In recent weeks, the place of Muslim schools in the United Kingdom hascome under intense scrutiny. First a public row broke out betweencommunities secretary Ruth Kelly and Trevor Phillips, chair of theCommission for Racial Equality, after Kelly claimed Muslim schools wereisolationist (Children Now, 6-12 September). Then, just days later,police raided the Jameah Islamiyah school near Crowborough in EastSussex as part of an investigation into suspected Islamist terrorplots.
The Government says Kelly's remarks merely aimed to encourage "honestdebate about integration and cohesion", and the National Secular Societysays her criticisms are valid, arguing that Muslim schools are"isolationist by nature".
"They are divisive and prevent children from mixing with othercultures," says a spokesman for the society. "Muslim parents pick theseschools because they don't want them to have a Western education. Theywant an Islamic education, they want boys and girls segregated andparents want girls to wear veils whether they want to or not."
The society says a study by the Economic and Social Research Councilsupports its view. The research, published last month, found that inclasses where at least one third of the children were from minoritybackgrounds, there was "greater evidence of mixed-ethnicity friendshipscarrying over to secondary school friendships".
Isolationist accusations
But the National Union of Teachers is dismissive of the society'sarguments.
"Muslim schools are no more isolationist than Catholic, Church ofEngland or Jewish schools," said a spokeswoman. "Catholic and Church ofEngland schools are more integrated because they've been around forhundreds of years. Because Muslim schools are new, they've not yetestablished as strong links with the community."
But she says the onus is on schools to integrate into the community."This can be done by sitting on governing bodies or through fundraisingevents - links can also be built with local drama groups or sportsclubs. Secondary schools can also create links with primary schools andvice versa."
The Muslim Council of Britain agrees. Tahir Alam, chair of the council'seducation committee, says isolationism is not in the Muslim community'sinterests. "Muslims who want to be prominent and successful in thissociety need to integrate," he says. "For the last few years, we havebeen in constant dialogue with the Government, asking that Muslim faithschools be publicly funded and follow the national curriculum.
"Kelly's view is a false argument, but the Government has respondedpositively to our request and commissioned research to look at how manyMuslim faith schools want to come into the public state system. I amencouraged by this, but it's a small step in relation to the bigpicture."
Alam says councils can also help connect Muslim schools with localcommunities.
"Every local authority has to have a schools organisation committee;this body makes decisions on the closing, opening and change of use ofbuildings for schools," he says. "They should give as much support aspossible to faith schools wanting to join the public system. Decisionsconcerning buildings, for example, are often a problem. A building thatcould have been offered as premises has been sold off for development'so there are issues about which planners could be more helpful."
Some local authorities are already working to improve links betweenMuslim schools and the wider community. Leicester City Council, forexample, has been working with the Leicester Islamic Academy for thelast three years.
Most of the council's work has involved arranging joint activities forschoolchildren from both the academy and local state schools. This year,the council has been bussing children from the academy to a local stateschool once a week for drama and philosophy activities.
Robert Vincent, standards inspector at the council, says: "It's beenhugely beneficial for the youngsters involved. Their behaviour hasimproved perceptibly."
Staff also organised a football match for the pupils undertaking theproject. "The atmosphere was fantastic. They played as a team withoutthinking about which school they came from. In future, I think we needto have more sporting activities."
Building bridges
Bradford Council is also trying to strengthen the links between Muslimchildren and their peers, although none of the work is specificallyaimed at Muslim schools. "We have a school-linking project to bringtogether pupils from various parts of the district to learn aboutdifferent walks of life," says a council spokeswoman. There is also astudent advisory council that gives young people a chance to influencehow religious education is taught in Bradford's schools.
But while such work is needed, Alam says the focus on Muslim schoolsoften belies the fact that very few children attend them. "Ninety-sixper cent of Muslim children are in the state system, not in privatefaith schools," he says. "Of the remaining four per cent, only sevenschools are state funded - 0.7 per cent of Muslim schools."
- Additional reporting by Ben Cook, Kathryn Fox and Samantha Thorp
FACT BOX
- Ofsted says it has not yet seen sufficient practice to evaluateefforts by local authorities to help Muslim schools integrate
- A study by London South Bank University for the Economic and SocialResearch Council suggests that social cohesion is better when schoolshave a diverse mix of pupils
- The study, Locality, School and Social Capital, is available fromwww.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/PO/releases/2006/august/ethnic.aspx?ComponentId=16301&SourcePageId=96.
