A row over prayers at a West London school has hit the headlines. But there’s a bigger picture that should be grabbing our attention.
The row concerns Britain’s so-called ‘strictest headteacher’, Katharine Birbalsingh, taken to court over a ban on Muslim students praying during lunchtime. Many schools and workplaces have quite rightly reached a reasonable compromise, enabling Muslims to pray in a way that doesn’t unduly intrude on others. The case should cast light on why private prayer was not accommodated at this school, and provide useful guidance. Whatever the reason, nothing justifies the reported harassment and violent threats against school staff by religious bullies.
But the West London dispute is a storm in a teacup compared to the scale of religious division and unfairness elsewhere in our education system. This goes back to the 19th century when the Christian establishment won the argument on religion being embedded in the first state schools. We still have an archaic law, completely unsuited to today’s Britain, requiring every state school to hold a daily act of Christian worship. Some schools don’t comply. But many who do sideline and discriminate against children of different or no faith. I still remember being left out of assemblies as a child and the feeling of being ‘othered.’ Assemblies are an important part of every school day, and should be inclusive of all children.
I’m often invited by enlightened local schools to speak about humanism, not to promote my beliefs, but to help children understand the views of people like me who are not religious and who now form around half the population. Pupils usually find these sessions valuable and thought-provoking, whatever their belief. But in many schools Religious Education remains narrow, faith-based, and dominated by Christianity.
State-funded faith schools, dividing children based on their parents’ religion, have proliferated. And the scourge of illegal schools with an exceptionally narrow religious agenda has still not been addressed, despite Government promises. There are several in East London. A modern education should include learning about all beliefs, and freedom of belief and expression should be respected, provided it causes no harm to others. But freedom and respect also means empowering children to work out for themselves what to believe, free from indoctrination or having other’s beliefs imposed on them. ENDS
Paul Kaufman, Chairperson East London Humanists
