Daily Times

BIRMINGHAM: Around 100 parents, teachers and trustees of the UK’s first state-funded Islamic school, Al-Hijra, gathered this week inside a small library in Birmingham to discuss a recent British high court ruling that declared their school’s segregation policy “unlawful sex discrimination”.

Al-Hijra trustee board member Yaseer Latif said: “We have a responsibility to our school and to our community.”

“If the ruling remains unchallenged, it will establish a dangerous precedent for all faith-based schools.”

Furthermore, he said the deadline for the appeal was November 10, 2017. “The legal process may take another several months during which there will be no immediate changes at the school,” he said.

The surprise high court ruling overturned an earlier ruling involving Al-Hijrah School that had been criticised by the UK government’s Office for Standards in Education, (Ofsted) school inspectors for failing to uphold British values. This time the Court of Appeal agreed with Ofsted.

Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman said: “Ofsted’s job is to make sure that all schools properly prepare children for life in modern Britain. Educational institutions should never treat pupils less favorably because of their sex, or for any other reason.”

On appeal, Ofsted argued that the school had breached the 2010 Equalities Act by strictly segregating pupils from the age of nine.

Al-Hijrah, a co-educational Islamic faith-based school in Beardsley Green, Birmingham, UK, teaches children ages five to sixteen. From age nine pupils are separated for all lessons, breaks and school excursions. There around 300 pupils, out of which 98% are Pakistani. The schools receive over 1,000 applications for 60 places, making it the most over-subscribed in the UK.

Al-Hijrah’s legal tussle with Ofsted started in 2016 after Ofsted rated the school “inadequate” – the lowest possible rating, for its practice of segregation.

It remains unclear why Ofsted inspectors identified the issue of segregation after over a decade of repeated inspections at the Islamic faith-based school. The school had become state funded in 2001. Ofsted and the Department for Education were criticised by judges for failing to identify the issue earlier and having “de facto sanctioned and accepted a state of affairs which is unlawful”.

Prof John Holmwood, author of ‘Countering Extremism in British Schools? The Truth about the Birmingham Trojan Horse Affair’, said that when the school first became state-funded in 2001, Britain was a tolerant country. “People recognised that the school and its methods of teaching were required in a predominantly Pakistani area. Many people were not aware of its anomaly and accepted Al-Hijra’s policy without question. However, now, the white British secularists are concerned their secularism is being undermined by religiosity in ethnic minority populations,” he said.

Prof Holmwood said: “Since ‘Trojan Horse’ issue, the attitude towards Muslims in the UK has changed significantly – and not just in education. It is seen all over the UK. The UK has become a far more intolerant society – moving away from multiculturalism. Ofsted is being leaned on by the government.”

‘Trojan Horse’ were documents leaded to the British press that claimed to be about a conspiracy to ‘Islamise’ Birmingham schools.

The revelations ignited a national outcry. The British press reported a number of schools in predominantly Muslim areas had been teaching extremist views and promoting terrorism. Although the documents were later debunked, the damage had been done.

The story polarized Britain. Three years later the detrimental impact remains in the relationship between Muslim citizens and Britain.

The ruling will only apply to co-educational schools. Single sex schools are given a specific exemption from discrimination claims related to admission under the Equalities Act.

Many of those in attendance at Al-Hijrah’s meeting expressed feeling “victimized” by Ofsted and Department for Education (DFE), Lateef echoed the view that Ofsted and the Department for Education were working against Al-Hijrah. “I don’t have evidence to prove this,” he said.

The high court judgement also condemned some books found by Ofsted inspectors in the library, despite a previous inspection and ruling that the books should be removed.

The judges opined, the books were “derogatory towards women,” nonetheless “clearly some members of staff were in agreement with the teachings of the book – hence why they remained.”

Haroon Rashid, a parent at the meeting said that the Fiqh books should have been placed away, out of sight from the inspectors.

This, he believed, was incompetence on behalf of the teachers. Additionally, “inspectors did not understand the context in which the rules were allowed in Islam.”

Parent Muhammed Ameen said that this was not just an attack on the school, it was an attack in our way of life. “Segregation is in our homes, mosques, communities it is all around us. This attack goes all the way to out communities, on our way of life.”

Prof Holmwood said: “The problem is British people want Muslims to adapt their values. They don’t understand that Muslims can still do this whilst practising their own faith.”

Rabia Uddin, a parent of a 12-year-old girl at the school, described her concerns. “I worry now that with all this negative attention, the school may be attacked. Muslims are already being attacked in the UK,” she said.

Parent Muhammed Amin said that the same thing was happening in France, Germany. “It is secularisation, Christianity, a dilution of our values, ripping away our ethos. They are attacking our faith.”

Prof Holmwood disagreed. “The UK is not following the French or German model. However, the attitude towards religion in the UK has shifted towards the French model,” he said.

Published in Daily Times, November 6^th 2017.