Tuesday 12 January 2016

Fun Online Polls: Dry January & Moving exams for Ramadan

The responses to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

How will you respond to the new drinking guidelines? (choose all that apply)

Selection
I will reduce my consumption to 3 units a day - 3 votes
I will go without alcohol for 2 days a week - 1 vote
I will go without alcohol for the whole of 'Dry January' - 2 votes
I will ignore the new guidelines completely, they are a load of nonsense - 182 votes

Good. I was with the majority on this. And an excellent turnout, thank you to everybody who took part.
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Moving from one bit of creeping Islamification of this once great nation to another…

Pupils taking GCSEs and A-levels face timetable shake-up to accommodate fasting Muslims

Personally, I am absolutely appalled by this on so many levels. I'm an atheist, I'm a default Christian, I'm a Westerner and a democrat etc.

I believe in education and what underpins it, i.e. routine. Ramadan moves forward by eleven days, so if they bring it forward each year for two years, in the third year the whole academic timetable will have to be pushed back by a month so that exams fall after Ramadan etc. FFS, if people want to do this stuff, then there are plenty of other countries where they can go and do it, there is no need for the UK government to muck up the lives of our own children.

And as a more rational Muslim (to the extent there is such a thing) wrote in yesterday's Evening Standard letters:

When we fast, we give up our natural right to eat [in order] to worship God and ingrain a sense of sacrifice. This is well understood in many Muslim countries, such as my grandparents' native Pakistan, where exams continue as normal during Ramadan.

The spirit of Ramadan is to tolerate our normal routine while sacrificing our right to eat. yet here, instead of sacrifice, we find Muslims being afforded extra rights to make their lives easier.

While the intention of the exam boards is admirable, in this case I don't think it's necessary - especially as Muslim children shouldn't be fasting until they are older anyway.

Syed Ahmed


So that's this week's (slightly belated) Fun Online Poll.

Changing the exam timetable to accommodate Ramadan: what do you think?

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

11 comments:

Stewart Cowan said...

"I'm an atheist, I'm a default Christian..."

No you're not: you're a humanist; a materialist. It is due to the decline in Christianity that other systems are taking over, primarily hedonistic, humanistic, atheistic consumerism: the instant gratification and moral relativism which has eroded the values most people had.

If the Muslims still hang onto their faith, hopeless as it is, they are united against a fragmented remainder of society which once had direction and purpose.

And people keep insisting on reappointing the political parties that have destroyed our culture and have allowed unfettered immigration. Blame yourselves!

Mark Wadsworth said...

SC, congrats! That was the most po-faced, judgmental and ill-informed comment on this blog of the year so far!

Antisthenes said...

"Changing the exam timetable to accommodate Ramadan"

Certainly not there is nothing that this country should do to accommodate Islam or any other alien practice that is counter to our way of life, standards or values. "It is our gaff so our rules" to quote who regrettably I know not. I am furiously opposed to a multicultural society but am very happy to embrace a multiracial one. Progressives are idiotic enough not to know that the former is leading to disharmony and probably at some point to serious conflict.The latter as past history proves works well the interlopers live and work within the rules of the indigenous people and both sides prosper by incorporating the best of each others cultures.

Stewart Cowan said...

MW - Don't say such stupid things in blog posts then throw your toys out of the pram when you are given a truthful answer.

Thanking you in advance for writing sense in future...

Take care. :)

http://www.truth.org.uk

Random said...

"primarily hedonistic, humanistic, atheistic consumerism: the instant gratification and moral relativism which has eroded the values most people had."

So 1950s 'moral values' were perfect in every way.

And what's wrong with that, as long they are not harming others. I have little use for people who try to push folk around and tell them what to do.

The idea is just wrong. Most people are carefree and cheerful when they are children and many deep down would like to go back to that.

"And people keep insisting on reappointing the political parties that have destroyed our culture and have allowed unfettered immigration. "

OK, give me some examples of "destruction" of British culture.

Mark Wadsworth said...

R, they were just as materialistic in the 1950s, they all wanted fridges and cars and television sets and so on, and bought them on HP.

As to "moral relativism" I have no idea what that means, but whether you are dealing with Muslim or Christian fundamentalists, they all talk the same gibberish.

Stewart Cowan said...

I don't know why I'm wasting my time, but anyone who says "I'm an atheist, I'm a default Christian" would seem to be an expert in 'gibberish'.

So, what is your definition of "Christian fundamentalists?"

"Default Christians" who aren't atheists?

Why should you care if the school year is modified? At the moment, the school terms stop at the Pagan festivals of Christmas and Easter, but I don't hear you complaining about the Pagans taking over.

Bayard said...

I did a little research into this a few days ago. Unsurprisingly it is a froth whipped up from nothing by the press. When setting exams, the exam boards do their best to avoid clashes so that no-one is faced with wanting to take two paers at the same time. They also try to avoid public holidays etc. Given that they have a bit of leeway on when exactly each exam is sat, they thought that this year, they would try and avoid the beginning of Ramadan as it came right at the end of the exam window. They did this without consulting any Muslims. Needless to say the press got hold of this and turned it into yet more of the relentless barrage of overt and covert islamophobia that we are bombarded with daily.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, OK, do you have links for any of that?

Bayard said...

Well, when I say "I did some research", what I really meant was that I was party to a multi-person argument on the subject where someone else did the googling and I looked at the results, so I can't really give you chapter and verse, but googling "exam board" and "ramadan" should yield the same result.

DBC Reed said...

You are ignoring the possibility that a lot of Muslims coming over here would quite like to be free from the restraints of a pre-modern, pre-capitalist and pre-socialist religion, the same way that British people pushed off the land and into industrialised towns in the nineteenth centuries thought"At least I won't have to got to Church anymore" and deserted the churches in droves while sticking to a humane belief system.