In recent days there has emerged an online campaign to petition against the possibility of a Muslim school opening on Lake road sometime in the future. A cursory glance at the signatories shows this is clearly being supported by Portsmouth EDL. It also references Lee Rigby, so it raises questions about the politics of the petitions author.They are busily telling people that this is all happening behind closed doors at Portsmouth City Council, however the main decision over the school will be made in London. It is not applying for status as a Local Education Authority School and therefore the councils input will be over practical considerations like traffic etc rather than approving it as an education establishment.This process will take a long time and will be decided by The Dept for Education and inevitably by Michael Gove.
The reality is that this will be a private School and will be either an Academy School or a "Free" school.There are many who don't approve of Academies or private schools, but that is not the issue here.
There are many who don't approve of religious education and there are legitimate campaigns to oppose it.Richard Dawkins and others campaign against
all religious schools.
However this is not a campaign against religious schools ,but against a
Muslim school.The comments on the petition make that horribly clear.
This is a part of an ongoing campaign targeting Muslim Schoolkids.There has been the stock letter that has been circulated on EDL sites to send to schools to isolate Muslim children from others.
Link
They also tried to make an issue out of the recent Daily Mail story of children believing they were not allowed to drink water during Ramadan. This story has been dealt with
here.
There is a long tradition on the far right for targeting children of a different culture in schools. The National Front did it in the seventies and the BNP were leafleting schools in North Portsmouth 3 years ago.
Whether the school is granted permission or not its application will be processed exactly the same way as any other faith or secular school..
They are now declaring that they think such a school would be divisive .
Fostering divisions is what the EDL are all about.
A short video of the EDL last week in Birmingham chanting " Allah, Allah, who the F**k is Allah?" and "Allah is a Paedo."
Not exactly the bastions of multicultural integration are they?
There have already been threats to hurl a pigs head onto the proposed school site and the police have had to go down there to attend incidents.
I haven't seen them campaigning against C of E schools, have you ?
The reality is that Portsmouth is not just a multicultural City, but a
successful multicultural City. There are racism problems in Portsmouth but they are less worrying than in many other Cities of the same size.
Religious schools may be regarded as divisive, but so long as we have them, parents have the right to have them for their own faith needs and those of their children.If they are there for Christians they have to be there for Muslims.
Note to the EDL : referring to Islam as foreign and Christianity as British is a little stupid. Jesus Christ and his disciples did not emanate from the Home Counties.
After all they are both Middle Eastern Religions.
Sadly the campaign by the EDL is not just a petition campaign.
There have been demonstrations held bt the EDL in other towns frequently over planning issues.Usually over Mosque or school extensions. Although the permission for this school has practically nothing to do with PCC this will not stop them.
They have so far not informed the police or the council that they intend to hold a protest down here.
However,it has come to our attention that Sussex EDL have posted remarks that there is to be an EDL protest down here soon, over the proposed plan for a Muslim Girls school.Apparently there has also been a posting on a South London EDL post.Those are the ones we know about.
Having accepted they have virtually no support down here they are arranging to have support parachuted in.
There is therefore the prospect of unruly scenes occurring ,similar to the disgraceful scenes that occurred outside the Jami Mosque some time ago .
In the event of a protest Portsmouth UAF will mobilise to oppose them.
This is possibly going to be in the next 3-4 weeks.
However,the last time was a flash mob protest and we had very little time to organise.
We may have to contact people at very short notice.
Please get this out there.
We therefore appeal to people to contact Portsmouth UAF if you wish to turn out to oppose the EDLs bigotry.
It is important that the EDLs hate is opposed by the local community.
Please contact us so we can contact you via:
Portsmouthuaf@gmail.com
07954218281
All that is necessary for evil to prevail is that good people do nothing.