Dear Mr Bell

David Bell, the British school chief inspector, caused an uproar when he singled out Muslim schools for failing to promote tolerance and harmony to kids. According to him, these Muslim schools do not properly educate Muslim children about citizenship, thus making the kids unprepared to tolerate diversity. As expected, Muslim leaders went amok and accused Mr Bell of Islamophobia. But surely, as chief inspector of schools, David Bell knows best. There must be elements of truth in what he said, otherwise he would not have said what he said. Wait for it…. The Office of Standards for Education (Ofsted) inspected 50 Muslim schools and found that 18 of them failed to teach students to appreciate diversity and tolerance. The failure rate is 36%. Ofsted also inspected 40 evangelical Christian schools and found that 17 of them failed as well. That is a 42.5% failure rate. The evangelical Christian schools are even worse. Add to that the fact that a vast majority of Muslim parents actually send their children to secular state school as well as Roman Catholic and Church of England schools. Only 3% of Muslim children go to private Muslim schools. Hence, only 36% of the schools that take this 3% are actually failing. The failure rate is miniscule. And try looking at any parts of the UK where BNP candidates got elected as local councillors. Well, I supposed since the BNP is pretty intolerant of diversity, the people who voted them in must have been educated in Muslim schools. Right, Mr Bell? Perhaps even the BNP was set up by a bunch of intolerant thugs who all graduated from Muslim schools too. Now Mr Bell, can you tell me who has been properly educated about tolerance and who hasn’t? And why did you forget to mention the actual statistics produced by your own department? Why were the Muslim schools singled out when the long-established British education system you promote have succesfully produced people like BNP leader Nick Griffin, and the Swastika bearer Prince Harry? Islamophobia?