A Muslim student who sued her London school over its ban on “prayer rituals” has lost a High Court challenge.
The pupil at Michaela Community School took legal action after claiming the school policy on prayer was discriminatory and “uniquely” affects her faith due to its ritualised nature.
According to the school, the rule was first introduced in March last year by its founder and headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh – a former Government social mobility tsar.
Birbalsingh, who has been dubbed Britain’s strictest, hit back at the claims saying her school would “never separate children according to race and religion”.
The student alleged that the school’s stance on prayer – one of the five pillars of Islam – was “the kind of discrimination which makes religious minorities feel alienated from society”.
In a written ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Linden dismissed the pupil’s arguments against the prayer rituals ban.
Justice Linden said: “It seems to me that this is a case … where the claimant at the very least impliedly accepted, when she enrolled at the school, that she would be subject to restrictions on her ability to manifest her religion.
“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.”
More to follow…
