As an ex-Catholic (who also happens to be vegetarian) I find Ms Odone's arguments, including the dietary ones, in favour of state-funded Muslim schools to be naive. Exactly what we *don't* need on these islands is more sectarian segregation, thank you very much - we know the results!

Paul, Coventry,

Too many posters are confusing the religion and culture.
You cannot object to a muslim faith school on the one hand and then accept a christian (or any other) faith school on the other. Ideally all schools should be of mixed faith. Forcing children to follow their parent's religion is cruel.

Nadia, Hamilton, Bermuda

Only people of faith believe in witches.

They can learn about them, and the rest of the interesting menagerie of devils, schismatics, infidels etc, in faith schools.

There are not enough faith schools to ensure that Muslims learn that their allegiance is as much to Islam as to Britain. Is that it?

Albert, Paris,

I admire those who respect their faith and values, and try to retain them in their children and schools as a sound moral foundation. It is sad that Christians have not retained that respect for their own faith and good values or a similar desire to retain them in their own children and schools.

S. Demetriou, Singapore,

If Muslims in the UK were integrated and successful it would not matter if some were more religious than others. As this is not the case separate schooling is a very bad idea. We had a wee bit of bother Christina in Northern Ireland remember?

Magda, London, UK

The right to education in one's own comfort zone is a fundamental and inalienable human right that should be available to ALL people irrespective of their ethnicity or religious background.

Suhail Shafi, Buffalo, NY, USA

This is terminally naive. "State run" Islamic faith schools will not stay state-run. They will gradually turn into anti-British madrassas at the taxpayers' expense.

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/USA

What are the advantages of a university education for a young Muslim woman? Does her Father get a better deal when he arranges for her to marry someone from outside the UK?

Edward Johns, Lannion, France

so the poster is saying that because some Muslim parents pull their daughters out of school due to a refusal to integrate the solution is for taxpayers to fund seperate schools for muslims.....
is it just me or is there a slight contradiction there?

Aaron, london, UK

So as far as you're concerned, isolation and indoctrination of children of Muslim parents is justified because it stops previous products of isolation and indoctrination from killing their daughters?

Rid our schools of religious segregation, and allow people to worship at home if they so wish.

Camilla, Burnley,

Who wants 1984 social homogeneity? It's good there are Christian and Jewish schools & also Muslim schools & their govt. funding (?or edu. vouchers)assists poor families but if any faith schools should teach hatred of others for any reason they would not be worthy of the name & should be closed down.

Joan Moira Peters, Whangarei UK Citizen, temp o/seas in New Zealand

"...Schools should teach facts, not primitive superstitions......"

does that apply to C of E and Jewish schools or just muslims? Or should we also ban religious education form secular schools?

Ricky, Manchester, UK

So the State is supposed to collude in child abuse? Try this
We should have separate schools for non white children so they can learn to be good and obedient and know their place .We need to stand up for the right of British children to lead British lives,,even if they are little non white girls

Paul, Reading, UK

Selina Covering girls from head to foot for "modesty" is medieval as is pulling them out of school or shipping them off
to be married. The individuals who have the choice seem to be only the parent probably the male parent. The point is the girl is not making a choice .

Alice, Luton, UK

What an interesting idea: What about multi faith Schools? It is interesting that most of the comments made here are not constructive but based on blind prejudice. Shame really because it does not bring the debate any further forward!

Steven, Buckhurst Hill,

I think all these comments are out of hand. I myself a Muslim girl and educated in mainstream schools. It is the individual's choice what they decide to delve into. We are not all constrained to the kitchen when we come of age. It is not a "Medieval Times" scenario. Live and Let Live!

selina, southend, uk

"faith schools are the surest route from the kitchen sink to college".

So that's how it worked with the girl schools run by nuns in in Catholic communities for a long time? Lots and lots of college material?

Only, why haven't I heard of them before?

Ed Zuiderwijk, Cambridge, UK

Little girls should not be wearing the costume of medieval nuns.They should not be taught that their value is in their modesty but that it is in their characters and their minds.If a child is withdrawn from school parents should be prosecuted.Children should not be trafficked out of the country.

Jeff, Peterborough, UK

"Where are the 'Atheist schools" -- M Wilson, Bidache, france

God does not believe in Atheists therefore Atheists do not exist

jayil, london, uk

So, Cristina, you advocate that in order to prevent good (?)muslim parents forcing their daughters into sexual slavery, we should instead get the state to fund the repression of girls' rights to be individuals. All this does is highlight why religion has no place in educating children to be free.

Steve, Altrincham,

Segregation of the sexes is what societies do when they are on a war footing. Educating girls and boys separately may help in schooling but society is mixed and for good reasons. Kids must be prepared for life in a mixed sex environment. Otherwise Muslims will stay one of the poorest groups here.

