THEY ARE the “disappeared”. Thousands of Asian girl pupils, despite an excellent academic record that could lead them to university, suddenly drop out of school. Some are nominally “home-schooled”, some will be sent back home to Pakistan or Bangladesh for an arranged marriage. In all cases, they are lost to the education system.

This is a tragedy for them — and a danger for us. Schools serve as the best glue in a pluralist society, and it should be our aim to keep young Muslim girls in school for as long as possible. Ban their religious dress code and, as happened with Shabina Begum, who sought to wear a jilbab instead of the school uniform, the girls will switch schools or drop out altogether.

In some cases, the decision will be taken by strictly observant parents — with Shabina, it may have been the older brother who has brought up the orphan teenager. But, as the Muslim Council of Britain has pointed out, an increasing number of teenage girls are wearing the hijab and the jilbab and are fervently embracing Islam. Their show of piety (and the jilbab, with its dark flowing gown is an unmissable statement) holds up two fingers at a Britain they regard not so much as a host country but as a hostile one.

Muslim girls, like Muslim boys, often live in poor, run-down urban areas, where high unemployment keeps frustrations alive. They can observe a society that trashes religion of any kind and reiterates its fear of Islamic extremists. They can hear constant references to Muslims’ so-called alien practices — five prayers in a day, and that “barbaric” halal butchery. If they are then excluded from school on the ground of adhering to their religious dress code, they will be robbed of the one opportunity to interact with peers of different faiths and aspirations.

They will also have earned the martyr’s mantle. There is no figurehead as potent as a young, beautiful and vulnerable girl who seeks to preserve her modesty in the face of a disrespectful infidel. The Old Testament and the legion of Catholic saints include many such role models, and they have proved an inspiration for millennia. Force Shabina out of her jilbab and you will see Muslims rallying to her defence.

A battle over the essentially trivial question of uniforms raises temperatures in a community from which we demand other, bigger concessions. What a waste.