1m to promote Islam within Universities

cleanbluesky · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:22

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6718235.stm

Tony Blair says he wants the "voice of moderation" among Muslims to be heard, as £1m funding was announced to boost Islamic studies at UK universities.

Not in my name.

dirtydog · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:25

Why should we want to 'boost Islamic studies'? :confused:

This would involve taxpayers' money so where is the benefit to the taxpayer? How does Britain benefit by having UK imams?

Mr Blair also called for closer links between Islamic schools and mainstream state schools.

No no no. Keep religion out of our schools thanks.

Ex-RoNiN · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:26

How does Britain benefit by having UK imams?

Because the foreign ones seem prone to preaching death to the uk etc?

Ak!ta · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:26

Outragous. :mad:

cleanbluesky · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:27

Ex-RoNiN said:
Because the foreign ones seem prone to preaching death to the uk etc?

Surely offering money that he 'hopes' will address this represents a reward for vicious behaviour?

Toryglen-boy · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:27

>sigh< i cant help but feel that this is being approached by the wrong angle ...

Arcade Fire · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:28

dirtydog said:
Why should we want to 'boost Islamic studies'?

We seem to have a bit of a problem with Islam in this country - i.e. people think that it's going to be the downfall of society. Some people would argue that increased understanding between muslims and non-muslims would help mitigate this. I take it that you don't agree?

Mr.Clark · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:28

dirtydog said:
Why should we want to 'boost Islamic studies'? This would involve taxpayers' money so where is the benefit to the taxpayer? How does Britain benefit by having UK imams?

No no no. Keep religion out of our schools thanks.

Completely agree.

Why the hell do we want to encourage more people to study and actively take part in 1500 year old superstitions?

Zogger · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:28

The extra £1m was to go to British universities which teach Islamic studies courses - which were important to challenge extremism.

sounds fair enough to me..

Bar · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:28

"Ah Mr Jones, we have your results back."

"What is it Doctor?"

"Well you have chronic heart disease, your lungs are riddled and you have testicular cancer"

"Oh no Doctor, what can we do about it"

"Here, I have written out a high dose prescription of morphine for you"

^^^Kind of sums up the governments approaches to a lot of problems these days.

dirtydog · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:30

Arcade Fire said:
We seem to have a bit of a problem with Islam in this country - i.e. people think that it's going to be the downfall of society. Some people would argue that increased understanding between muslims and non-muslims would help mitigate this. I take it that you don't agree?

I don't think the government should legitimise Islam (or indeed any religion) by directly funding it. This is 2007, we aren't living in the middle ages. If other people want to believe in that stuff then I don't suppose there is much we can do about it, but we can at least stop short of encouraging and funding it.

iCraig · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:30

Mr.Clark said:
Why the hell do we want to encourage more people to study and actively take part in 1500 year old superstitions?

To learn about it? Religion is a major part of world culture. I don't see why people can't learn about religion to help better understand the concept of it, and why people hold faith.

I'd much rather them learn objectively in a classroom than at Sunday school at a young age being somewhat brainwashed into the faith.

dirtydog · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:32

iCraig said:
To learn about it? Religion is a major part of world culture.

But Islam is alien to Britain so it should not be funded by the British taxpayer.

Arcade Fire · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:32

dirtydog said:
I don't think the government should legitimise Islam (or indeed any religion) by directly funding it. This is 2007, we aren't living in the middle ages. If other people want to believe in that stuff then I don't suppose there is much we can do about it, but we can at least stop short of encouraging and funding it.

They're not funding Islam, though. They're funding the study of Islam. Since there an estimated 1bn muslims in the world (estimated by me

) I'd say that it's a pretty important topic for study.

Arcade Fire · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:34

dirtydog said:
But Islam is alien to Britain so it should not be funded by the British taxpayer.

I don't think I've ever heard anything so stupid. Should we also not fund study into European history? How about S American archaelogy? Should we not fund the study of modern languages? How about economists who study the economies of China and Japan?

iCraig · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:34

dirtydog said:
But Islam is alien to Britain so it should not be funded by the British taxpayer.

Didn't you also say "or indeed any religion" only a few posts up?

dirtydog · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:36

iCraig said:
Didn't you also say "or indeed any religion" only a few posts up?

If I had my way the taxpayer would not fund anything to do with any religion, and there would be no 'religious schools' of any kind. But yes, Islam in particular is alien to Britain whereas Christianity is not.

the-void · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:38

iCraig said:
To learn about it? Religion is a major part of world culture. I don't see why people can't learn about religion to help better understand the concept of it, and why people hold faith.

That's rich coming from you who cannot understand why people should be expected to learn English if they want to live in this country.

I don't see why people can't learn English to help better understand everyone else in this country.

platypus · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:38

If the government decides on this approach, it should be £1m increased funding for all religions.

However, I don't agree with it for any religion. The actual religion in this case being Islam, is irrelevant.

Bill101 · 6 Jul 2007 at 11:39

dirtydog said:
But Islam is alien to Britain so it should not be funded by the British taxpayer.

I think you will find that we have a lot of the Old Testerment in common