Muslim Parents Withdraw Children from UK School over Promotion of Homosexuality

TEHRAN (defapress) – An estimated 600 Muslim children have been withdrawn from a UK school in protest against lessons about homosexuality and gender equality, a report said.

News ID: 75972

Date: 04 March 2019 - 13:00

The pupils, aged between 4 and 11, are being kept home from Parkfield Community School in Birmingham to protest the school's 'No Outsiders' program, which teaches children about LGBT lifestyles, the Daily Mail reported.

The children involved in the mass exodus represent about 80 percent of the school's entire enrolment.

The Alum Community Rock Forum said the pupils were pulled out of the classroom because the school was 'undermining parental rights and aggressively promoting homosexuality'.

'Dialogue, petitioning and protests by parents have been repeated and arrogantly ignored,' the forum said.

'Our children, our choice - work with parents not against them.'

Friday's action comes after weekly demonstrations against the school's program, including one that was attended by 300 parents and children last month.

Some Muslim demonstrators said they would rather leave the UK than allow their children to continue attending Parkfield Community School.

Some joined in with the chants and held placards reading: 'Education not indoctrination.'

One child carried a handwritten sign which said: 'Let kids be kids.'

Parents' anger is aimed at the school's assistant head Andrew Moffat, who is behind the No Outsiders lessons.

He created the scheme to teach children about the Equality Act and British values.

Pupils at the school – rated outstanding by Ofsted – have five of these lessons a year, covering areas outlined in the Act: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

The program was first piloted at the school in 2014 and is now also taught at dozens of other schools in the country.

Moffat, who is in a civil partnership, was made an MBE for services to equality and diversity in education in 2017.

He is currently shortlisted for a 'world's best teacher' award.

He resigned from a previous teaching post at another school after a row with Christian parents over lessons challenging homophobia – and is now facing even more vocal complaints from parents at Parkfield, where 98 percent of the 750 pupils are said to be from an Islamic background.

Mariam Ahmed, whose four-year-old daughter attends the school, organized a petition against the No Outsiders project.

She said, 'What they are teaching is not right, they are too young. There are nine parts of the Act and they only seem to be focusing on one, homosexuality, and that is wrong. They need to have an ethos which reflects the area.

'It's not just because we are Muslims, there are Christians here too. We don't have a vendetta against homosexuals and we respect the Act.

One father at the school, whose six-year-old daughter attends the school, said his wife wanted to leave the country rather than let her daughter attend the lessons.

The man, who did not want to be named, said, 'My daughter has been asking questions my wife did not know how to answer.

'She is too young for this. A family who live near me have already returned to Pakistan because of it.'

Some of the parents said Islam did not accept homosexuality, while others said they were not against it, but accused the teacher of promoting 'personal beliefs'.

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