https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1284-1950
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ABSTRACT
This paper analyses the recent protests by mainly Muslim parents against the use of LGBTQ+-friendly story books in a primary school in Birmingham, England, the associated court case, and the broader issues it highlights about the contradictory and complex relationships between liberalism, faith, and democracy. I discuss the case itself, tensions around Relationships and Sex Education, and the wider social and political context for the protest, considering both the position of ‘Muslims’ in the UK’s civic and political society, and how dominant discourses within liberalism responds to ‘others’ in this present temporal moment. I conclude by briefly considering the potential of deliberative democracy and agonism as approaches to address emotive value clashes, and to emphasise the importance of primary schools as places of shared investments, where families and teachers might move towards developing mutual understandings.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank two anonymous referees and the editors of the Journal for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Since 2014, teachers in England have been required to promote the ‘fundamental British values’ defined by the government as democracy, individual liberty, rule of law, mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths.
3 Similarly, another anti-RSE organisation, ‘School Gate Campaign’ makes similarly exaggerated claims that resources used by schools introduce ‘Nudity, graphic images and terms like anal intercourse and masturbation to Juniors. First sexual intercourse will be encouraged from the age of 13’ (https://www.schoolgatecampaign.org/. Accessed October 16th 2020, original emphasis.)
4 Equality and Human Rights Commission (Citation2014). https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/psed_guide_for_schools_in_england.pdf
6 Two thirds (67%) of Conservative Party members who participated in a YouGov poll in June 2019 believed that there were areas in Britain that operate under Sharia law, and nearly half (45%) believed that there were areas which non-Muslims were not able to enter.
7 The Trojan Horse Affair - the subject of four different investigations - is difficult to unravel, but the 2015 report by the House of Commons Education Select Committee concluded that, with the exception of one incident, no evidence of extremism or radicalisation was found by any of the Trojan Horse inquiries, and in 2017, the charges of professional misconduct against key teachers were dropped (although the teachers were not cleared, the case against them collapsed on procedural grounds, see Holmwood and O'Toole Citation2018; Miah Citation2017 for reviews).
9 Recent statistics show that referrals are now more equally balanced between Islamist and far-right radicals. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/853646/individuals-referred-supported-prevent-programme-apr2018-mar2019-hosb3219.pdf
10 See for example the liberal reading of the Qu’ran provided by Imaan, an LGBT Muslim organisation, (https://imaanlondon.wordpress.com; also Shah Citation2016)
12 In a 2019 statement provided to Humanists UK, Ofsted commented that in an inspection report on Vishnitz Girls' School: ‘We merged two standards by incorrectly stating that the school did not pay due regard to the [Equality Act’s] protected characteristics and was, therefore, undermining fundamental British values. However, these two standards are not inherently connected, so the report now states that the school met the standard regarding British values, but not the standard regarding equalities’. https://www.tes.com/news/ofsted-removed-lgbt-concerns-published-report (accessed October 16th 2020)
13 In 2017, Ofsted’s Chief Inspector linked the wearing of hijabs by girls of primary school age with fundamentalism, and inspectors were instructed to question the children to ascertain why they wore a hair covering (hijabs are often adopted at the onset of puberty, but some younger girls also wear them). https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/nov/19/school-inspectors-to-question-primary-school-girls-who-wear-hijab.