An Islamic school is under investigation after distributing sexist and anti-Semitic leaflets, which glorified jihad, blamed Western culture for “evils”, and claimed gender equality is “a vast conflagration of unspeakable immorality”.
The Islamic Tarbiyah Academy in Dewsbury, Yorkshire is controlled by the radical Deobandi school of Islam, which was founded in British colonial India specifically to oppose western culture. On its website, the private school claims to stand for “for development in spiritual, moral, mental, and physical discipline in accordance with the Islamic sharia”.
Mufti Zubair Dudha, the headmaster, made the shocking comments in flyers and newsletter distributed to parents and students and at nearby mosques. The Department for Education is now investigating “serious allegations” of “extremist practice” at the institution.
However, the views pushed upon the children at the Academy by Mr. Dubha have been a matter of public record for more that a decade, without the Department of Education acting. Writing about the aftermath of the London bombings, which was perpetrated by men from Dewsbury, Melanie Phillips warned in her landmark 2006 book Londonistan:
As reporters crawled over the town, they discovered that Mufti Zubair Dudha, who taught children, teenagers and young adults at the local Tarbiyah Academy and who had condemned suicide bombings, nevertheless was revealed to have written in support of physical jihad against the west, and to have taught his students that “the enemies of the Allah” had schemed “to poison the thinking and minds of [Muslim] youth and to plant the spirit of unsteadiness and moral depravity in their lives”.
In the recent flyers, obtained by Sky News, the headmaster reiterated such views, writing: “Delinquency is on the increase alien cultures and cults have made their impact on Muslim society. The embrace of Westernisation by Muslims have introduced all the evils of that culture into Muslim homes thus bringing ruin to the holy moral fabric of Muslim society.”
Another newsletter quotes the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, and the section on women reads: “The practice of men and women mixing has only succeeded in plunging mankind in a vast conflagration of unspeakable immorality.
“Parties and gatherings, dances, mixed picnics and co-educational institutions are a shocking revelation of the sexual misdemeanors perpetrated under the guise of the ‘equality of sexes’ is nothing but a carnal ruse to lure men and women…”
The section on Jihad, or holy war, says Muslim must be prepared to lay down their lives and use the “sword” to “annihilate” opponents of Islam.
“Jihad consist in exerting oneself to the utmost in order to personally follow the teachings of Islam. A Muslim, therefore expends all the power of body and soul, his wealth, possessions and even life in the fight against the evil forces of the world in order that injustices, oppression and contumacy are annihilated and Allah’s just order is established”, it says.
Adding: “Therefore to struggle in the path of Allah with the pen; speech and the sword is Jihad.”
Despite all this, the headteacher insisted that he supported “integration” and claimed the shocking literature had been “misrepresented”:
“It saddens me greatly that certain extracts from our publications have been taken and misrepresented to link the Academy with extremism. We fully believe in the importance and need of integration whilst being able to practise our faith”, he told Sky News.
Dewsbury is home to the largest Deobandi mosques in Europe and to the area of Savile Town, which is 98.7 per cent Asian and has been described as the “most racially segregated” town in Britain.
Both Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the group responsible for the 7 July 2005 bombings in London, and one of the UK’s youngest Islamic State recruits, Hassan Munshi, 17, grew up in the area.