‘Racial abuse’ of teachers led to prayer ban
Governors stopped Muslim worship at school after staff were harassed, says Katharine Birbalsingh
KATHARINE BIRBALSINGH has said she was forced to ban Muslim prayers after teachers were racially harassed.
The school leader, known as Britain’s strictest head teacher, is facing a High Court challenge from a Muslim pupil over the prayer policy at Michaela Community School.
Commenting on the row for the first time, she warned that “multiculturalism can only succeed” when every group makes sacrifices “for the sake of the whole”.
In a statement shared yesterday, Ms Birbalsingh said the school’s governing body decided to stop prayer rituals when some pupils started them “against a backdrop of events including violence, intimidation and appalling racial harassment of our teachers”.
The Michaela school is facing a legal challenge from a pupil, who cannot be named, over Ms Birbalsingh’s decision to introduce the ban in March last year.
The high-performing state school in Brent, north-west London, has around 700 pupils, about half of whom are Muslim. It is known for its strict discipline, including silence in corridors and a ban on smartphones.
Yesterday, the High Court heard that the school had taken action on prayers because of concerns about a “culture shift” over “segregation between religious groups and intimidation within the group of Muslim pupils”.
Jason Coppel KC, for the school trust, said: “These were very difficult days for the school, with tensions running high.”
He said it is “hard to see how matters would have been improved by taking more and more disciplinary action”.
The school’s actions were based on teachers’ conversations with pupils about incidents, such as hearing about a Muslim girl who had dropped out of the school choir because she was told it was “haram”, or forbidden, he added.
“A number of children had been told that they were ‘bad Muslims’ for not praying and had begun to pray,” Mr Coppel said in his written arguments.
He told the court that the school is “exceptionally successful” academically, “highly oversubscribed”, “aggressively” promotes integration, is run with “military precision” and uses an “ultra-strict enforcement of prescribed behavioural rules”.
Ms Birbalsingh said the decision to ban prayer rituals “restored calm and order to the school”.
She said: “We have always been clear to parents and pupils that when they apply to Michaela that because of our restrictive building combined with our strict ethos that does not allow children to wander around the school unsupervised, we cannot have a prayer room.”
She added: “We believe it is wrong to separate children according to religion or race, and that it is our duty to protect all of our children and provide them with an environment which is free from bullying, intimidation or harassment.
“Multiculturalism can only succeed when we understand that every group must make sacrifices for the sake of the whole.”
Michaela school was ranked top in the country last year for “Progress 8”, a measure of how much a secondary school has helped pupils improve since primary school.
Ms Birbalsingh said that to achieve its results, the school “must be a place where children buy into something they all share and that is bigger than themselves: our country”.
About 30 pupils began praying in the school’s “wet” and “dirty” yard in March last year, using blazers to kneel as they were not permitted to bring in prayer mats, the hearing at the High Court was told.
The court heard the school was targeted on social media with “threats of violence”, abuse, “false” allegations of Islamophobia, and a “bomb hoax”, but that the situation had since “calmed”.
The pupil said the school’s stance on prayer was “the kind of discrimination that makes religious minorities feel alienated from society”, a judge was told.
Her lawyers claim the prayer ban “uniquely” affects the Muslim faith over other religions due to its ritualised nature and rules around prayer.
Conservative MPS expressed support for Ms Birbalsingh.
Liz Truss, the former prime minister, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “We need more schools like Michaela.”
She said Ms Birbalsingh “must be allowed to maintain the ethos of the school and prevail in this case”.
Miriam Cates, MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, said: “Michaela is an outstanding school. Their success is evident not only in the academic results but also the happiness of the students.”
‘Multiculturalism can only succeed when we understand that every group must make sacrifices for the sake of the whole’
Rishi Sunak faced down his critics on the Conservative Right last night, securing support for a Bill intended to stop the small boat crossings by deporting illegal immigrants to Rwanda. After around 60 Tory MPS defied a threeline whip on Tuesday and Wednesday in support of amendments to toughen up the legislation, the rebels were unprepared to take the nuclear option and defeat the Bill in its entirety.
The Government secured a Third Reading with only a few Conservatives voting against. The Safety of Rwanda Bill now goes to the House of Lords where it is certain to face further opposition, this time aimed at watering it down. If a period of back and forth “ping-pong” ensues, there could be further opportunities for rebel MPS to press their case. Peers are also seeking to delay the ratification of a new treaty with Rwanda. This is meant to underpin the new legislation, deeming Rwanda to be “safe”.
Mr Sunak is not completely in the clear yet. But assuming the Bill becomes law, it is then imperative that the amount of political capital invested in it pays dividends. The country will not understand if, having gone through these legal and parliamentary machinations, no migrants, or very few, are sent to Rwanda as a result.
Mr Sunak’s task now is to ensure that hundreds, if not thousands, of migrants are removed over the next few months. The Prime Minister is convinced that the threat of being sent to Rwanda will act as a deterrent to those making the perilous journey across the Channel. But his critics say loopholes in the Bill, which Mr Sunak declined to close, will lead to the courts being clogged up with appeals against deportation.
Moreover, it is still also open to a judge in the European Court of Human Rights to issue a socalled Rule 39 injunction against a flight, though the Bill gives ministers more powers to override this provision.
Objections from senior Tories continued yesterday.
Robert Jenrick, a former immigration minister who resigned over the Prime Minister’s refusal to toughen the measure, said the European Court had no jurisdiction to stop removals to Rwanda and any interim orders should be ignored. Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, predicted that the British people would not forgive the Tories for failing to get a grip on this issue. The party’s divisions are unlikely to heal any time soon.