Aangezien ik de weegschaal in evenwicht schijn te moeten houden, en dus niet altijd over rel-Marokjes en enge Muslims zal posten, hier dan een bericht over terecht zielige Moslims die worden gepest!
Muslim abuse 'rising in schools'
Schools have received fresh guidance on dealing with bullying
Teachers have been warned that bullying prompted by Islamophobia is on the rise in schools across the country.
Schools minister Jim Knight reminded teachers, at a conference, of new ways to deal with bullying through the internet and mobile phones.
This includes the right to ban mobile phones from school classrooms.
Chris Keates of the NASUWT teaching union, who hosted the conference in London, said: "Everyone must play their part in banishing bullying."
'Wrecking lives'
She added: "Every day children are tormented and abused by bullies with devastating and often lasting impact on their mental and physical well-being.
"Bullying wrecks lives and more most be done to raise awareness of its prejudiced nature."
Mr Knight said bullies of any kind should not be tolerated.
He added head teachers had the powers and support needed to prevent and tackle the problem but young people also had to contribute to the anti-bullying effort.
Back in March new guidance requiring schools to deal with faith-based bullying was issued by the Department for Education and Skills for the first time.
And in August the government set out new measures to help schools, parents and pupils tackle the issue of "cyber-bullying".
The Anti-Bullying Alliance has identified seven types of cyber-bullying, ranging from abusive text messages, e-mails and phone calls to bullying via internet chatrooms, social networking sites and instant messaging.
A recent study suggested up to one-fifth of pupils have experienced some form of cyber-bullying.
The NASUWT conference comes just before anti-bullying week, which will focus on the role of the bystander.
Pupils will be encouraged to speak out if they witness bullying in their school.
The Department for Education and Skills said new measures to stamp out the problem were likely to be unveiled during anti-bullying week.
Prayers at school 'lead to abuse'
Like all devout Muslims, 14-year-old Yasameen and her sister Sundus, 11, are supposed to pray five times a day.
Most of these prayer sessions fall outside the school day but, with the end of British summertime, one now occurs before home time.
The half-Iraqi girls, through their parents, asked the head teacher at Nottingham's Manning School for Girls for a room which they could use for prayer during their lunch break.
Yasameen and Sundus Al-Ameen
The girls were targeted after praying in the playground
But there was a gap of a few days between the request and when the room could be made available.
So Yasameen and Sundus, and other Muslim students, decided to hold their own prayer session in the playground.
The first day it passed off without a problem - the children knelt and prayed in Arabic and returned to their classes.
But on the second occasion the group of children were abused by some of the other girls in the school.
When one of those praying challenged this she was allegedly assaulted by another pupil.
Someone called her an Iraqi suicide bomber and a gang of eight girls said her father was Saddam Hussein
Mr Al-Ameen
Dr Sanaa Al-Ameen, father of Yasameen and Sundus, said: "The girl who was attacked didn't have very good English and she thought she was committing a crime by praying. She was very confused.
"My daughter stood up for her and went to report the matter to the head teacher."
He also says his elder daughter is one of a number of Muslim girls who are regularly abused because of their faith. She has been spat and sworn at, he says.
"Someone called her an Iraqi suicide bomber and a gang of eight girls said her father was Saddam Hussein," said the Iraqi national, who moved to Britain 30 years ago.
The school says it dealt with this incident of racist language in line with its procedures but Mr Al-Ameen feels it could have done more.
He said: "The heat has been turned up on Muslims. We felt it at 9/11. Now 7/7 has happened it's even worse."
Respect
The school says it is happy to provide its Muslim pupils with a place to pray and has for a number of years given pupils a room to use during Ramadan.
It insists it treats all race-related and religion-related incidents seriously and said those involved were dealt with through the school's restorative justice procedures.
It said in a statement: "The school has always respected the rights of students to religious observance.
"Many students wear a scarf, and the school uniform has been adapted over the years to cater for Muslims from different ethnic backgrounds."
'Scarves off'
The education representative for the Muslim Council of Britain, Tahir Alam, says Islamophobic incidents in schools are on the rise.
He said: "I would be surprised if it wasn't rising because Islamophobia as a societal trend has been rising."
But he also lays responsibility for the increase at the door of head teachers.
He said: "It's all to do with the attitude of the institution because some things are separate and distinct for Muslim children.
"The way requests from Muslim parents for prayer facilities are treated, the attitude of the school towards children who wear the hijab, towards fasting at Ramadan, all have an influence."
Institutional
If the school has a generally negative view of these things, he says, then it filters down to the playground.
He recounts the tale of one school where the cry as pupils, 75% of whom are Muslim, enter the classroom is "Scarves off!".
"If an institution is behaving in that sort of way then if an incident to do with Islamophobia occurs, it's not likely to deal with it properly."
However, Mr Alam says the fact that recent renewed guidance on dealing with bullying now includes an obligation to report faith-related bullying means schools are more likely to tackle it.
A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said there was growing concern that prejudice-related bullying was on the rise.
BBC News.
