Remove God from Schools!

The dire riots in Oldham and Bradford last Summer in England, and shocking scenes of Catholic girls stoned by Protestant parents in the Northern Ireland, and the Islamic Madrasahs in Pakistan, has demonstrated the ugly faces of religious schools. After September 11 the heat of religious passion seems more dangerous. From many corners freezing plans to build more faith schools is urgently demanded.

The former head of the commission for racial equality reporting on Bradford after the riots damned segregated schools as a prime cause of racial and religious hatred. There are signs that communities are divided along racial and faith lines.

In Sweden, in the 1990s, Islamic schools were flourished. Experience has shown that these schools are the fertile grounds for the growth of fanaticism, the rule of sexual apartheid, divisiveness, and spread of hatred. In these schools children were beaten and their health and happiness were threatened. Examples are the Islamic schools in the cities of Malmoe, Uppsala and Vestras. The first two schools caused scandals and the one in Malmoe was finally shut down.

Among other examples, the under-achievement of Bangladeshi and Pakistani children in England has been blamed on the amount of the time they spend in mosques studying the Koran. In a report by Dr Mohammad Ali, chief executive of a Bradford Charity: "Quantity not quality is provided in most British mosques and madrasahs and that is probably one of the reasons for the poor educational performance of British Pakistani pupils."

Beating children is another characteristic of faith schools either Islamic or Christian. Beating children was outlawed in state schools years ago and in independent fee-charging schools in 1999 in Britain. Most non - religious schools are pleased with this, but the Christian Fellowship school in Liverpool is spearheading a high - court battle by 40 Christian schools to bring it back. They claim their right to beat children is enshrined in the Bible.

In Islamic schools, particularly, children are deprived of learning to play music, to swim, to mix freely with each other and to enjoy their social activities. Girls are segregated, subject to mandatory veiling. In faith schools children are alienated and humiliated. They lose their self-esteem. They feel that they have been singled out and are different.

Preventing children from enjoying their social and civil rights such as education and participation in social activities is a systematic child abuse and an offence. It particularly isolates girls and makes their lives miserable. Girls are deprived of swimming, mixing with their classmates, and of being playful and happy.

Education for all must guarantee opening doors of opportunity to wider horizons than any child's home environment. Segregated schools deprive boys or girls to make real choices as they grow up.

Do faith schools, as it has been claimed, teach tolerance and respect? Or do they insist the sort of sectarian hatred that has some Muslims talking of jihad and some Christians of Crusade; and that has some Protestants stoning Catholic children as they walk to their religious schools? Neither Christian nor other religious schools teach respect for other faiths, they merely indoctrinate children. When a school promotes a particular religion as the one true faith, what sort of culture does that engender? The situation merely causes a crisis inherent in marrying education and religion. If the youth dangerously get ghettoized according to religion, the growth of Islamic fanaticism in schools is not surprising. In an age and in countries of widespread secularism, it is indeed shameful to force upon children ideologies that the majority of adults have left behind.

Now, we should deal with another more important issue. Do children have religion? How and in which process they have chosen to be the followers of this or that faith? The truth is that religions are hereditary beliefs and opinions. Children are labeled automatically as followers of this or that faith as soon as they are born and as a result of a blind lottery. The outcome is labeling the child as Muslim, Hindu, Protestant or Catholic, etc. It is not acceptable to do this to children. But, sadly and unfortunately, the society accepts this as a universal standard. Children have no faith. They have not joined any religious sect. The fate of children shouldn't be tied to the faith of their parents. Labeling children as followers of religious sects is indeed child abuse. Society should protect children and safeguard their rights. Society is duty bound to protect children from the spiritual manipulation by religions and religious institutions. Children should be given the chance to learn, to question and to investigate. But, quite understandably, the governments deliberately do the opposite. They set up and hugely subsidize religious schools. They prepare the fertile ground for the growth of superstition, fanaticism and religious hatred.

The time for children to learn about religion is in later life. They go to school to gain knowledge, not to become vehicle for dogma and superstition. Religion should be completely separated from education. Teaching of religious subjects and dogmas or religious interpretation of subjects in schools should be prohibited in educational system.

Faith schools cause deep psychological and physical harm to children. Religious education is indeed child abuse. Society is duty bound to put an end to this systematic child abuse.

God must be removed from schools!