raised by old red socks

The Muslim schools debate rumbles on.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, gave his backing last night to the chief schools inspector's controversial view that the growth of Muslim schools threatens "the coherence" of British society.

He said he agreed with David Bell that faith schools should be doing more to encourage diversity by promoting tolerance of other cultures.

The first thing I want to know is what’s meant by “coherence” in this context, especially as the government have previously welcomed faith schools because they create "diversity". Zen technocracy I suppose. In our diverse ways we all cohere.

The second para’s a bit muddy too. I was taught by old red socks, ie attended a catholic school “conducted by the Christian Brothers” as it said on the hoarding at the gates. Of course it promoted tolerance. Catholics were a minority. Prods were everywhere, constantly failing to take up the opportunities for birth control provided to them by their sloppy faith. We had to tolerate them. The purpose of Catholic schooling was to enable Catholics to compete in the workplace and breed more Catholics to send to Catholic primary schools and then onwards to establishments “conducted by the Christian Brothers” and their ilk. I assume Muslim schools have exactly the same purpose. If it’s OK for left footers, it should be fine for Muslims too.

Of course, that’s not to say that there’s no discrimination.

…the National Secular Society had concluded in its own submissions to the Government that "the pattern of education being provided by the State does not remotely reflect the reality of non-belief patterns of the new Millennium ...with disbelief in God increased from around 2 per cent in the 1940s and 1950s to more than 30 per cent now, with 45 per cent saying they have no religion".

And, they noted "while the non-religious contribute to the public purse which finances faith schools, discrimination can be openly practised against the children of the non-religious, and against non-religious adults as teachers".