New Islamic School, Non Muslims Required To Wear Head Scarves.

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Female students at Leicester's new Islamic secondary school who are not Muslims will have to wear head scarves as part of their uniform.

 

Madani High School, which will open in September to replace Leicester Islamic Academy, will tell girls to cover their heads regardless of their religion.

 

The voluntary-aided state school, which is being built in Evington Valley Road and is supported by Leicester City Council, must accept 10 per cent of its 600 pupils from a non-Muslim background.

 

Mr Suleman, a member of the school's temporary governing body, said: "We have to find a balance because you can't force religion on a person. (Not read the Koran then have you?)

 

Source

 

Some of the comments are interesting.

[Titian]

"One of the oldest independent Muslim schools in Britain, the LIA was established in 1981 and started with just seven girls of secondary age.

 

It now provides education for over 750 pupils, aged from 3 to 16, and has outgrown its current premises at 320 London Road, Leicester.

 

The school has been at the top of the GCSE league table over the past 6 years, with A to C pass rates in 5 or more GCSEs."

 

Parents have the choice to send children there. Why choose it if it doesn't fit with your ethos?

[JoeP]

Well, just don't send your kids there.

 

Upholder - this seems to me to be 'dog in the manger' attitudes of the most pathetic sort.

 

It's a Voluntary Aided School - no one is forcing non-Muslims to go there.

[PuressenceUK]

There is a wider debate here on why schools even have the right to be 'religious'.

 

Lets move to the French system and keep religion out of schools.

[LordChaverly]

Well, just don't send your kids there.

 

Upholder - this seems to me to be 'dog in the manger' attitudes of the most pathetic sort.

 

It's a Voluntary Aided School - no one is forcing non-Muslims to go there.

 

And of course non-muslims won't go there, which is the real point. As a voluntary aided school, it will be entitled to state funding (and a lot of it). In order to qualify for funding, it must meet the stipulated requirements, in this case offering 10% of places to non-muslims. It smacks very much of a cynical ploy to 'qualify' for funding without doing so in a de facto sense.

[evildrneil]

And of course non-muslims won't go there, which is the real point. As a voluntary aided school, it will be entitled to state funding (and a lot of it). In order to qualify for funding, it must meet the stipulated requirements, in this case offering 10% of places to non-muslims. It smacks very much of a cynical ploy to 'qualify' for funding without doing so in a de facto sense.

 

But thats the choice of the non muslim parents isn't it? To be honest whats the big deal about a headscarf being part of the school uniform - it's a bit of cloth and arguably more functional than say a tie which I had to wear to school!

[KJ_VENOM]

as i've read it the headscarf part of the uniform so they have a right to ask pupils to wear it but does that mean schools that do not have a headscarf as part of the uniform can ask pupils not to wear the headscarf as it isnt part of the uniform ?

 

i have to agree with a previous poster we should do how the french have done ban ALL religious icons and dress in their schools

[evildrneil]

 

Source

 

Some of the comments are interesting.

 

Only this one really:

 

It's just a headscarf, a piece of cloth, part of a school uniform - it cannot make your daughter act or feel differently, it cannot change what she believes. She will be the same person she was that morning before putting it on. Why all the fuss?

 

Most of the rest seemed to be unthinking diatribe!

[KenH]

There are private schools where the girls wear silly straw boater type hats which we would all think look daft but would put up with. I would be quite happy for my daughter to wear a head scarf at school. In fact I would be quite hapy for my daughter to be entirely covered until she marries the person I choose for her when she is 30 at which point this will be the first man she has spoken to. I can't see her entirely sharing that point of view but I will give it a try. Of course the traditional british schoolgirl will be staying out on the street until 11pm drinking lager and wearing skirts so small that I have bigger hankies, but that is fine because they are just common, rather than being foreign.

[Fareast]

Since the school is obliged to offer 60 places to non-Muslims, it follows that 60 lots of parents or their daughters may wish to attend the school and are, indeed, invited to attend.

 

However, at least some of the girls who wish to go there may wish to do so for various reasons:-

 

a]Parents may think discipline is better in an all-girls Muslim school.

b] There may be little or no other choice of an all-girls school in the area.

c] they may think it will improve their academic performance.

d] They may, despite being non-Muslim, wish their daughters to gain an insight into another way of life, perhaps with a possible view of converting to Islam at a future date.

 

In all the above cases the parents may not want, or the non-Muslim girls may not want, to wear a headscarf.

 

Naturally, they can simply not attend such a school. In that case, why was there such a furore when Muslim girls wanted to wear a headscarf. They, too, could have simply , 'gone to another school'.