EXCLUSIVE: Shocking EDL plan to subvert children's education uncovered

The far-right organisation has drawn up a letter for members to send to their child’s headteacher demanding the pupil not be taught “anything about Islam”.

The rambling 700-word letter claims Islam does not promote understanding, tolerance and morality and promotes spousal abuse and violence.

Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for Children’s Services Councillor Simon Hackett is furious the EDL is using children’s education to promote their anti-Islam agenda.

He said: “This is disgraceful and the last thing we need in Sandwell is a racist organisation trying to influence what happens in our classrooms. We pride ourselves on having a mix of diverse communities and we promote tolerance of each other’s religions and customs.

"This is a blatant attempt by the EDL to divide children in classrooms at an early age along The inflammatory letter purports the sender to be a“pragmatic agnostic” who can “quote passages from the Quran” and ends with a demand that the child be removed from religious classes.

Halesowen and Rowley Regis MP James Morris slammed the letter and branded the EDL “twisted”.

He said: “The solution to extremism and intolerance cannot be to encourage greater ignorance and lack of understanding.

“We are lucky to have so many faith groups from all the major religions making an active and positive contribution to our area.

“Our communities are much stronger if children understand the beliefs at the heart of mainstream faiths, rather than the distorted version put forward by some fundamentalists and groups like the EDL for their own twisted ends.”

The letter states: “We do not object, despite our views and beliefs as pragmatic agnostics, to our child being taught any religion except Islam, should Islam be the subject of the lesson we would like for them to be removed from the class and to take no part.”

The letter was posted on the EDL West Midlands Division Facebook page and several parents, including those with children in Sandwell, lauded the letter with some promising to send it to their child’s respective school.

The letter in full:

A Letter to the school to exclude your child from learning or visiting Mosques/islamic studies...............................................................

To the Headteacher of .........................................................................

We are sending this letter to you as we wish for our child, ........................... of Class ........................ to no longer be taught anything in relation to the Islam religion. We have many reasons for this, which we will list below including viable alternatives we are happy for them to be taught.

The main reason for our decision is we are a family of pragmatic agnostics, or the view that there is no proof of either the existence or nonexistence of any deity, but since any deity that may exist appears unconcerned for the universe or the welfare of its inhabitants, the question is largely pointless. The teaching of any religion is in direct conflict with our views, however as we live in a Christian country we do lean more towards theism than atheism and participate in religious events such as Christmas and Easter, and as Christianity is strongly linked to the culture of Britain we as proud nationals do not object to our child being taught the importance of these. It is for these same reasons we are not happy with our child being taught "one other world faith", however we have been happy to accept the benefits to our child in terms of developing understanding, tolerance and morality.

We are of the opinion that the Islam religion does not teach understanding, does not teach tolerance and does not teach morality and therefore is not something we want our child to be studying, in any capacity. Islam does not teach understanding when the Quran has at least 3 dozen verses telling Muslims to fight against non-Muslims and about 500 that speak of their place in Hell. An example of this would be Quran (22:19-21) - "But as for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them; boiling fluid will be poured down on their heads; Whereby that which is in their bellies, and their skins too, will be melted; And for them are hooked rods of iron" or even Quran (4:56) - "Those who disbelieve Our revelations, We shall expose them to the Fire. As often as their skins are consumed We shall exchange them for fresh skins that they may taste the torment Lo! Allah is ever Mighty, Wise". This isnt teaching understanding. I could also quote passages from within the Quran that actually encourage spousal abuse, or to kill homosexuals, needless to say they are not very tolerant and in some cases highly offensive.

There are roughly 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of around 270 large religious groups and none of those concern us as parents more than Islam, especially when its verses are apparantly so open to interpretation that British Forces personnel get beheaded on the streets of Britain in the name of this religion. It is our opinion that our values, culture and heritage are being slowly eroded by needlessly going over the top to accomodate Islam for fear of being called racist should you dare question it, and we now intend to stop it at source at least where our family is concerned. Needless to say some uneducated people will view our opinions and beliefs as racist, maybe our children could be taught the difference between an ideology and a race, as speaking against it is not racist in the same way speaking against Scientology is not racist. In summary, we would rather our child be taught any of these other world religions over Islam, and these are our instructions to you.

The National Curriculum clearly states Religious Studies is not compulsory to be taken by a pupil, it is only compulsory for yourselves (as a school) to provide Religious Studies. The decision on whether a child participates in these lessons is down to the parents. This is because you cannot force someone to study a faith they do not believe in or that may contradict with their own faith, and as Islam does both of these we are no longer willing to accept it being taught to our child.

So to offer final clarity on this point we do not object, despite our views and beliefs as pragmatic agnostics, to our child being taught any religion except Islam, should Islam be the subject of the lesson we would like for them to be removed from the class and to take no part.