Widespread opposition to Muslim girls school – in the UK.
Usually, we see this kind of headline coming out of Afghanistan. This time, it’s the NIMBYs of Britain – though a new 5,000 student boarding school with a population larger than that of nearby towns was bound to draw significant concern and resistance…
Mr Prentice said: “The scale of what is being proposed is truly staggering. We can only go on press reports, but 5,000 students is a huge number – equivalent to the population of the town of Earby. It would dwarf every one of our secondary schools in Pendle. I want to see young people of all faiths and genders study and mix together as they grow up.”
British National Party councillor Brian Parker said in his letter that the school and an Islamic college proposed for Burnley were not needed.
“Quite apart from anyone’s view on the desirability of having two communities living side by side with little in common and divided by religion, the sheer scale of these proposals make them unsuited to our two towns. Six and a half thousand young women will make up a very significant proportion of the entire population. Over the years, some will doubtless settle and like any other university those over the age of 18 will be entitled to vote, affecting the political make up of the councils and even who will be the MPs. One would like a little more information about the nature of the education intended to be provided by these colleges and why Muslims wish to be educated apart from the rest of us,” he said in a letter jointly signed by John Rowe, the BNP’s prospective Parliamentary candidate in Burnley.
