MUSLIM leaders have hit back at critics of their north Dublin school, saying claims of extremism made against them are part of a smear campaign against the Islamic community.
The North Dublin Muslim National School Project in Cabra is being monitored by the department of education amid concerns too much time is being allocated to teaching the Koran. Inspectors found the subject was being taught for 45 minutes a day, 15 minutes more than is recommended by the department.
Imam Yahya al-Hussein, the head of the Islamic community in Ireland, said the school was being unfairly targeted by people who did not understand its ethos or the Islamic religion.
“It is a pity that we are being accused of spending too much time teaching the Koran,” he said. “There are claims of religious extremism, which is absolute nonsense.
“The teaching of the Koran is one part of religious education in the school and to focus on that one subject and criticise us for that is unfair.”
Imam al-Hussein, who is also patron of the only two Muslim schools in Ireland — the second is in Clonskeagh, in south Dublin — said pupils had longer days than in other national schools to facilitate religious education classes.
Although the primary curriculum provides for half an hour of religious tuition a day, it does not preclude extra time being allocated.
“Forty-five minutes are allocated to religious education but this is divided into three subjects which are taught on different days of the week. These are the teaching of the Koran, the teaching of Arabic and moral education, which is a learning of the practices in Islam such as fasting,” said Al-Hussein.
He said members of the Islamic community visited the school to teach Arabic and read from the Koran because there were no teachers qualified to instruct in Islam in Ireland.
It is understood that an inspector visited the school three times in the past year.
Last month, the school was told that the visiting inspector had some concerns about the amount of time spent on teaching the Koran.
Shahzad Ahmed, chairman for the board of management, said the school has been damaged by unsubstantiated claims but maintained a good relationship with the department of education. He said several schools in Dublin, including the Muslim school in Clonskeagh, had hired unqualified teaching staff on a temporary basis and that falling numbers were due partly to a number of families moving for employment purposes.
By the start of the new school year last month, pupil numbers had dropped from 185 to 147. Most had moved to the Muslim school in Clonskeagh.
“The department has no problem with the children praying during the school day and children learning Koran,” he said. “You know that Muslims pray five times each day. One of these times occurs during school hours and the children in 4th, 5th and 6th class perform the afternoon prayer with Muslim staff. Do people seriously object to our children praying to God each day during school hours? We find these allegations conducive to spreading further Islamophobia.”
The school was first investigated by the department of education earlier this year after it was contacted by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) last October.
The union told the department that teachers in the school were concerned that Lalarukh Jovindah, the then principal, was not a trained teacher. Other issues raised by staff included problems with securing permanent teaching contracts, a lack of classroom resources, hygiene and ancillary staffing.
John Carr, INTO general secretary, said the union had never received complaints from staff relating to religious teaching in the school or the amount of time allocated to the subject.
Since last month, the school has had a properly qualified principal appointed and all 11 teaching staff now hold relevant qualifications.
A spokesperson for the department of education said: “During the course of the normal inspection process, the inspectorate became aware of a number of issues at this school. The majority of those issues have now been resolved.”