CLOSE FAITH SCHOOLS

All faith schools must be closed. Education must be offered without partiality or vested interest. One cannot object to Islamic practices while accommodating Christian and Jewish ones. Government alone must be responsible for our schools and curriculum.

The existence of faith schools is the greatest threat to our modern society. It allows the old to continue to entrap young minds and perpetuate their blinkered thinking. It sanctions the imprisonment of young lives in nonsensical traditions and restrictive cultural practices. It spawns fundamentalist thought and the excesses of dogmatism that can lead into terrorism and extremism. 

There is no logic or rationale for secular government to permit them. They continue purely because the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and the Jewish community have such wealth and power. Their schools cannot easily be closed and so, in our equal society, other faiths are invited to open schools also. 

The Birmingham experience has illustrated just how offensive it is for a school to assume Christmas celebrations should be observed.

It is time to rid the country of religious schools and remove from education the marking of any particular faith's beliefs, festivals and customs.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/leaders/article4115023.ece