A sensible letter...

...in the Guardian, of all places! Following on from the news that some schools won't teach the Holocaust or crusades for fear of offending Muslim pupils, Jeff Bloom of London writes:

It was with little surprise that I read of schools deciding not to teach pupils about the Holocaust for fear of offending anti-semitic Muslim children. I had to remove my son from a primary school because of racist bullying by Muslim children who comprised about half the total. The teachers refused to discuss the problem with me. This despite evidence that children were being taught racist attitudes at home and as part of their religious education.

On a school visit to a synagogue, some Muslim children asked where was the trough the Jews eat out of. The teachers response to these questions was embarrassed laughter. It should be compulsory for all children in the UK to learn about other religions and for schools to openly confront the racist attitudes with which many children are inculcated even by primary school age. Parents of racist children should be threatened with similar punishments to those of truants.

If we let children emerge from full-time education with racist beliefs unquestioned, we cannot be surprised if they go on to commit hate crimes and even become terrorists and suicide bombers.

For a Guardianista to write this, is truly astonishing. Mind you, it is evident from what he says that Mr Bloom has the misfortune to live in a deeply enriched area of London - 50% Muslim pupils! Perhaps this is one Guardianista who has been brought sharply into contact with reality, a prospect that the average Islington or Hampstead type need never fear.

Of course, he forgets that schools are quite happy to confront perceived racist attitudes, so long as the perpetrator is white. Indeed, some teachers willingly get the police involved the moment anything vaguely non-PC occurs. I recall, for example, the case of the white schoolgirl in Manchester who was arrested for complaining to her teacher that only one of the group of five Asians she had been assigned to work with actually spoke English. Or the 10 year old boy taken to court for using abusive language in a playground spat, a move condemned by the judge who heard the case. We can bet that if Mr Bloom's proposal of punishing the parents of racist children were put into effect, any number of white parents would find themselves in court, over all sorts of minor, or groundless, complaints. One doubts, though, that in the present climate many non-whites would end up there, especially not Muslims.

But, of course, one could hardly expect Muslims to be given mere equal treatment. No, they must always receive preferential treatment, to the extent of being allowed to behave as they wish. If they want to bully white pupils, then so be it. If they want to make extreme racist remarks, so be it. If we complain, we're racist. That's just the way this country is these days.