying in schools. If learning that gay is just another sort of family at five will avoid this bullying a few years later, I think it's a good thing. Neutral of my or your opinion of the validity of homosexual parents and love, IT IS NOT OKAY to allow these children to bully each other. If they were calling each other racial slurs, no one would have taken away the proposed solution.
- Emma, Chicago, US
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