A London school in the Brent area has filed a lawsuit, claiming that its religious rights are being affected by its policy of banning prayer.
Dr. Akhtar Gulfam
LONDON: A female student at a successful north London school, once known as the UK’s strictest institution, has lost her High Court case against a ban on prayer.
The student, who cannot be named, took legal action against Michaela Community School in Brent, London, claiming the policy was discriminatory and made her faith ‘unique’ due to its formal nature. ‘ Affects.
But in a written judgment on Tuesday, Justice Linden rejected the student’s arguments in what head teacher Catherine Birbal Singh described as a ‘victory for all schools’. Catherine Birbal Singh was a former government official for social mobility and co-founded the school with former home minister Sawela Braverman.
The school argued in court that its policy was justified when it faced death and bomb threats linked to religious worship at the site.
Birbal Singh said: “Schools should be free to do what is right for their students.”
According to him: ‘Therefore, this decision of the court is a victory for all schools. Schools should not be forced to change their approach to a child and their mother just because they don’t like something in school.’
The student who sued the school said in a statement provided by the law firm Simpson Miller that she was disappointed by the decision but felt she did the right thing by challenging the ban the first time.
She said: ‘Obviously I am very disappointed that the judge did not agree with me, as stated in the judgment, I do not agree that it will be very difficult for the school to accommodate these students. who wanted to worship at lunch break.’
“The school is running very well and is generally very successful in managing everything,” he added. The school does not want to allow the students to worship, it has chosen a different path and the judge supports them.”
She said: ‘Even though I lost the case, I still feel I did the right thing by trying to challenge the ban. I tried my best and stayed true to myself and my religion. It was not easy for me to join this case. The teachers here are very good and I hope to do my best. I’m also grateful for the understanding that my non-Muslim friends at school saw in the problems that affected us.
The student’s mother said she was “deeply disappointed with the verdict”. He claimed that ‘the crux of the matter was that prayer is not just an optional act for us but it is an essential element that shapes our lives as Muslims.’
He said that prayer has an undeniable importance in our faith, which guides us with strength and faith in every difficulty.
In another statement, head teacher Birbal Singh claimed that last year Muslim students were pressured to ‘pray, walk out of school and wear hijab’ while teachers faced abuse and threats. He said that a wrong narrative was presented that Muslims are an oppressed minority in the school.
In a post on X, he wrote that in 2014, 30 percent of our total number were Muslim students and now it is 50 percent. The number of students here is very high. If families don’t like the school, they won’t choose to send their children to Michaela again and again.’
Referring to previous incidents at the school, Birbal Singh said: ‘Last year we saw a small number of Muslim students being pressured to fast, pray, walk out of school and wear hijab. I saw my black fellow teacher being racially abused and threatened. Another teacher whose personal house was almost attacked and a brick thrown from the window of another’s house.
He added: ‘It is a false narrative that some people try to paint Muslims in our school as an oppressed minority. They are the largest majority group. Those most at risk are other minorities and Muslim children who receive less attention.
Simpson-Miller attorney Dan Rosenberg said the judge noted that the case raised “issues of genuine public interest in situations where the school’s viewpoint conflicts with the religious viewpoint of a significant segment of society.”
