Elite UK Schools in the Middle East Have Started Offering Lessons... on Wife-Beating
By Ward ClarkBritain's prestigious Harrow School used to be quite the institution, a school for Britain's up-and-coming youths; Sir Winston Churchill is among their distinguished former students. And, one would think that the previously staid and stolid British traditions would continue in such a school, even as it seeks to open branches in other countries. Now, we might question the wisdom of a British school opening branches in the Middle East; I know I would.
But when the British schools cave to Islam to the point where Sir Winston's alma mater is giving lessons on wife-beating, that's several steps too far.
The Telegraph has spent months investigating what children are being taught in the UK’s top private schools operating in the Middle East. Textbooks reveal that, despite the quintessential Britishness they peddle, many of these schools have been teaching pupils how to deal with “rebellious” wives.
Headings in one include: “First: good counselling”, “Second: refusing bed-sharing” and “Third stage: beating lightly”. The book tells pupils that the last step refers to “beating for the purpose of remediation”.
It says: “Its objective is to safeguard marital life against breakdown and maintain companionship and social intimacy. A husband is not allowed to hit his wife using a whip or stick or in her face. He is to use a siwak (small teeth cleaning twig) or a light handkerchief.”
Yeah, that doesn't make it any better. We should note, in all fairness, that these lessons aren't being taught to British students, but only to local, Muslim attendees. Again, that doesn't make it any better.
The spousal abuse and subjugation lessons don't end there:
The chapter includes an exercise asking children to “explain why Islam made divorce the right of the husband alone” and includes as an example: “Because he is more patient and tolerant.”
Peaceful and tolerant? Seriously? The UAE is supposedly one of the more "moderate" majority Muslim nations, but it's also a nation that imprisons gay people, and where a woman can't marry unless her male guardian consents; and it's a safe bet that in a lot of those cases, the male guardian has selected the woman's new husband. Most of the Middle East is horrendously backward where elementary human rights are concerned, and the UAE is no exception.
So, why are these schools doing this? The reason, well, it probably won't shock you: Money.
Britain’s top boarding schools have kept all this quiet as they expand abroad rapidly in an attempt to make money from wealthy expats. A legal loophole means the schools can send the profits they make through their overseas campuses back to the UK tax-free as Gift Aid.
Analysis by The Telegraph shows British private schools have funnelled almost £79m back to the UK this way over the past two years, much of it from their revenues in the Middle East.
There's no reason, of course, why a prestigious British school shouldn't seek to provide an education to British expats living overseas. A better solution may be to return Britain to the days when it was America, Original Recipe, so that the wealthy and productive Brits wouldn't seek greener pastures, although it's a bit of a head-scratcher why these people would head to the Middle East; there are few places with pastures less green.
But why kowtow to odious, barbaric teachings like this? Could this have been a condition of the schools being allowed to operate there? It seems so; in the UAE, no portraits of British leaders are allowed in this British school, only the photo of the Emir may be displayed. It's the same in Saudi Arabia, which permits no portraits of anyone but the Crown Prince; no matter how British the school, you won't find anyone calling out, "God save the king!"
Whatever their reason, these British institutions are badly damaging their reputations by engaging in this deal with the devil. Sir Winston must be spinning in his grave to the point where it's amazing that the Earth's orbit hasn't shifted from the resulting gyroscopic forces.
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