I have always been extremely concerned at indoctrination of children. To seed young, impressionable minds with faith ideas at an early age, prior to them being able to reason, I consider to be an abuse.
I can see why the religious are keen on the idea. They know that if they can instil those ideas into a child’s head at an early stage they will have hooked them for life. They will have been psychologically impregnated with religion. They will never be able to remove it. It becomes hard-wired.
Most people see nothing wrong with this. They think of religion as benign, even beneficial; it instils moral values.
I believe it is much more sinister than that.
It is only with the rise of fundamentalism that people are waking up to the harm. We are seeing young children being drilled in religious doctrine, learning tracts by rote, and being taught not to question the whole doctrine. Some of these children are now going on to become fundamentalists and extremists. And we are surprised!
I am a multiculturalist. I believe we should respect other cultures and customs. But that does not mean that those cultures should displace British culture. I see them as an enriching and peripheral experience. I believe that people should become integrated into British culture if they chose to live here.
I am concerned when I find enclaves developing in Britain where people are recreating the culture of their ‘home’ country and making no attempt to integrate. That is not enriching for either party.
I believe that adults should be free to practice whatever religious/spiritual practices they desire. But they should not inflict these superstitions on children.
For these reasons I am opposed to all religious schools on principle. I do not believe they should be legal at all, let alone encouraged and resourced from the state.
My reasons are simple:
- We should integrate into British culture and not live in enclaves.
- We should never indoctrinate children.
Religious schools create separate cultures, prevent integration, prevent the assimilation of British culture and values, and facilitate the indoctrination of children which I consider to be child abuse.
I would also shut down Sunday Schools, Madrassas and other religious indoctrination programmes.