Religion and schools

Religion and schools

Religion out of schools!

An incident in Kettlethorpe High School in Wakefield in which a copy of the Quran was unintentionally damaged has again brought into focus the undue influence of and deference to religious figures in schools. After losing a dare a 14 year old student brought in a copy of the Quran and read from it outside. When the student was messing about with friends afterwards they dropped it, scuffing a page. Some Muslims consider this to be a desecration of the literal word of God and therefore blasphemous. Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) has not had blasphemy laws since 2008. Despite this, the boy...

Oborne and the Trojan Horse affair

A previous column about the right wing journalist Peter Oborne ( Solidarity 661 ) described how this one-time “conventional conservative” had been transformed by the Iraq war into someone feted by sections of the left. I described his politics as “right wing isolationism”. That column described Oborne’s largely uncritical admiration for Islam and Islamic regimes, including some ultra-reactionary Islamists. I will now go on to examine Oborne’s long-standing interest in the Birmingham Trojan Horse affair — an alleged plot or campaign by some conservative Muslims to take over Birmingham secular...

Tories say they’ll review school trans guidelines

A case brought by parents of a child on the Isle of Wight is now said to have “prompted the government to revise its gender-related guidance for children”. The case goes back to 2017. Nigel and Sally Rowe, who are described as “Christian parents” (presumably self-defining), took legal action against the government for failing to intervene against school policy, and the government eventually conceded the case. Mr Rowe is reported as saying: “To cut a long story short, in the school, when our boys were six years of age, in the classroom one of their friends decided to transition from being a boy...

A strike for LGBT rights

“We are here on the picket line to ensure that students who are LGBTQ+ – including those who are LGBTQ+ and religious – feel seen, safe and heard.” – a JFS striker On 12 May, workers at the John Fisher School in Purley, South London – members of the National Education Union, mainly teachers – took their sixth day of strike action since late April in an unusual and important struggle. They may strike again in the week beginning 16 May. The John Fisher School (JFS) strike is a legal, official dispute, balloted for under the anti-trade union laws , with demands about the governance of the school...

Solidarity with the John Fisher strike!

The strike at the John Fisher Catholic school in the south London borough of Sutton, over the cancelling of an author’s visit and the sacking of governors in connection with it, has now been widely reported. See, for instance, here and here . The author, Simon James Green writes teen fiction that includes LGBT characters and themes. The first strike day was 28 April, with more in the coming weeks. We are writing to express solidarity with the strikers and the school community, urge the labour movement to rally round, and add a few thoughts. We believe this reaffirms the need to abolish...

Batley, blasphemy and the religious right

After the Batley Grammar School row , which led to protests outside the school, teachers being suspended, and one going into hiding for his own safety, the teachers have been reinstated. On 27 May an independent investigation commissioned by Batley Multi Academy Trust found that teaching staff at Batley Grammar School who had shown one of the Charlie Hebdo images of Mohammed “genuinely believed that using the image had an educational purpose and benefit, and that it was not used with the intention of causing offence. The image was included to initiate a discussion about the meaning of...

Women's Fightback: Students rebel against uniforms

Girls at King David High School, a Jewish school in Childwall, say they want to be able to wear trousers like the boys — as well as questioning policy over a ban on leggings in PE. They have handed in a petition, calling for changes, which has so far attracted more than 300 signatures. The petition, started by pupil Laura Starkey, states: “We want justice for female students in our school and the freedom to express ourselves without being limited to things that boys can do and we cannot.” King David head teacher Michael Sutton has defended the uniform on religious grounds, as if that were...

Stand and be counted

This article by the Algerian socialist-feminist Marieme Helie Lucas, responding to the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty by an Islamist assailant on 16 October, was first published on the Feminist Dissent website . We republish it, with the author's permission, to promote discussion. Assassinations by decapitation or by the sword – which are highly symbolic of all Muslim extreme-right organisations (Al Qaeda, the Taliban, GIA, al-Shabab, Daesh, Boko Haram, etc.) – are not a new phenomenon in France. Several cases have already happened in recent years. It points at the will of the...

Again on the hijab in primary schools

See here for wider debate in Solidarity on the ban of the hijab in schools . I want to respond to Ben Tausz’s contribution to the debate on whether to ban the hijab in primary schools (Solidarity 527). He quotes me as saying “I do not think that you need to have a solution (of how a ban might be enforced) to support a ban”. The problem is, I didn’t say that. I said that I didn’t think you had to have an agreed solution to what the consequence of breaking the ban might be. What, Ben, should the consequence be for those who resist our programme for renationalisation? What should the consequence...

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