Re: Why is Cambridge platforming Islamic creationism?

On Aug 17, 2026 at 10:33:36 AM EDT, "Julian" <[email protected]> wrote:

> On 17/08/2026 15:29, Tara wrote:
>> On Aug 17, 2026 at 9:43:08 AM EDT, "Julian" <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 17/08/2026 14:30, Tara wrote:
>>>> Julian <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>> An academic project hosted by Cambridge University platforms
>>>>> creationism, the belief that the world was created by God in seven days.
>>>>> It promotes an academic paper demanding that schoolchildren be taught to
>>>>> “actively resist” the science of evolution.
>>>>> 
>>>>> At Charles Darwin’s old university, where a college is named after him,
>>>>> Darwin’s discovery is now described by one Cambridge researcher as an
>>>>> example of “potential challenges posed by Eurocentric monoculture.”
>>>>> 
>>>>> It is the latest sign of fundamental problems at Cambridge’s education
>>>>> faculty, the same department which hired Jason Arday.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The project which platforms the creationist claims, the Islamic Educator
>>>>> Learning Community (IELC), is led by Cambridge’s assistant research
>>>>> professor of education, Farah Ahmed, a former activist in the since
>>>>> banned terror group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Ahmed’s extraordinary CV, and her
>>>>> long record of grossly bigoted, extremist and separatist views, were
>>>>> revealed by a 2002 pamphlet exposed by The Spectator on Tuesday.
>>>>> 
>>>>> IELC is “hosted by” and “partners with” a university body called the
>>>>> Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange, Camtree. Camtree is a project of
>>>>> Hughes Hall, the Cambridge University college where Ahmed is a governing
>>>>> fellow. Ahmed is also an “affiliate” of Camtree.
>>>>> 
>>>>> IELC publishes on its website, with a Camtree address, a paper on
>>>>> “Islamic scientific critical consciousness” which asks: “Does the common
>>>>> modern biological assumption that humans have common ancestry with other
>>>>> life forms conflict with [Islamic] religious beliefs about God creating
>>>>> Adam and Eve?”
>>>>> 
>>>>> The author of this paper, Usama Javed Mirza, was at the time a
>>>>> researcher at Cambridge University’s faculty of education and at Ahmed’s
>>>>> IELC. He still is, according to his LinkedIn entry.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The paper says that “countering colonial hegemony in science education
>>>>> for Muslims” could include “identifying gaps in fossil records to make
>>>>> the case that the evidence of humans descending from apes is inconclusive.”
>>>>> 
>>>>> It adds that “fitna” (trial or temptation) “may occur, for example, when
>>>>> a Muslim student in the science classroom begins to believe that humans
>>>>> emerged on Earth without any role played by the Creator.”
>>>>> 
>>>>> It says that fitna “boil[s] down to two beliefs being inculcated in
>>>>> students that are problematic from an Islamic standpoint,” namely that
>>>>> “the meaning of existence is socially constructed as an evolutionary
>>>>> response. There is no afterlife or soul; and the universe exists by
>>>>> chance, and runs according to mindless laws of physics…. To counter
>>>>> these hegemonic ideas, it is not enough just to intellectually dispel
>>>>> them. Rather… it is necessary to also instil within students a capacity
>>>>> to actively resist the influence of this monoculture.”
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Tuesday, in the wake of the Jason Arday scandal, The Spectator
>>>>> revealed that Ahmed had been given the prestigious assistant
>>>>> professorship. We noted that in a 2002 pamphlet, republished in 2017,
>>>>> she attacked ‘western education’ as a ‘threat’ to Muslims, condemned
>>>>> democracy and integration, and criticised British schools for teaching
>>>>> that child marriage is wrong. Like the paper’s author, Mirza, Ahmed has
>>>>> also said that modern science is a problem, because in the “teaching of
>>>>> evolution, Muslim children will be exposed to ideas that contradict
>>>>> Islam.” She said in 2010 that she was no longer a member of Hizb
>>>>> ut-Tahrir and did not agree with “all” its views.
>>>>> 
>>>>> After that story created a storm, the education faculty took decisive
>>>>> action. It removed the names of all its staff from its website,
>>>>> presumably to stop anyone who doesn’t know about web archive tools
>>>>> checking to see if they’ve hired any more wrong’uns (spoiler alert: they
>>>>> have.)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Other action has been less forthcoming. The faculty clearly hopes to
>>>>> ride this one out, issuing a statement that it is “committed to academic
>>>>> freedom and freedom of speech within the law.” Well, we must reluctantly
>>>>> agree that Ahmed – benefiting from the democracy she condemns – should
>>>>> have the freedom to say that English is “one of the most damaging
>>>>> subjects” a school can teach, or (while teaching at Cambridge) write
>>>>> that Muslim students shouldn’t have to worry about “gaining literacy and
>>>>> numeracy and other disciplinary skills demonstrated through qualifications.”
>>>>> 
>>>>> But that’s quite different from believing that Cambridge University
>>>>> should fund her to promote her ideas to the future leaders of the country.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Still more indisputable is that a university subject, even one as
>>>>> debased as Education at Cambridge, should not promote baseless,
>>>>> anti-scientific twaddle in the name of academic research.
>>>>> 
>>>>> But it does.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Andrew Gilligan
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> I seem to be living in a perpetual “I don’t believe this is happening!” or
>>>> “this just can’t be true” mode.
>>>> Alas…
>>> Behold the fruits of a decades long ideological subversion campaign.
>>> It's the old, tried and tested, divide and rule.
>>> "If you can't beat them by force set them against each other."
>> 
>> age old tactic.
>> We should know better by now, recognize it and stop it before it grows into a
>> monster.
> 
> I'm trying. It's my hobby.  :)

me too.  :)