London court rules against Muslim girl who wanted to pray at school known for strict rules

LONDON — A Muslim student who wanted to pray at lunchtime lost a lawsuit Tuesday against a strict London school that had banned prayer on campus.

A High Court judge said the student had accepted when she enrolled at the school that she would be subject to religious restrictions.

“She knew the school was secular and her own evidence is that her mother wanted her to go there because she was known to be strict,” Judge Thomas Linden wrote in an 83-page ruling. “Long before the policy on prayer rituals was introduced, she and her friends thought that prayer was not allowed at school and so she would make up missed prayers when she got home.

The fight was over a rule put in place last year by Michaela Community School after a small group of students who began praying in the schoolyard caused divisions within the school that spread through the community and led to a bomb threat. A black teacher, who confronted students in prayer, was accused of “disgusting and Islamophobic behavior” and subjected to racist abuse in an online petition.

The high-performing secular school in the Wembley area imposes a rigid set of rules and discipline on its diverse students, half of whom are Muslim.

The Muslim girl, with the help of her mother, sued the school for “the kind of discrimination that makes religious minorities feel alienated from society.”

The girl, who cannot be named by court order, said she wanted to pray during the lunch break during an autumn and winter period, when the sun reaches its peak and requires one to perform one of the five daily prayer rituals of Islam at this time of day. She sued the school over the policy, claiming it violated her religious freedom and the European Convention on Human Rights.

The school argued that any interference the ban may have had with the girl’s religious rights was justified because the prayer ritual contradicted its strict rules and it was impractical to accommodate other students who wanted to pray. The school noted that Islam allows prayer to be performed later in the day and said the student could transfer to a school that allows prayer.

The judge said the broader goal of the prayer ban – promoting the school’s philosophy of integrating students of different faiths, cultures and ethnic backgrounds while minimizing social distinctions – outweighed its negative impact on Muslim students.

Headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh, who considers herself Britain’s strictest headteacher, said the move was a victory for all schools.

“A school should be free to do what is right for the students it serves,” she said in a statement. “Schools should not be forced by a child and their mother to change their approach simply because they have decided they don’t like something at school.

The student and her mother said through their lawyers that they were unhappy with the ruling.

“Even though I lost, I still think I made the right choice in seeking to challenge the ban,” the girl said. “I did my best and was true to myself and my religion.”