Mosque denies telling Michaela nd school prayers could be delayed

One of the country’s most prominent mosques has denied providing advice to the Michaela community school that afternoon prayers could be deferred, disputing claims heard in court.

Katharine Birbalsingh, who runs the non-faith state school in north London, defeated a high court challenge this week to her policy of stopping pupils praying at lunchtime.

The Muslim student who brought the legal case was banned from praying at the school after Birbalsingh claimed it broke up the cohesion of the school and undermined inclusion. However, the student argued the policy was discriminatory.

According to the written ruling, the head informed the court that she had spoken to the imam at the London Central mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre who “agreed” with the view that the afternoon prayer could be done later and “offered to speak to any Muslim parents who had doubts on this point”.

However, the mosque said yesterday that it was made clear that “it would not be possible to pray later”.

A statement read: “In the summer, the time between Dhur (noon prayer) and Asr (afternoon prayer) is further apart so the earlier prayer (in this case the Dhur one) can be done later … We made it clear that in the winter it would not be possible to pray later as times are much shorter.”

The mosque also described the high court verdict as “very disappointing” and preventing prayer – one of the five pillars of Islam – is a “violation of their religious and human rights.”

Birbalsingh did not comment on the mosque’s claims but in a statement released after the ruling, she wrote: “At Michaela we expect all religions and all races to make the necessary sacrifices to enable our school to thrive. The vast majority do so without complaint.”