<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1091218/Muslim-prayer-rooms-opened-Catholic-schools-say-church-leaders.html>Muslim
prayer rooms should be opened in Catholic schools, say church leaders
By Simon Caldwell
Last updated at 11:44 AM on 02nd December 2008
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Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in every Roman Catholic school,
Church leaders have said.
The Catholic bishops of England and Wales also want special toilet
facilities in schools to be adapted for Islamic cleaning rituals.
Their demands will shock both Catholic parents and the Government
because they go way beyond the legal requirements on catering for the
rights and needs of religious minorities.
But the bishops are keen to answer critics who say religious schools
sow division - and to show that they are leading the way in building
bridges between people of different faiths.
The bishops acknowledge in a new document proposing the measures that
30 per cent of pupils attending Catholic schools hold a non-Christian faith.
Muslims pray
Bishops want prayer rooms opened in every Roman Catholic school (file photo)
"If practicable, a room (or rooms) might be made available for the
use of pupils and staff from other faiths for prayer," the bishops
said in the document, Catholic Schools, Children of Other Faiths and
Community Cohesion
"Existing toilet facilities might be adapted to accommodate
individual ritual cleansing which is sometimes part of religious
lifestyle and worship," they said.
"If such space is not available on a permanent or regular basis,
extra efforts might be made to address such need for major religious
festivals."
The Islamic cleansing ritual, called "Wudhu", is carried out by
Muslims before they pray.
Islam teaches that Muslims are unfit for prayer if they have not
performed Wudhu after breaking wind or using the toilet.
Wudhu involves washing the face, hands, arms and feet three times
each, gargling the mouth three times and washing the neck and inside
the nose and ears. Some Muslims also wash their private parts.
Catholic schools would need to install bidets, foot spas and hoses to
facilitate such extensive cleansing rituals, Muslims say.
The document has been published by the Catholic Education Service, an
agency of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.
But it has been personally approved by Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of
Birmingham and the favourite to succeed Cardinal Cormac
Murphy-O'Connor next year as the leader of the country's 4.3 million Catholics.
It will inevitably lead to accusations that the Catholic Church is
ready to cave in to the Government's agenda and some Catholics have
questioned the wisdom of the policies as well as the cost.
Daphne McLeod, a former Catholic head teacher from south London, said
it would be "terribly expensive" for the country's 2,300 Catholic
primary and secondary schools to provide ritual cleansing facilities.
She said: "If Muslim parents choose a Catholic school then they
accept that it is going to be a Catholic school and there will not be
facilities for ritual cleansing and prayer rooms.
"They do their ritual cleansing before they go to a mosque, but they
are not going to a mosque.
"I don't think the bishops should go looking for problems. Where will it stop?"
But Majid Khatme, a Muslim who sent his children to a London Catholic
school, said he was delighted by the gesture.
"It is very kind of the bishops if they give this facility for
Muslims to pray," he said.
"I would love to send a letter of thanks to the bishops, really. If
they do this all Muslims in Britain will be thankful to the Catholic
Church to have facilities to pray. It is very, very encouraging."
Archbishop Nichols, the chairman of the bishops' Department for
Education and Formation, said in his foreword to the document that
inter-faith dialogue has become increasingly important to the Church
"as the presence of other faith communities grows and becomes more
evident in our society".
He said that the publication was being "offered to our schools in the
hope that the good work already being done in them for children and
young people of other faiths can be further strengthened and so that
the lives of all our pupils, students and staff can be enriched".
The document also urges head teachers to "keep under review" all
policies which touched on other religions, including school uniform,
dietary needs and the time-tabling of events.
Laura McCann, spokeswoman for the Catholic Education Service, said it
would be a matter for the governing body of each school to decide
whether to adopt the recommendations.
"It would depend on the resources that they have and also other
factors such as the numbers of non-Catholic pupils attending the
school," she said.
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