School wins Muslim dress appeal

From the beeb:

"A school which was told it unlawfully excluded a Muslim pupil for wearing a traditional gown has won its appeal at the House of Lords.
The Court of Appeal had said Denbigh High School had denied Shabina Begum the right to manifest her religion in refusing to allow her to wear a jilbab.

But in a unanimous ruling, judges at the House of Lords overturned that.

They said the Luton school had "taken immense pains to devise a uniform policy which respected Muslim beliefs".

It had done so "in an inclusive, unthreatening and uncompetitive way"."

And quite right too. The original ruling by the Court of Appeal found that Shabina Begum had been denied her right to an education because the school had not allowed her to wear the jilbab. Which was rubbish - she had been denied her right to an education whilst wearing whatever she damn well pleased. There is nothing in the Koran, nor in traditional Islamic custom, that insists that Muslim girls have to wear this particular get-up.

Uniforms: I'm not fussed about them. Getting the we'ans into school with optional extras like some kind of receptacle to carry books, pens and other educational accessories - and without being monged out of their tiny minds, I would settle for. But if a school management, parents, and pupils even, decide that a school uniform is a good idea - which I would say more often than not they do - what right does the state have to rule in favour of an individual that refuses this?

The question obviously occurred to the House of Lords and their ruling reflected this accordingly:

"It is important to stress at the outset that this case concerns a particular pupil and a particular school in a particular place at a particular time. It must be resolved on facts which are now, for purposes of the appeal, agreed. The House is not, and could not be, invited to rule whether Islamic dress, or any feature of Islamic dress, should or should not be permitted in the schools of this country. That would be a most inappropriate question for the House in its judicial capacity, and it is not one which I shall seek to address."

Excellent - because since schools are to be held solely responsible for the collapse in civic values and social mores, it might be nice if those of us who work in said institutions might be left maybe a few fragments of authority.

To all of you who wanted to, in the most idiotic and crass manner imaginable, make this case about "white people" telling "brown people" what to do, who don't have the first inkling about what it takes to run a school, because you don't really give a shit about education anyway - I fart in your general direction.