The rise of fundamentalism: An increasing number of children go to madrassas. Photograph: Mail Online
”Eye-watering amounts of Saudi money goes into promoting Wahhabism. They fund mosques, religious-schools, imams, conferences and trips to Saudi Arabia. They are our wealthy allies and so are never questioned or stopped.” – Yasmin Alibhai Brown

The Talibanisation of British Childhood by Hardline Parents
MAIL ONLINE: Last November, on the steps of Tate Britain, I witnessed a scene that troubles me still.

A furious Asian father was shaking his young son and tearing up the picture his child had drawn.

The boy kicked and cried. Recognising my face from TV appearances I had made as a commentator on current affairs, the father came across to say 'hello'.

So I asked him what his child had done that had made him so angry. He explained that according to his Islamic mentors, drawing pictures of people was forbidden.

I was flabbergasted. After all, this was in the middle of Britain's multi-cultural capital - a modern metropolis, not some dusty backstreet in Kabul.

What harm can there be in a picture?

So I asked the man if he owned a camera. 'Yes,' he replied. 'And a video camera.'

So why, I asked, was it acceptable for him to take pictures, but not for his child to draw a stick figure?

'The madrasa teacher told me children are not allowed to,' he said, referring to the places of religious instruction for Muslim children, which are the equivalent of Sunday schools for Christians.

'I am not an educated man, so I must listen to them.'

You might think this encounter was a case of an ill-educated parent misinterpreting the teachings of his elders.

Alas, in the past year I have come to realise his attitude towards his child is far from unique.

Such fundamentalist beliefs about parenthood are not uncommon. In private, teachers, lecturers, community, youth and social workers have told me many more such stories of the suppression of simple childhood pleasures in the name of Islam.

An investigation by the BBC revealed one London school where more than 20 Muslim pupils had been removed from music lessons because their parents felt such teaching to be anti-Islamic.

Another one-off? No, the Muslim Council of Britain confirmed that music lessons are likely to be 'unacceptable' to 10 per cent of Muslims.

What should be a simple pleasure is instead seen by thousands of families as a symbol of moral decadence. >>> Yasmin Alibhai-Brown | Thursday, August 05, 2010

Talibanisation of Pakistan a Reality, Warns Pakistani Media
SINDH TODAY: Islamabad – (IANS) The Talibanisation of Pakistan is not just a threat but a reality in the wake of Sharia laws being imposed in Swat and other parts of the country’s northwest, an editorial in a leading English daily said Wednesday.

Another editorial termed the Nizam-e Adil Regulation parliament passed to impose the Sharia an anathema on the constitution.

“Talibanisation is not just a threat, it is the reality today. Face it,” Dawn said in an editorial.

“There is considerable harm in it because such a regulation is anathema to the Constitution and shouldn’t have been acceded to and drawn up in the first place by the government,” The News maintained.

Dawn said it was “now clear” that the Taliban will not stop until they have their way.

“And this is their prescription for Pakistan: a nation, armed with nuclear weapons, jerked back to a mediaeval age. A country where men without beards are flogged, and women killed if they choose to express themselves.

“That is where we are headed. And one is wrong if one thinks this can’t happen in Pakistan. It can and it will unless we strike a decisive blow for the silent majority,” the editorial maintained.

“We must resist this onslaught,” it added. >>> By Sindh Today | Wednesday, April 22, 2009

DAWN: Pakistan Giving Up to Militants: Hillary

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday she believed the Pakistani government was abdicating to the Taliban and other militants.

In a testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mrs Clinton warned that nuclear-armed Pakistan was becoming a ‘mortal threat’ to the world.

‘I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists,’ Mrs Clinton said.

She was referring to a deal Pakistan concluded with the Taliban militants in Swat, which gives them complete control over the valley. On Tuesday, the militants also took over Buner, just 60 miles from Islamabad.

Mrs Clinton also urged Pakistanis, living both in and outside the country, to realise how terrorism threatened the very existence of their state.

‘Pakistan poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world,’ Mrs Clinton said.

‘And I want to take this occasion ... to state unequivocally that not only do the Pakistani government officials, but the Pakistani people and the Pakistani diaspora ... need to speak out forcefully against a policy that is ceding more and more territory to the insurgents.’

Mrs Clinton said the Pakistani government had to deliver basic services to its people or it would find itself losing ground to the Taliban, whose influence had spread in northern Pakistan and had raised concerns about the stability of the country.

‘The government of Pakistan ... must begin to deliver government services, otherwise they are going to lose out to those who show up and claim that they can solve people’s problems and then they will impose this harsh form of oppression on women and others,’ she said. >>> By Dawn’s Correspondent | Thursday, April 23, 2009