Site icon CultureWatch

Punchbowl High and Creeping Sharia

Many of you would have heard by now that we have some real problems at a NSW high school. Punchbowl Boys High School in Sydney’s southwest has been in the news quite a bit of late. It especially involves its principal Chris Griffiths, who converted to Islam in 2014, but was recently sacked by the NSW Education Department.

Even though he is now gone, the horror stories from this school keep on coming. Let me look at the various concerns raised both before and after his firing, by bringing together here various news reports. My first one – from March 3 – reports on why the sacking took place:

A Sydney high school principal and his deputy have been sacked after female teachers were excluded from school events…. The Education Department removed both men from their positions after several female teachers reported they were discriminated against. Some of those female teachers were furious with the decision to exclude them from taking official roles at a Year 12 graduation and awards presentation.
“Decisive action has been taken by the department to change the leadership team at the school,” Education Minister Rob Stokes said in a statement. “A new principal with great experience has been appointed, effective immediately.” According to the complaint, the award ceremony exclusion was just one of a number of issues at the school, which has predominantly Muslim students.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/34558100/principal-deputy-sacked-after-excluding-female-staff-members-at-punchbowl-boys-high-school/#page1

Another news item from the same day made even more alarming allegations:

Islamic students at a Sydney public school threatened to behead non-Muslim staff and declared themselves ISIS sympathisers, staff alleged. Police feared students at Punchbowl Boys High School were being radicalised after principal Chris Griffiths did not cooperate with a de-radicalisation program.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4280164/Muslim-boys-threatened-behead-staff-Sydney-school.html

And this article from March 7 offers some follow-up to this:

A NSW Education Department boss has admitted things had “gone off the rails” at Punchbowl Boys High where a newly converted Muslim school principal refused to run a deradicalisation program.
Controversial principal Chris Griffiths and his deputy Joumana Dennaoui have been stood down following serious concerns he was planning to only allow Muslim students into the school after he recently converted to the faith.
Mr Griffiths is at the centre of a series of allegations he alienated non-Muslim teachers — including senior female teaching staff — and excluded them from key school events.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/muslimconverted-exprincipal-of-punchbowl-high-school-was-off-the-rails-says-education-department/news-story/06c0aef9593a48f185279b95ab7675c5?nk=6f6487c5bb4780072efd199ab0f4bc95-1489214417

A March 8 article notes how a radical Islamist group has condemned the decision:

The removal of the principal and deputy of a Sydney high school after a refusal to co-operate with an anti-radicalisation campaign is an “extremely worrying development”, according to controversial Muslim organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/islamic-group-backs-sacked-punchbowl-boys-high-principal/news-story/0a0469cb64af7813c4d0daa0d2fc8f31

The new principal has already been threatened according to this March 9 piece:

A newly appointed principal at a western Sydney high school has faced threats amid community anger over the Education Department’s decision to remove former principal Chris Griffiths. Education Department secretary Mark Scott confirmed a threat had been made against the recently instated principal of Punchbowl Boys High School, Robert Patruno.
Mr Patruno, who most recently headed the education unit inside Reiby Juvenile Justice Centre, was encouraged by the department to report the threat to police, Mr Scott told Ray Hadley on 2GB. “It’s appalling… and it’s disturbing, and that’s why we encouraged the principal to brief the police on it,” he said.
A 19- or 20-year-old man – not a student at the school – reportedly told Mr Patruno: “We’re going to get you, we’re going to f*** you up you, dog, f*** you”.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-09/threats-made-against-new-punchbowl-high-school-principal/8339556

This piece from March 10 offers more on how bad things were getting there:

High-school students are being pressured to attend daily prayer meetings, lectures on the Koran and even cut their hair by peers badgering them to conform to Islam, according to ‘scared’ parents at Punchbowl Boys High School. The Punchbowl high school in Western Sydney has been identified as one of 19 New South Wales schools at risk of radicalising Muslim students.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4297648/Punchbowl-high-school-students-Muslim-radicalisation.html?ito=social-facebook

Consider these worrying claims made in another March 10 piece:

The furious parents of a year seven Sydney student have accused his controversy-riddled high school of being run more like a “mosque” than a public school. They claimed that their son was bullied over his long hair and when he opted not to join in prayers at Punchbowl Boys’ High School.
“The kids come up to my son and ask him ‘come and pray, come and pray’. But we do different things to other families and the school. Why does prayer have to be in school time?” the boy’s mother said.
“Why are they letting kids go on like this about religion? My kid has long hair but some kids told him that it was going against their religion. He goes to school to learn, it’s not a mosque. Religion is for the home, not for the school.
“I’m angry because it’s a public school. Why should my kid go to school feeling scared? He’s only in year seven.”
https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/34607276/punchbowl-high-school-being-run-like-a-mosque-parent-says/?cmp=st#page1

And a March 11 article added this to the growing list of concerns:

Last week, the principal of Punchbowl Boys High School was sacked amid concerns that police who wanted to help with deradicalisation programs had been locked out of the school. Chris Griffiths was removed amid suggestions he was shutting out police, rejecting anti-radicalisation programs and sidelining women at school functions.
The Weekend Australian has been told that Griffiths, a convert to Islam, was reluctant to co-operate with a statewide audit of school prayer groups. The school was not alone in this — just 34 of the 155 prayer groups surveyed kept attendance records. As one of the most influential leaders in Sydney’s Muslim community, Jamal Rifi this week weighed in to a controversy that has gripped his community.
With various allegations swirling, Rifi, who knows all the main players in the drama, has no doubt about the verdict: the principal of Punchbowl Boys High School was sacked last week for being bad at politics. Griffiths had replaced Jihad Dib, a legend in southwest Sydney who dramatically ended the school’s gang and drugs culture and on the back of that popularity became the local member of the NSW parliament.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/inside-punchbowl-boys-high-school-a-battle-for-hearts-and-minds/news-story/f7145bf107c711647f2e1165fc84aa00?nk=6f6487c5bb4780072efd199ab0f4bc95-1489213402

Sadly the happenings at Punchbowl are not a one-off. Many folks have warned about what is known as creeping sharia and stealth jihad in the West. The events occurring at Punchbowl High seem to be a perfect illustration of this. Right under our very noses the violent, misogynist and anti-Western political ideology known as Islam is making footholds all over the place.

Today it can be a high school, tomorrow a church or media outlet, the next day our parliament or military. Indeed, all these areas have seen major Islamic inroads taking place. And much of this is funded directly by you and me – the taxpayer.

It is good news that Griffiths and his deputy have been given the flick. But how many more schools across the country are also in need of some spring cleaning? This story will not be the end of it. Sadly, it seems to be only the beginning.

[1180 words]

Exit mobile version