To think that the mother/daughter duo who took Michaela to court should face some natural consequences?

I don’t think there is any doubt of the intimidation and I am sure it was swiftly dealt with.

I am very disappointed that the courts took this decision.
I think the girl had good arguments especially around how the rule is discrimitary as others, such as Christians can still pray at school, because Christian Prayer can be done in the head with no outward signs, whereas Muslim prayer can't.
Also as had been said this ban is not preparing children for the adult world and goes against the British value of tolerance (as do many rules at that school) what will OFSTED say?

Also when you send you child to a school, you agree to the rules, but when the rules change during your 7/5 years of attendance what are you supposed to do? Pull them out every time?

Having said this there is no way I would ever send a child to this school or allow any child of mine to be anywhere near its head.

I've equally worked in private companies (law firms) where presumably if you wished to do so, you could leave work early on Fridays if you were Jewish to follow Sabbath rules (my boss took the day off) or you didn't do this. And if you were Muslim and wished to go to Friday prayers, this happened during Friday lunchtimes.

They certainly didn't set up a separate prayer room for Muslim staff.

@KTheGrey ... And teaching Macbeth with witches which upsets the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Arf! Not all bad then. This (from the BBC article) is telling:

Dismissing the student's case, Mr Justice Linden said: "She knew that the school is secular and her own evidence is that her mother wished her to go there because it was known to be strict.
"She herself says that, long before the prayer ritual policy was introduced, she and her friends believed that prayer was not permitted at school and she therefore made up for missed prayers when she got home."

So it wasn't until after the policy was introduced that they started praying in the playground? Before that they had simply obeyed what they believed to be the rules? Hmm.

Don’t be ridiculous

This school makes a massive thing of how wonderful its discipline is. I've never seen and explanation of why they couldn't deal with this via their normal discipline methods - if indeed it happened.

Yes that is reflected in our history - you can look it up, but the school did not make regular prayer time for ANY religion CoE or otherwise.

I agree that the parents should have chosen a different school.
None of it makes much sense to me to be honest.

So do you want to get rid of courts altogether? How do you suggest we deal with criminal charges and resolve civil and family legal disputes without them?

In that paragraph I meant 'the populace'.

I don't care what religion someone is. It is their own private business, but oftentimes, regardless of the religion, someone wants to impose their ideals on some one, or everyone else, ignoring how this may impact others who dont have the same views/beliefs. So, in this instance telling others how they should practice their religion should absolutely not be condoned or permitted. Given that their religion allows them to pray at another time then there is no issue. All companies, schools, public bodies introduce new rules and regulations all the time in order to maintain good practice and order. Bullying others to practice their religion is not on, as is bullying someone to not practice their religion, but in this instance they could practice their religion in their own time.

There was much more to it, bullying and intimidation of other students by a vocal minority.

It is a secular school. It doesn’t need to accommodate any religious practice.

A pp said, I believe in France, that another girl at a school was beaten to death (or something like that) for not wearing a hijab by other hardline Muslim pupils. That is absolutely disgusting and abhorrent behaviour by any people of any race, culture or belief system. I hope these pupils were charged with manslaughter or worse.

France has a totally different relationship between church and state.

You may have heard that the head of CofE is also head of state.

Who on earth are the ‘mob’??

As I understand it, these students wanted to pray during breaks, not during lesson times. They were prevented from doing so.

The school was not wanting to ban praying because it caused bullying.

As I see it, this mother and her daughter enlisted other hardline Muslim pupils to intimidate and bully the less hardline Muslim pupils who were happily doing activities like singing in the choir or following their faith in the way they wished to do so. This mother and daughter wanted them to pray 5 or whatever times a day and wanted to preach at them for not being haram. They also threatened and bullied teachers (a black teacher being one of them) and attacked that teacher's house, therefore inciting racial hatred. The headteacher, quite rightly so then chose to ban the praying which was being done as a protest, presumably to stop them doing so. The headteacher could see how things could escalate into further violence so she banned praying. Then the mother and daughter brought this case.

In one sense, having been a teenager myself, I understand totally how emotions can get heightened and how you can be stirred up into fervour about causes you believe in, Joan of Arc and other teenage figures through religion have gone through this and fought for their beliefs and religion. The mother, to me, is the person in the wrong here. She's supposed to be an example as an adult parental role model to her daughter in how to behave correctly in public (outside home and in school) and to have encouraged her to study at school. She is not supposed to encourage her daughter and other pupils to bully, and intimidate other pupils and teachers, and certainly not to incite racial hatred and violence involving a criminal act of a brick being thrown at/into the window of a teacher's property. The mother knew when she sent her daughter to this school what it's policy was around prayer, she also knew it was a very strict school, which is partly why she chose to send her daughter there.

It cost the taxpayer millions, most of whom will not support this case.

That's irrelevant and not how legal aid or the justice system work. It's not a popularity contest.

I am glad we live in a tolerant, welcoming country and I also appreciate our wonderful legal system. The fundamental right to live without fear, and the right to learn free of all coercion and intimidation is absolutely vital to a successful democracy.

We need to do more to protect schools, universities and other spaces from the erosion of these values.

The bigger issue for me is the culture of religious intimidation and fear. I would like to see more robust legislation around this.

The problem with that is that there are now so many different religions within a school that banning them all is the only way to avoid the chaos of pupils coming and going all day. Can they not find a school which promotes their religion, there's no shortage?

@gloriagloria

I think in reality a lot of religions aren't really live and let live at core and certainly can be used as tools of oppression if allowed

I think allowing space for effectively ritual sets a tone for the school and is a diversion from a good open learning environment. I also think it is not up to parents to dictate to a school how it should be set up and it's overall ethos.

Rigid prayer timings may be eventually time tabled for logistical reasons and you have a de facto faith school altering a secular ethos you aim for

No it was not. The question before the bench was whether they had a right to pray in that specific location. The issue was location/situation not right to pray.

There is a lot of competition for places at Michaela school. Muslim families often prefer it due to the strictness of the uniform and the harsh behavioural policies-silence in corridors etcetera. I think the family should have opted for a faith school if this was important to them.

I have worked in 2 different Local Authorities which allow Muslim staff to have prayer time on Fridays and Jewish staff to leave work early on Fridays for Sabbath.