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Accepting that children will engage in sexual relations at a younger age has led to a whole host of measures to stem the tide of teenage pregnancy. The recent pill by text initiative in Oxfordshire is merely the latest example of a values free approach to sex and relationship education replacing a clearly defined moral framework for acceptable behaviour.

In July, students at four schools in Oxfordshire will be able to text the school nurse for morning after pills. This is nothing new, schools across the country are able to provide the morning after pill to young children without their parents’ knowledge and this facility is available over the counter at pharmacies nationwide.

The government has led from the front in this area and the society around us has followed with little opposition. Any opposition is characterised as outmoded views of a bygone era. The planned changes to the teaching of values free Sex and Relationship Education in schools sends a strong message, society should not challenge unacceptable behaviour it should merely seek to address the outcome of the problem.

Contraception is now seen as a way of stemming the tide of teenage pregnancies and its resultant drain on the state’s coffers. When a teenage girl gives birth to a child she leaves school prematurely, is provided with council housing and benefits, is considered a burden on the NHS and wider public services and when she is able to work generally gets a lower wage job than if she had gained a qualification this has a knock on effect on the tax the government receives. This is seen as an economic drain on the state. The government is therefore ploughing huge sums of money to prevent an outcome rather than the aberrant behaviour amongst the young based upon an economic imperative.

This pragmatic attitude, which stems from a very clear capitalist outlook towards human beings is creating problems, and the society around us seems content with the government legislating itself out of a deeply dug moral hole. This viewpoint places economics above values, so that every societal problem is dealt with through a cost-benefit analysis. If a particular ‘solution’ is deemed beneficial because it saves money it is opted for no matter what the implications to society at large.

The recent children’s society report starkly outlined one of the missing ingredients in this society, children are not given clear boundaries to inform their actions. All they are given is information, without a clear values framework what are they supposed to do with this information. Therefore the wide availability of contraception merely suggests to our children promiscuity is acceptable as long as it does not lead to conception.

As Muslims we have to challenge the lack of societal values, the absence of which is destroying society. Individual freedom has promoted sexual liberalisation and destruction of the familial unit. Freedom of ownership has placed price at the heart of everything, everything is a commodity including people, government prioritises action based upon the economic imperative rather than the impact it has on society. The marketing industry enslaves people to chase after dreams of owning in abundance things which they do not need so that children are brought up as consumers, taught to endlessly satisfy whatever desires they wish. The fashion industry and mass media, sell our children dreams of a lifestyle they must embrace in order to be accepted. This lifestyle is nothing more than built on empty mirages that do not deliver permanent happiness.

As a Muslim community we need to protect the values we know are correct because Allah sunhanahu wa ta’aala has defined them as boundaries for the acceptable and unacceptable actions. We must protect the institution of marriage which is under severe attack, we should bring our children to reject the ‘shared values’ which condemn society to moral oblivion. Marriage is the only means by which a man and woman can interact in an intimate way, relationships outside of marriage need to viewed with disdain by our sons and daughters so that they are shunned even though normality of these practices surround them.

If we cannot speak out against the moral decline facing this society, the whole of society will be engulfed, this includes the Muslim community, which is not diconnected from its effects.

Nu'maan bin Basheer RadiAllahu anhu says Allah’s messenger salAllahu alaihi wasallam gave an example of people sailing on a boat having an upper deck and a lower deck. The people from the lower deck require water and request water from the people of the upper deck. The people from the upper deck refuse water, so the people from the lower deck decide to make a hole in the floor of the ship and get water from the sea. God’s messenger said, ‘If the people from the upper deck don’t stop the people at the bottom from making a hole, the ship will sink and all the people travelling will drown. [Mishkaat]

Yusuf Patel

This article was originallly published on the SREIslamic Campaign blog in March 2009