Former “Peace Train” singer Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) has a piece for The Independent, picked up by ArabNews, in which he argues that the only real solution to the problem of Islamic terrorism is a lot more Islamic education. You know, for the kids. Especially in the prejudiced West. The Problem Is Not Too Much Islam but Too Little. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

Education is crucial. Here in Britain, the education system has been slow, at best, in allowing Islamic teachings to be taught in their full breadth. There is a lack of commitment to the rigors of traditional learning. In the West, where Islam is denigrated and prejudice abounds, where headlines designed to shock and mesmerize dominate people’s minds, the real teachings of the faith are left for people to fall upon by chance. In terms of spiritual and moral nourishment, it has been left to largely irregular and inadequate models of religious education to deliver the goods.

An hour-long mosque sermon, once a week — which most Muslims attend — or a lecture by a visiting scholar who barely speaks English and has little understanding of British and European life, are never likely to deliver the balanced curriculum necessary to build the conscientious believer, one who not only knows his duty to God but also to the society and world he lives in.

The July 7 bombers attended state schools in Britain, not faith-based schools. Some of them, we are told, briefly visited madrasa schools in Pakistan. This may or may not be relevant, but it suggests that they felt they had had insufficient Islamic education in Britain. By going abroad, they laid themselves open to influences outside normal scholastic parameters.

If we fail to provide authentic and traditional spiritual values within everyday schooling, we allow rogue ideologists to distort the essence of religious concepts. We also exclude invaluable wisdom and repress the strong spirit of devotion that many believers naturally feel.