A Muslim father has made an official complaint after his daughter was allowed to join mixed-sex swimming lessons – which are against his religious beliefs.
Rehan Mirza, 32, is furious daughter Zainab Hussain, five, swam with boys when male staff were present.
But despite repeated requests, staff at William Booth Primary School in Sneinton, Notts., have taken his daughter swimming three times in mixed-sex classes at a local pool.
Father-of-two Rehan, a professional football coach, is now considering taking his daughter out of the school unless it respects her religion.
He said: ”We have made our position very clear. Because of religious reasons, we do not want Zainab swimming in mixed-sex classes.
”We don’t have a problem with her being taught in single-sex classes with female instructors.
”If the school cannot do that then we do not want her going to the pool. We are very happy for her to take part in another mainstream lesson so she is not missing out.
”I will not hesitate to take her out of school if the situation arises again. The school has to respect our beliefs.”
Rehan, of Sneinton, said the issue arose when Zainab – who wears a head veil – was taken to the pool at the John Carroll Leisure Centre in Radford, Notts, in March last year.
Despite his requests that it did not happen again, Zainab was taken three weeks ago and again last Tuesday.
Rehan, who coaches football at the University of Nottingham, the Notts County Academy and Notts Schools Football Association, has now made a complaint to Nottingham City Council’s children’s services department and school governors.
Headteacher Andy Mattison said parents did not have the right to prevent their children swimming but added that children would not be made to swim if they did not want to.
He said: ”While it is our understanding that parents do not have the right to withdraw children from swimming or any other PE activities we seek to show full respect for the views and wishes of parents and of children – and we do not make children go swimming if they don’t wish to.
”In this case we hope to have further discussions to resolve the situation to everyone’s satisfaction as soon as possible.”
A spokesman for the Department of Education said: ”It is a matter for individual schools and head teachers to work with any parents who have concerns about the teaching of a subject or class.”
Send him back to Bangladesh, I’m sure he’ll be MUCH happier there with his fellow INGRATES.
if you dont want to mix with others you should not be hear please leave we dont want you……
Easy solution – leave the country and go to a muslim one.
Free Our Schools
Almost all children now believe they go to school to pass exams. The idea that they may be there for an education is irrelevant. State schools have become exam factories, interested only in A to C Grades. They do not educate children. Exam results do not reflect a candidate’s innate ability. Employers have moaned for years that too many employees cannot read or write properly. According to a survey, school-leavers and even graduates lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. More and more companies are having to provide remedial training to new staff, who can’t write clear instructions, do simple maths, or solve problems. Both graduates and school-leavers were also criticised for their sloppy time-keeping, ignorance of basic customer service and lack of self-discipline.
Bilingual Muslims children have a right, as much as any other faith group, to be taught their culture, languages and faith alongside a mainstream curriculum. More faith schools will be opened under sweeping reforms of the education system in England. There is a dire need for the growth of state funded Muslim schools to meet the growing needs and demands of the Muslim parents and children. Now the time has come that parents and community should take over the running of their local schools. Parent-run schools will give the diversity, the choice and the competition that the wealthy have in the private sector. Parents can perform a better job than the Local Authority because parents have a genuine vested interest. The Local Authority simply cannot be trusted.
The British Government is planning to make it easier to schools to “opt out” from the Local Authorities. Muslim children in state schools feel isolated and confused about who they are. This can cause dissatisfaction and lead them into criminality, and the lack of a true understanding of Islam can ultimately make them more susceptible to the teachings of fundamentalists like Christians during the middle ages and Jews in recent times in Palestine. Fundamentalism is nothing to do with Islam and Muslim; you are either a Muslim or a non-Muslim.
There are hundreds of state primary and secondary schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion all such schools may be opted out to become Muslim Academies. This mean the Muslim children will get a decent education. Muslim schools turned out balanced citizens, more tolerant of others and less likely to succumb to criminality or extremism. Muslim schools give young people confidence in who they are and an understanding of Islam’s teaching of tolerance and respect which prepares them for a positive and fulfilling role in society. Muslim schools are attractive to Muslim parents because they have better discipline and teaching Islamic values. Children like discipline, structure and boundaries. Bilingual Muslim children need Bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods, who understand their needs and demands.
None of the British Muslims convicted following the riots in Bradford and Oldham in 2001 or any of those linked to the London bombings had been to Islamic schools. An American Think Tank studied the educational back ground of 300 Jihadists; none of them were educated in Pakistani Madrasas. They were all Western educated by non-Muslim teachers. Bilingual Muslim children need bilingual Muslim teachers as role models. A Cambridge University study found that single-sex classes could make a big difference for boys. They perform better in single-sex classes. The research is promising because male students in the study saw noticeable gains in the grades. The study confirms the Islamic notion that academic achievement is better in single-sex classes.
Iftikhar Ahmad
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
Get off of Europe with your satanic, not adaptable religion… Go back to any Muslim country and take all your paedophile bastards friends with you. AND NEVER COME BACK !!!!!
he should take her to an Islamic school or a single-sex school. after all they should respect his religion if they don’t then he should just make his daughter leave that school!!! and it’s unfair for people who BASH Muslims!
most paedophilles are all westerners DAVE after all look at the news: fathers having sex with daughters is normal in your household isnt it? look at the prisons and the sex abuse rate here most are all white rough english from council estates or some even in the police force!!, coz at the end of the day you have no religion, and no values you live and die like animals… boy i pity you… you know nothing about other cultures and other religions coz your just plain ignorant.