Schools should stop trampling on the Rights of Muslim students

 (This article appeared on the The Friday Bulletin. Wajir Times is the online partner of the weekly publication.)

By: Ally Jama.

The issue of Muslim students in certain schools across the country being forced to attend church services or being denied their legitimate right to dress modestly in line with Islamic principles has perhaps reached worrying levels.

In such schools, students are denied an opportunity to practice and express their religion in various ways including being denied places of prayer thus disabling them religiously and spiritually.

Bura girls practising for a sporting event at the school compound. The school suspended Muslim. The church-run school suspended Muslim students for not attending church service(courtesy)

I do not want to discuss the specifics of the recent issue that occurred in the country since the matter is a subject of an ongoing court process. I just want to discuss the matter in general terms.

Although such a scenario does not affect all schools in the country, it usually arises in the many educational institutions that are sponsored by religious communities, mainly the Catholic Church.

The argument that Muslim students must attend church services because “school regulations” demand so and that students have to obey school regulations does not hold water at all.

Schools are not allowed to make and enforce regulations that violate the freedom of worship against Muslim students. This goes against natural law as well as the Constitution of the country which acknowledges such a fundamental freedom.

Others claim because the church sponsors some schools, then it has a right to force students who are not christian to attend church services.

This argument is baseless considering that even such schools are funded by the taxpayers, who pay for the teachers, without which such schools would not be able to operate effectively.

In addition, in many of such schools, infrastructural development including building of classrooms and dormitories has been partly funded by the public through the Constituency Development Fund.

Since these schools receive substantial amount of public funds which all Kenyans pay as taxes regardless of their religion, it is imperative that they live to the moral and constitutional values of religious tolerance, freedom of worship and non-discrimination on the basis of religion or any other parameter.
If such schools funded all their operations entirely from their own resources, and classified themselves as exclusively for members of their religious group, they may have the right to restrict admission as well impose their own regulations. But as it stands this is not the case.
It is unfortunate that the country’s top leadership has remained silent about this burning issue for long time. It is time they spoke out publicly against religious tolerance in schools sponsored by some religious organizations.

In addition, the media has not given this matter the substantial coverage it deserves, meaning that many Kenyans remain in the dark as the fundamental rights of Muslim students are trampled in schools.

It can be reasonably assumed that if a Muslim school is caught forcing non-Muslims to go the mosque or take Islamic lessons, the issue would have received more national attention and Muslims would have been heavily criticized for “religious intolerance”. But Alas, if victims of similar discrimination are Muslims, we don’t see the levels of national outrage that it deserves.

It is time schools lived up to the values of religious tolerance and liberality instead of cultivating a culture of intolerance. This is very critical since the values and attitudes of people are largely formed during their school years.
Also, it is time the Muslim leadership engaged the leadership of religious groups whose schools violate rights of Muslim students, especially the Catholic Church which runs many schools across the country.

They need to be prevailed upon and pressured to review their policy of compelling Muslim students from attending church services or being denied the practice of their religion as they seek education in their schools.

But the long term solution for the Muslim community is to get organized and develop our own schools which nurture and respect our values and to help Muslim students have an atmosphere that support their religious and spiritualdevelopment.

Other communities have developed their own educational institutions but the Muslim community has lagged behind a bit on this crucial front since Kenya acquired independence from the colonialists more than half a century ago.

In addition, addressing this issue cannot be done only through the court process. This is not only expensive and time-consuming, it also creates unnecessary antagonism and resentments between the different parties making it difficult for affected students to be integrated back to their schools without much drama.

Since the problem is a matter of values and policies, it can best be addressed through constructive engagements with school administrations on the need to recognize and uphold the rights of Muslim students. I am confident that this non-adversarial approach will achieve more without poisoning the atmosphere for Muslim students in schools.

Only in a few, exceptional cases, when school administrators are totally rigid, can the court process be taken up to serve as a lesson for other schools.

Ally Jamah is a media practitioner based in Nairobi. Email:ally.jamah@gmail.com

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