THE High Court ruling in favour of Michaela Community School yesterday is a much-needed blow against the tyranny of activist mobs who try to force everyone to bend to their will.
A Muslim pupil brought the lawsuit after teachers barred prayer rituals in the courtyard.
The ban was initially branded Islamophobic by the school’s detractors after the unnamed student brought the claim on the grounds of discrimination.
The pupil told the court her right to freedom of religion had been breached and it had changed how she felt “about being a Muslim in this country”.
Let’s set the record straight: There was never an anti-prayer policy.
In fact, dozens of students had been allowed to pray in the yard at the inner-city North London school.
This was until a small group of Muslim students started bullying others who were not joining in the prayers and harassing them for not observing other rituals such as fasting and wearing a hijab.
The ordeal led to teachers being abused, intimidated and even one having a brick thrown through her window, according to the head.
This was never about a school “oppressing” a religious group.
The real story was about a bunch of entitled youngsters trying to stifle the religious freedom of others in the school and unleashing a campaign of intimidation and harassment on those who disagreed with them.
In his 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.”
The finding will be viewed as upholding the right of non-religious schools to make their own decisions about whether to set aside time and space for pupils to pray.
When Katharine Birbalsingh — dubbed “Britain’s strictest head teacher” — put the ban in place, she was dragged through the courts in a bid to force her to succumb to pressure.
Predictably, there was a cabal of left-wing critics of the school who were salivating at the prospect that the judge would rule in favour of the student, effectively branding the school’s policy Islamophobic.
I’m sure many would love, once and for all, to bring down the head teacher who has long been a thorn in the side of the largely Labour-loving teaching establishment.
She has an unashamed commitment to British values, teaches her pupils discipline, love of country and duty.
Birbalsingh lambasts victimhood and identity politics, and her regimented way of treating her pupils has proved a massive success.
Not only does the school rank top in the country for students’ progress scores at GCSE, but despite children there mostly coming from deprived backgrounds, 91 per cent pass English and maths, compared to 50 per cent nationally in England.
Teachers must not be threatened into submission
Kemi Badenoch
The judge should be commended for seeing right through the flimsy, nonsensical case.
He affirmed that the ban was a “proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”, adding that the evidence showed that since the prayer rituals were banned “good relations within the school community have been restored”.
The parents of the student should hang their heads in shame for subjecting their daughter to this pointless endeavour.
They should be grateful for the chance to send their daughter to this top-tier state school — an opportunity many working-class parents would die for — instead of pursuing publicity stunts at the taxpayers’ expense.
According to Birbalsingh’s statement following the ruling, the mum whose daughter sued the school intends to send yet another one of her children there from September.
The apparent lack of shame and the hypocrisy boggles the mind.
The reality is, the school was never Islamophobic in the slightest.
Muslim parents are desperate to send their children to the oversubscribed school and so many apply for the privilege that it is now made up of 50 per cent Muslim pupils.
Doesn’t sound very “Islamophobic” to me.
Good on Birbalsingh for standing up to narcissistic activist bullies relentlessly trying to force everyone to bend over backwards to accommodate their every need and demand at the expense of everyone else.
It’s high time someone sends them a message, and our legal system showed it is on the side of those who want to keep some semblance of social cohesion, rather than tear down all the institutions which keep us all civil.
Writing after the event, Minister for Women and Equalities’ Kemi Badenoch — another stalwart in the fight against madness — wrote on Twitter/X: “This ruling is a victory against activists trying to subvert our public institutions.
“No pupil has the right to impose their views on an entire school community in this way. The Equality Act is a shield, not a sword, and teachers must not be threatened into submission.”
She is totally right — and thank God there are public figures among us who continue to refuse to appease the angry but loud identity politics minority.
I hope this ruling serves as an example to those who have been so cowardly in defending British values and common sense in the face of the tyrannical demands of activist mobs.
