folio

The third lead story on the BBC News website this afternoon reads, Head quits in Muslim assembly row. The tagline reads, ‘A head teacher resigns after parents complain about her plans to scrap separate assemblies for Muslim children.’

The first paragraph of the article tells us that a ‘Sheffield head teacher has resigned after parents complained about her plans to scrap separate assemblies for Muslim pupils.’

And yet, reading on in the article, there seems to be nothing to substantiate this claim:
Sheffield City Council claimed Mrs Robinson resigned for “personal reasons” not connected to the row. Council leader Paul Scriven told BBC News: “The head teacher resigned for personal issues and she’s made it very clear it’s not related to this particular incident.”

It is apparently more important that the nation learns of this news than of the arrest of a man on suspicion of murder of 15 year old, Paige Chivers, or the appearance of a West Midlands police officer in court charged in connection with the murder of 19 year old Amy Leigh Barnes.

But of course it is more important. Muslims Against Shariah and Women Against Shariah published their article about it in the early hours of the morning. The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times, The Mirror, The Sun, Metro and Daily Mail have all reported on it. Indeed The Telegraph has wasted no time in publishing two separate commentaries on the matter: Muslim parents should accept the law of the land and Another Muslim ghetto takes shape as head teacher is ‘forced out’ for opposing Islamic assemblies. Naturally the comment threads are filling up nicely now as well.

It’s strange. Am I really the only one who wants to know what the facts actually are before lamenting Muslim ghettos and all that? Or am I just being a party-pooper on the twentieth anniversary of the Salmon Rushdie affair? We can’t go around being reasonable when there’s so much at stake. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.