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'Muslims force Head to resign'

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Tuesday, 10 February 2009 16:41

 There is much in the newspapers today on Headteacher Julia Robinson leaving her post at Meersbrook Bank school in Sheffield following differences arising from proposed changes to the school’s policy on collective worship.

It is claimed that the headteacher’s resignation had been forced by the parents of Muslim schoolchildren at the school who were averse to her attempts to introduce a single collective worship assembly and do away with separate assemblies organised for Muslim pupils.

No surprise that the whole affair is being portrayed as one of Muslims throwing their weight around compelling others to do their bidding. The Daily Express even features a poll on the page of the story asking readers ‘Does Britain pander too much to minorities?’


The Education Act allows parents to withdraw their children from collective worship if they choose to do so. The Act also allows for other faiths to be catered for in the school system through a process of determinations – whole or part - which, if approved by the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE), permits the mainly Christian based collective worship requirement to be adapted to reflect the faiths of the school’s pupil population.

It is a huge shame if the differences over the provisions on collective worship have resulted in the headteacher’s resignation. But accusations of Muslim parents ‘hounding out the Headteacher’ are just as reprehensible.

Fiyza Awan, the elder sister of two Muslim pupils at the school said of the request lodged by Muslim parents:

‘We didn’t have a problem with that [single assembly] but wanted a non-secular assembly where no hymns were sung and topics involving all the children could be discussed. But after a while hymns were introduced again and we objected.’

Contrary to what the Daily Express would have you answer in its reader poll, the question is not whether we ‘pander too much to minorities’, but whether the legitimate requests of parents, Muslim or otherwise, of schoolchildren in British schools are genially embraced.

No child of any religious background should be forced to participate in collective worship of another religious tradition and the Education Act allows for all parents to either withdraw their children from collective worship arrangements that are inappropriate or seek a determination. 

 

Comments
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A  - Mr   |2009-02-11 02:17:43
They keep trying this Islambashing once in a while, but it is getting boring. I think any sane non-Muslim can start seeing through this.

Anyway, is there any direction from Engage about what to do? It hurts to just read this and then do nothing...

I think that Engage as taken a wonderful role in combatting media and political onslaughts on Muslims, and people are now looking to Engage for guidance and direction.
tretretetr@aol.com  - Muslims are a plague on earth!   |2009-02-11 07:09:08
Filthy terrorists! Kill them all! Always intimidating humanity to bow down to them!
SP   |2009-02-11 09:22:58
If you read Fiyza Awans statement and marry that with the Education Act, it is obvious that the blame should not lie with Muslims but with the staff members. Anyway why would you resign over something as trivial as an assembly, I get the feeling there is more to this than the newspaper is letting on. No surprises there really. For tretretetr@aol.com the people who intimidated humanity to bow to them have been many in the past and in the majority of cases they have not been Muslims. After all what can Muslims intimidate with relative to heads of state?
thabet   |2009-02-13 11:00:52
"‘We didn’t have a problem with that [single assembly] but wanted a non-secular assembly where no hymns were sung and topics involving all the children could be discussed..."

Is this correct? The Daily Mail report does not have the word 'non' in front of secular:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1139653/I-forced-trying-axe-Muslim-assemblies-claims-headmistress.html?printingPage=true
ENGAGE  - Re: Thabet   |2009-02-13 11:19:25
Fiyza Awan's remark is taken from the print version of the article in the Daily Mail on 10 Feb, 'Head quits in row over scrapping Muslim assembly'. In this a 'non secular assembly' is referred to.

In the online version of the same, 'I was forced out for trying to axe Muslim-only assemblies, claims headmistress', dated 9 Feb, it appears as 'secular assembly'.
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