Richard Dawkins claims Muslim schools are having a “pernicious” influence on children who are having their minds “stuffed with alien rubbish” such as claims the world is only 6,000 years old.
The author of The God Delusion, who has previously described religious education provided by faith schools as a form of child abuse, said that the effect was “utterly deplorable” especially as it lasted until their university years.
The prominent atheist said he could live with some faith schools that are vaguely religious and saved his fire for the schools that were teaching “total nonsense”.
Mr Dawkins, former Oxford University professor and evolutionary biologist, made his comments as he spoke to the Times Educational Supplement about the launch of a new science book.
He said that while he opposed faith schools as a whole, it was the Muslim ones that worried him the most.
“Occasionally, my colleagues lecturing in universities lament having undergraduate students walk out of their classes when they talk about evolution – this is almost entirely Muslims,” he said.
“So I think there’s a very, very pernicious influence that is lasting up to the university years. That must be coming from certain schools.”
He said that he noticed the “utterly deplorable” effect they were having first hand after visiting a Muslim school in Leicester as part of a documentary he made last year called Faith Schools Menace?
“Every single person I met believes if there is any disagreement between the Koran and science, then the Koran wins,” he said.
“I spoke to a group of girls, and to a senior science teacher who believes the world is 6,000 years old.
“It’s just utterly deplorable. These are now British children who are having their minds stuffed with alien rubbish.”
Mr Dawkins said he was not so worried about the expansion of faith schools if they were the kind that “vaguely” have a kind of Church of England-style assembly.
But he was holding “his fire” for the ones that are teaching “total nonsense”.
“There is a difference between faith schools which just vaguely have a kind of Church of England assembly and faith schools that actually teach nonsense like this school in Leicester,” he said.
Mr Dawkins, who last year said he was thinking about setting up an atheist school, does, however, see the value of teaching religion but only as a way of putting the modern world into context.
He said it was important to learn for example about the Greek Gods to appreciate the poetry of Keats, the Norse Gods to relate to Wagner, and Judaism and Christianity to understand literature.
The fellow of New College, Oxford, said the lessons like his new book – The Magic of Reality – should teach children about the thousands of myths from around the world which were part of education to learn.
“I do think it valuable to teach comparative religion as a sort of anthropological study and that’s sort of what all my comparative myths in The Magic of Reality are about,” he said.
“If there’s one thing I wanted to do in the book, it was that I don’t want to downgrade myths, but the science is even more wonderful,” he said.
The Magic of Reality is published by Bantam Press priced £20.