What happens when the LGBT community collides with the Muslim community in the UK? We get protests, accusations of homophobia, retorts of just wanting to maintain traditional religious values, both sides feeling like the “victims,” and, in the end, a series of LGBT rights and equality classes cancelled at schools in Birmingham’s Parkfield Community School district. It’s like a leftist circular firing squad, where each group tries to out-victim the other. Whoever is more “oppressed” wins!
The Muslim schools did not want the LGBT lessons.
So they were cancelled.
Perhaps Birmingham Live sums it up best:
A group of angry mums have launched a protest and petition against their school for introducing a curriculum supporting homosexuality.
Andrew Moffat MBE, assistant headteacher at Parkfield Community School in Saltley, has been criticised by parents for piloting No Outsiders – a programme run alongside sex and relationship education (SRE) lessons.
Its ethos promotes LGBT equality and challenges homophobia in primary schools.
Books now being read by pupils at Parkfield Community School include Mommy, Mama and Me and King & King – stories about same-sex relationships and marriages.
But Mr Moffat and the No Outsiders programme have come under fire from some Muslim parents who condemn such teachings, as homosexuality is strictly forbidden in Islam.
But outraged mum Fatima Shah, who has taken her 10-year-old daughter out of the school, told BirminghamLive : “It’s inappropriate, totally wrong.
“Children are being told it’s OK to be gay yet 98 per cent of children at this school are Muslim. It’s a Muslim community.
Four more schools have joined in and will no longer carry the LGBT content.
The program was meant to combat homophobia. The Muslim parents don’t care.
Four more schools in Birmingham have stopped teaching about LGBT rights following complaints by parents.
Leigh Trust said it was suspending the No Outsiders programme until an agreement with parents was reached.
Earlier this month the city’s Parkfield Community School suspended the lessons after protests were held.
Campaigner Amir Ahmed said some Muslims felt “victimised” but an LGBT group leader said No Outsiders helped pupils understand it is OK to be different.
In a letter seen by the BBC, Leigh Trust said it was halting the lessons until after Ramadan, which finishes in June.
The schools involved are Leigh Primary School, Alston Primary School, Marlborough Junior and Infants School and Wyndcliff Primary School.
Leigh Trust – which is yet to comment publicly – said it wanted to discuss the programme with parents to find “a positive way” of teaching about the Equalities Act.
Some parents at Parkfield, and the other four schools, claim the classes are inappropriate for young children and the schools’ LGBT message contradicts Islam.
The No Outsiders project was created and piloted at Parkfield in 2014 by assistant head teacher Andrew Moffat, who was made an MBE for services to equality and diversity in education in 2017.
Ofsted has deemed the lessons as “age-appropriate”.
Mr Ahmed, one of the leaders of the Parkfield protests, said he had seen a presentation about the programme that was to be shown to the government as part of the school’s Prevent strategy – which is aimed at reducing radicalisation.
Mr Ahmed said his community was “respectful and tolerant” of British values but now felt victimised.
He claimed parents who had protested were “effectively seen as homophobes in the wider community”.
“Fundamentally the issue we have with No Outsiders is that it is changing our children’s moral position on family values on sexuality and we are a traditional community.
“Morally we do not accept homosexuality as a valid sexual relationship to have. It’s not about being homophobic… that’s like saying, if you don’t believe in Islam, you’re Islamophobic.”
Yes, apparently this program is “age appropriate” for infant and primary school students.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjSi8LAYpO4
Since early February parents have been demonstrating outside Parkfield Community School in Birmingham because their children, aged between four and 11, have been receiving lessons about same-sex relationships. The “No Outsiders” classes, pioneered by Parkfield’s assistant head, Andrew Moffatt, are offered for use in schools, libraries and parent-teacher groups across England, and cover topics grouped under buzzwords like equality and diversity.
Things came to a head on March 1st when hundreds of children were kept away from Parkfield in protest. Mr Moffatt, who has received a medal from the queen for his work, came in for a barrage of threatening messages, some implying that the teacher, who is gay, has been using pupils as guinea pigs in an unwanted social experiment.
Parkfield was backed by Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, whose boss said it was vital for children to be aware of “families that have two mummies or two daddies”. But on March 4th the school seemed to be backing down. Parents received a letter saying No Outsiders lessons would not be taught for the rest of the term, and promising consultations over future lessons. The school’s bosses maintained they had never intended to hold the controversial classes between now and the Easter holidays. The head of the trust which runs the school, Hazel Pulley, insisted that the lessons would resume in the summer term.
The row has split the Labour Party that dominates the city’s politics. Shabana Mahmood, the MP for Birmingham Ladywood, urged the authorities to understand the parents’ position. It was “all about the age-appropriateness of conversations with young children in the context of religious backgrounds”, she said. Fellow Labour activists denounced her defence of “bigotry”.
Someone, somewhere, is bound to blame Trump for this.
