Britain's Catholic Schools Ban Islam From Religious Studies

Islamic leaders outraged

Paul Bois 

The Catholic Church in Britain now refuses to teach Islam as part of its GCSE religious studies curriculum, disappointing the country's Muslim leaders. 

Under the new rules based on last year's reforms to the GCSE exam, only Judaism will be taught in tandem with Catholicism, excluding Islam and every other faith.

The decision to drive out Islam stemmed from an incident known as the 'Trojan Horse' plot, in which Muslim schools in Birmingham were known to have teachers pushing fundamentalist Islamic teachings on the students. 

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, former secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, has called the decision "very disappointing" and urged British cleric Cardinal Nichols to rethink his position.

"This is not a good decision," complained Sacranie. "It does not reflect well on the messages that are coming out from the Church for greater tolerance of other faiths. This is a difficult time for religions and the last thing you would expect is a major faith making such a statement."

According to Paul Barber, the director at the Catholic Education Service, students being taught in the Jewish faith alongside Christianity complies with the bishops' edict that students be given a solid grounding in Christianity, considering Judaism's ancestral link to Christianity.