{"id":2691,"date":"2024-07-25T10:31:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T10:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=2691"},"modified":"2024-07-25T10:31:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T10:31:43","slug":"michaela-decision-the-need-for-reform-of-law-on-school-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=2691","title":{"rendered":"Michaela decision – the need for reform of law on school prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
The decision in the Michaela School prayer row highlights the need for reform of our archaic laws. Opinion piece published April 2024 in Dockland & East London Advertiser, Barking & Dagenham Post, Romford Recorder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018prayer ban\u2019 at Michaela Community School in Brent has hit the headlines again following the recent High Court judgement. The controversy highlights the pressing need to reform our archaic laws on religious worship for state-educated children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michaela school was taken to Court in January by a Muslim pupil. She argued that its ban on prayer rituals was a \u2018breach of her right to freedom to manifest her religious beliefs.\u2019 This was rejected in the ruling on 16 April on the grounds that the pupil had \u2018\u2026chosen the School knowing of its strict regime; on the evidence she was able to move to a suitable school which would allow her to pray at lunchtime; and, in any event, she was able to perform Qada prayers in order to mitigate the fact that she was not able to pray at the allotted time.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge further ruled that the disadvantage to Muslim pupils at the school caused by its policy was outweighed by its aim of promoting the interests of the school community as a whole, including Muslim pupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently the only law which specifically governs religious practice in English state schools is the requirement for a daily act of Christian worship. Such a law is found nowhere else in the world. It has been\u00a0condemned\u00a0by the UN as a breach of the Rights of the Child. Calls for abolition have come from the National Governance Association, most teaching unions, and peers in a debate in the House of Lords in January. \u00a0In 2019 Humanists UK supported parents in Oxford in their successful High Court challenge to mandatory collective worship at their child\u2019s school on human rights grounds. The Government needs to give serious thought to creating clear rules and guidance fit for today\u2019s world. These would protect children\u2019s freedom of religion or belief while making sure our education system is fair and inclusive to all. Mandatory collective worship should be replaced with an inclusive form of assembly that makes all pupils feel welcomed, while making reasonable accommodation for those who want to worship privately where it doesn\u2019t infringe the rights of others. Otherwise, we will inevitably see more cases being brought and resentment continuing to build within our school system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson, East London Humanists<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u2018prayer ban\u2019 at Michaela Community School in Brent has hit the headlines again following the recent High Court judgement. The controversy highlights the pressing need to reform our archaic laws on religious worship for state-educated children. Michaela school was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9c4oP-Hp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2693,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions\/2693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}