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Intellectual Bankruptcy - Michaela School ban and Religious Freedom.
Michaela School ban on Muslim prayers is more about ideology than rules.
To be bankrupt is, by the dictionary definition, the inability to pay off one’s debts. To be morally bankrupt could be surmised as being the inability to have any level of morality, and to be intellectually bankrupt would be the inability for your arguments to stand up to any real intellectual scrutiny.
All three of these definitions (and many more) are befitting of the British state. However, for the sake of brevity and not wishing to kick a man when he is down, this article will discuss only the latter.
Katharine Birbalsingh, the savior of the British education system, said of the high court ruling to uphold the banning of praying at Michaela Community School that it was a “victory for all schools.” Across the sun-drenched island shored of the United Kingdom, there was a collective celebratory feeling in schools which in some cases are quite literally falling apart at the seams.
Dodgy construction, inadequate funding, not enough teachers, knife crime, truancy, not fit for human consumption school meals, overpriced uniforms, inequality in standards, and strikes for better pay were all forgotten because she banned Muslims from praying during school hours.
The legal challenge brought by a Muslim pupil at Michaela Community School was premised on the view that banning her from praying for five minutes outside of lesson time went against the principle of “freedom of religion”. Thus, it singled out Muslims who were obliged by their faith to pray at certain points during the day. Birbalsingh’s position, and therefore the school’s position, was that allowing praying would create division within the school. The timeline of events suggests that if appropriate consultation between the school, pupils, and parents had been conducted with a little understanding, the situation could have been resolved. It shows a clear failure of leadership from Birbalsingh and an inability to take a nuanced adult approach to the Muslim pupils under her care.
It seems that at some point during the series of events that led to a few dozen pupils praying outside using prayer mats, an online petition organised by pupils, and unsavory emails to the school, Birbalsingh and the school lost their collective sense of professionalism.
The emails, which according to the school were threatening in nature, were used as a stick to beat up the school’s Muslim pupils. Clearly slighted by these emails, Birbalsingh set about on a personal crusade to ensure the prayer ban was enforced. These emails were not representative of the pupils’ views or their approach to the issue; however, from the outside, it seems like the school took them as such.
Schools and education, in general, have always meant to be about intellectual inquiry and the expression of ideas. The last few years have seen pupils across the UK walking out of classes to protest against climate change. These acts (clearly against school rules) were seen as a coming of age of British youth, no longer willing to see their planet be destroyed. Yet a similar collective expression by Muslim pupils in a single school on a much smaller scale was somehow seen as problematic.
Birbalsingh, who proclaims herself as a small-c conservative and Britain’s Strictest Headmistress (she even has a website name to prove it)[1], is clearly ambitious and ideologically driven. Her own website proclaims her as “one-woman firebrand, who forcefully proclaims we’re all getting it wrong.” It backs this up by stating “You should be interested because Birbalsingh’s revolutionary ideas are gaining traction.” In an age where young minds are so affected by the idea of personal branding, influencer culture, and social media, a champion of education should know better than to make it all about her.
Birbalsingh’s whole philosophy, is premised on the view that ethnic minorities should stop playing victim and buck up their ideas. She believes that white privilege is a myth that actually holds ethnic minorities back, and that talking about it makes BAME pupils feel the estalbishment is against them.[2]
Over the years, she has carefully transitioned her intellectual position from left-wing to now be lauded by the right wing Henry Jackson Society[3][4][5] and Douglas Murray[6]. Her political views seem to be less small-c conservative and more capital-Z Zionist, putting her name to the British Friends of Israel ‘October Declaration’.[7] Notably she is the only teacher on the list.
All this, in itself, is problematic, bearing in mind the “Trojan Hoax” situation in Birmingham a few years ago. Then Muslim governors and teachers were wrongfully accused of attempting to mould the education in schools to their “Islamist” agenda. However, here we have a headteacher clearly idelogically motivated, pro-Zionist in charge a large number of Muslim children is worrying. To quote Shakespeare (not sure she is a big fan of Hamlet), “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”. As the pupils in her school might say, she is a “try hard” attempting to get the attention from all the wrong people.
Beyond her dubious ideological position, Birbalsingh’s disciplined focused approach is nothing more than ensuring the stick is bigger than the carrot, or in this case, bigger than the prayer mat. Hardly revolutionary, as a father of three children, I can tell you the bigger the stick gets, the harder the head you are banging it against becomes. Education is about growth not just exam results.
To be clear issue is not just about Birbalsingh, lest this be deemed a witch hunt. However, it is important to understand that entrenched actions like hers are less about education and more about ideological arrogance.
The upholding of the decision by the high court and Birbalsingh’s rather juvenile response of “if you don’t like it, don’t come to us”8 clearly highlights the problem lies at a much deeper level than just the breaking of school rules. This was never about a few pupils creating a sense of division in the school, but the fact that Muslim pupils were so willing to go against the grain and dare to pray in school.
Ever since 9/11 for the last two decades and more, the political atmosphere in Britain has shifted away from accepting Muslims as they are, to wanting to mould them into what the British state deems as acceptable, ideological grooming at its finest. What started off as labeling Muslims as either extremist or moderate quickly moved onto wanting a British Islam and morphed into the end of multiculturalism leading to a new era of muscular liberalism.
The establishment and right-wing media have denigrated Islam, mocked its Prophet, attacked its values, and even labeled Muslim women as letterboxes. Add to this the British obsession with mass murdering Muslims abroad; one would think that the Muslims of Britain got the picture; that they need to comply with what is asked of them.
This hasn’t transpired as planned; as a collective, the Muslims of Britain would rather stick to their own values than be preached to by the state. The reaction of Muslim parents to the teaching of LGBT in primary schools and the stance of the Muslim community on the killing of Muslims in Gaza shows that 20 years of efforts to create a submissive Muslim community have failed. Capitalism, liberal Democracy, secular wokery, and right-wing authoritarianism haven’t won the hearts and minds of the Muslims.
What the high court case highlights is when challenged with ideas or views outside of a very restrictive set of parameters, the reaction is becoming increasingly authoritarian. This was the same with the labeling or banning of Muslim organizations over the past few months. When a state espouses freedom of speech and freedom of religion and in the same breath goes against the very same principles, then it is clear that the idea of pluralism is just marketing spin. The doors of debate have long been closed.
One would think a society that is losing all sense of what is right and what is wrong would welcome the discipline of young people who want to pray. True discipline is not achieved by the stick but by a belief system that moulds personalities that are honorable, truthful, dignified, and steadfast. All the attributes shown by the young Muslim girl who brought the case.
Nothing epitomises the difference between the pupil and headteacher than their reactions to the court ruling. Whilst obviously dismayed by the ruling the pupil bringing the case has said she would rather just move on and concentrate on her exams.[9] On the other hand, Birbalsingh has been taking to the media using dog whistle politics to rally up the masses against the £150,000 given as legal aid to the pupil to fight the case [10].
[1] https://www.strictestheadmistress.com/
[5] https://henryjacksonsociety.org/media-centre/dr-rakib-ehsan-20/ - https://www.mailplus.co.uk/edition/comment/114647/headteacher-katharine-birbalsingh-discipline-order-above-liberal-ideas-exactly-what-britain-needs
[6] https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-triumph-of-katharine-birbalsingh/
[7] https://britishfriendsofisrael.org/
[9] https://5pillarsuk.com/2024/04/16/high-court-upholds-michaela-school-ban-on-prayer-rituals/
[10] https://www.gbnews.com/news/katharine-birbalsingh-pupil-legal-aid-muslim-prayer-ban