Well that's half an hour of my life I won't get back again! Since this thread is about the 'wisdom' of the man I'd say he wasn't very wise to say folk who blasphemed 'deserved to die' on National TV. As a new convert he should have said he would have to speak to his teachers or something, as a former pop star he knew well the power of the media and it's more than a little disingenuous to say he was misinterpreted. Maybe as well as the Koran he should have read the bit of the Rubiyat about the 'moving finger writes and having writ moves on, nor all thy tears, nor all thy piety and wit, wash out a word of it'. It was a daft thing to say and he had no excuse. I don't much care for his ideas on segregated schools. I think we should have less segregation not more. Again I think to say his schools are top of the league tables in Brent is disingenuous, these schools are highly selective and though thy they must have provision for children with special educational needs, they don't actually HAVE any special needs children. I can assure you the Muslim children of Brent are a normal mix, so some of them do have statements. Many local muslims were not in favour of this school, the kids in Brent go to ordinary schools (some nominally 'faith' schools eg CofE) where the teaching of religion is 'off-site' and carried out in the temples, churches, mosques &c which IMO is as it sould be. In one nominally C of E school in Harlesden that I know of, the Divali play is followed by the play about Hannukah and the Nativity play has the best Three Wise Men you've ever seen. The Wise men come from the East complete with dancing girls in a caravan, some of the dancing girls are step-dancing, wearing tabards stiff with Celtic knotwork embroidery and some of them are dancing Bollywood style in their best saris or shalwar kameez because the most important thing at a school play is to get the value from the dress your granny bought you and to look nice in the pictures. The poor Jehovahs Witness kids have to go to the library because they're nt allowed to see it. IMO that's how it should be, not faiths building a fence around their own. The far scarier Nation of Islam is usign this precedent to try to get their schools funded, this wasn't a good ruling to fund the Islamia Schools, you really need to look at the bigger picture. I liked Cat Stevens music, 'Tea for the Tillerman' is a part of my life but that doesn't mean I think Yusaf Islam 'wise', quite the reverse. fx
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