There is a danger the argument over a call for schools to be more accommodating of Muslim children and their community’s cultural traditions can, unfortunately, all too quickly become one about Islam itself. The temptation to make it about the most extreme practices of some Islamic states adds no clarity to a legitimate debate about the nature of state schooling, its ethos and curriculum, in a pluralist society of many faiths and none.
It is a welcome debate that is in truth as important to conservative Catholics and atheists as to the parents of Ireland’s estimated 20,000 Muslim schoolchildren. Ultimately it also has less to do with minority/majority status than with how we as a society perceive the outcome of the gradual, ongoing reform of our education system to reflect a more diverse society: Ruairí Quinn’s attempts as minister for education to break up the old patronage system, to shift from school to parish for sacramental preparation and explicit faith formation, to reform the admissions system . . .
And the truth is that, paradoxically, it may be more accommodating to Muslims and other minorities, more celebrating of diversity, in all sorts of ways, but at the same time perhaps, in its increasing secularist separation of church and state in education, also moving away from Dr Ali Selim’s particular vision.
In his book Islam and Education in Ireland, Dr Selim, of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh and a lecturer in the Mater Dei Institute and Trinity College, calls for "a revolution of inclusivity" in Irish schools and "an upheaval in Irish educational perspectives".
But what sort of “inclusivity”? Dr Selim’s case is representative of a conservative strand of Islam which would not have universal support in his community, but in some concerns, like the perceived liberal ethics of the RSE sex education programme, or the free mixing and association of girls and boys in class and at play – inevitable and essential in co-education – articulate concerns that have in the past been heard from Catholic parents. In the treatment of girls there can be no question of accepting what would be tantamount to a form of educational apartheid inside schools.
On some issues his concerns can be met by facilitating opt-outs from classes, scheduling religious formation at the beginning or end of the day, as has been proposed by the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism. Schools can do more to acknowledge the religious calendar of minority faiths, and the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism has encouraged religious patrons to provide examples of “good practice” in regard to accommodating children of other faiths and none.
Greater transparency on admissions policies in State-funded schools would also be welcome, and Mr Quinn’s successor, Jan O’Sullivan ,would be wise to continue the reforms.
