The difficult question of the relationship between faith and state has reared its uncovered head — Muslim women are leading a campaign to ban the rise of young children wearing hijabs in state-funded primary schools.
As the author of an open letter calling on Ofsted and the government to take action, I fear for our children’s futures. Education is key: to challenge and critique, to expose minds to thoughts, actions and ideas they might otherwise not be exposed to. This journey into the taboo-laden subject of gender rights has upset some white liberals and ultra-Islamic conservatives. Questions raised include those of choice, parental freedoms, and how far the state has the right to facilitate the practice of one’s faith.
Born and raised in England, I am thankful that I live in a secular democracy, where the state largely delegates responsibility to us to govern our own lives. If we choose to believe that Sunday is the day of the Sabbath, so be it. If it is a Friday, may you have a blessed Jummah.
Islam similarly provides space and freedom for human intricacies. There is no universal interpretation, apart from the five pillars, which are sacrosanct. As varied as the colours of an autumnal orchard, practices and cultures reflect the geography, history, politics, tribes and traditions of diverse people, from the Wakhi Ismaili Muslims in the Gojal region of Pakistan to the Muslim settlers in Japan and the long history of Mali Muslims. They overlap in fundamentals, but Islam’s beauty is in the freedom to let it live and breathe in the spirit of where it takes root.
The issue on whether a child as young as five should wear a hijab is not in dispute. The majority of ordinary Muslims agree that there is absolutely no religious justification. It is a perversion of Islamic teachings, a mentality pushed by extremists, albeit principally by non-violent extremists.
Some argue that children and parents should be free to choose — but choice may be denied to children if that choice is in conflict with religious or cultural codes. Why else would Islamic schools mandate the veiling of young girls if there were a genuine choice?
An insidious rationale — that girls sometimes start menstruation as young as nine, indicating puberty — is often used as a justification for mandatory veiling. But there is often a lack of understanding of the physical, emotional and mental changes taking place in girls.
The challenge comes when private belief spills into the realm of public life, in this instance into state schools. In the UK the pillars of equality are rooted in a progressive accommodation between the Christian faith and the state. Battles of yesteryear not quite secure in their new-found freedoms.
If one’s faith becomes blind, whose job is it to gently bring some clarity to the blind? In Islam, as with most faiths, it is usually within communities, families and mosques where one might hope to be shown the light. Sadly many institutions have been corrupted with a global, virulent strain of Islamist thinking.
I was brought up understanding a key principle of Islam: that the rule of law in one’s country, if it is not a Muslim country and not at war with Muslims, must be adhered to. There is an Urdu saying that Muslims are ritualising Islam and have lost the spirituality portrayed by Bilal, the Prophet’s companion and first muezzin. Muslims must revisit his Islamic wisdom and root out those polemicists who preach only about an Ummah, or Muslim community, and push extreme points of view.
The state cannot be impotent. It has to be robust in defending schools as places of free and equal learning. When faith becomes dogmatic, it is the role of the state to show vision and shed light. This is not a denial of ritualistic practice. It is an assertion of a democracy protecting its institutions — the celebration of a proud history of secularisation and cherished equalities shaped and moulded by men and women fighting for tomorrows unseen.
For if the state is blinded, all our futures lie in desolate darkness.