Attempt to force secular school to stop being secular fails:

A Muslim student at a London school has lost a High Court challenge against its ban on prayer rituals. Michaela School in Wembley was taken to court by the girl over the policy, which she argued was discriminatory. The non-faith state secondary school previously told the High Court that allowing prayer rituals risked “undermining inclusion” among pupils.

Theocrats will of course retort that secularism undermines inclusion of theocrats, which is true enough, but secularism has the advantage of neutrality. If the school allowed prayers for one religion then it would risk “undermining inclusion” for all the other religions and for secular neutrality. That, of course, is the goal.

In an 83-page written judgment dismissing the student’s case, Mr Justice Linden said: “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.”

Why? Because it’s a secular school. That’s the whole point.

About half the school’s roughly 700 pupils are Muslim, the court previously heard. Students are expected to adhere to strict rules including focusing on teachers extensively during lessons and remaining silent in corridors, as well as observing restrictions on uniforms.

In March 2023, up to 30 students began praying in the school’s yard, using blazers to kneel on, the High Court heard. Pupils are not allowed to gather in groups of more than four, including in the school yard. The school introduced the ban in the same month due to concerns about a “culture shift” towards “segregation between religious groups and intimidation within the group of Muslim pupils”, the court was told.

Which is the goal of all this praying in public routine. It’s meant to be a firm shove in the direction of religious conformity.

There is no legal requirement for schools to allow pupils a time or a place to pray, although most schools are still required to provide “broadly Christian” collective worship.

Yeah there’s your problem right there. Get rid of that requirement. Schools are not churches and should not be providing any kind of “collective worship.” It’s not “providing”; it’s coercing.

Lawyers for the pupil told the judge at a hearing in January that she was making a “modest” request to be allowed to pray for about five minutes at lunchtime, on dates when faith rules required it, but not during lessons. Representing the student, Sarah Hannett KC told the court that the school’s policy had the “practical effect of only preventing Muslims from praying, because their prayer by nature has a ritualised nature rather than being internal”.

Or to put it another way, because Muslim prayer is set up to coerce bystanders into religious conformity.

The case has led to renewed discussion about the broader role of faith within England’s education system. The National Secular Society, Humanists UK and others have long campaigned for reform, saying faith has no place in school.

Quite right.