Stephen, Leamington Spa, UK

'Once their daughters hit puberty, traditional parents will often try to pull them out of school, fearing they might be corrupted by the drugs, sex and violence that are part of playground life'

I wish my time at school had been that glamorous! Which school did you go to, Cristina?

Daniel, Belfast,

What an uninformed person Odone is. I grew up in a Muslim household which I later rejected. I know that the brainwashing that goes on in some of these homes damages a young girl's self-belief and ambition. That's why muslim spokespeople are always male - the women have had their voices silenced.

eve ahmed, oxford,

Cristina Odone's logic is oxymoronic. Segregated integration - genius, where does this woman get her ideas from? Here's another one: free-thinking religion - oops, sorry, that's just impossible.
Educate all children without subjecting them to religious ideology and they will all integrate. Simple

Joss bown, Leamington,

Cristina Odone gives a fine presentation of the diseased "logic" of the religious here.

How can more segregation - based on which set of ludicrous and unfounded superstitions a child's parents have failed to grow out of - lead to better cohesion?

Dave, Nelson, England

Yes as government figures shown (Ch4: Immigration the inconvenient truth) Muslims are a net loss to the UK because of the benefits culture. The problem here is talk of a Muslim community when it should be a British community!

John, Salford, England

Reassuring that every comment so far is hostile to Cristina Odone's segregationist views. The Government should take note & stop its helter-skelter expansion of religious schools - likewise its determination to hand over public services (employment, health, you name it) to religious organisations.

David Pollock, London,

I think it's testament to the fact that Muslims' feel ostracized by the dominant British culture that these schools are so effective.

For me, people have become so used to C of E schools - it seems like this is something new to them. It isn't.

Samantha, Kendal,

Corrupted by the 'sex, drugs and violence of playground life'. Not being a member of a minority, is that what I have to accept for my daughter.

Andrew, Manchester,

Cristina is wrong. She presents a stereotypical view of a state school. During the 70's and early 80's in Manchester and our all girls comprehensive was very respectful of the muslim /jewish/ hindu requirements, making sure meals were appropriate/we didnt have to attend assembly etc.

R. Ince, Istanbul, Turkey

"The school life of Muslim children is the battlefield in which the culture wars between traditionalist Muslims and Britain's secular culture are waged", and it is vital for all of us that this war is won.
Secularism = freedom to choose your path in life
Religious education = thought control

Steve, Altrincham,

How on earth can promoting Faith schools lead to social cohesion? The basis of all the monotheist religions is that 'their god' is the only true god and that all other faiths are at best 'misguided' or, in the case of Islam, unbelievers who are doomed to hell.

daniel , London,

Schools should teach facts, not primitive superstitions.

Chris, Slough, UK

There is no such thing as a Muslim child, just as there is no such thing as a Conservative child. How can it possibly be a good idea to ghettoise children and base their education on a premise that is evidently false?

Zac Smith, London,

How can it prepare them for a life away from the kitchen sink when that is exactly what their religion preaches to them. Faith schools should be abandoned...if parents want to pull their children out of education punish them for it...that's what the law is for.

Claire , London, UK

How can a Muslim school prepare pupils for life in the UK if sexes are segregated - British society isn't. When they go to college or uni they will have to mix. Or are you also suggesting segregated further education. Muslim girls shd be better protected from medieval practices & parents prosecuted

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

From what I know of strict Muslim families whose daughters attend faith schools, they are the route from learning to the kitchen sink! England is still notionally a Christian country, and immigrants should undertand this, as we have to adapt if we go to live in another non christian country.
CA

Carol Asacret, Cambridge, England

Why should athiests be expected subsidy the bigotry and superstision of the religeous. As we have a state religion in this country a case can be made for taxes funding C of E schools but no other faith schools should get a penny.

edward green, Upminster,

"Witch hunt," "inquisition" what nice words the Catholic Church has given us. The better solution is for the minority of traditonal muslim parents to stop withdrawing their daughters from school, stop forcing them in marriages and stop the absurd obsession with "modesty" and sexual segregation.

Tim, Aldershot, UK

If God wanted faith schools he could fund them himself. Oh I forgot he doesn't exist does he.

Tim, Aldershot, UK

State funded Faith schools is an idiotic idea, that should have been ditched years ago. For blisteringly obvious reasons.

Herb Worth, Windsor, England

the surefire way to have muslim girls become educated and productive members of the community is for them to leave islam.

tim, Sydney, aus

Great Britain is still a fundamentally Christian society, and that is reflected in our laws and customs. If people wish to follow other religions and customs, that's fine, but it has to dovetail in.

Cristinas recipe here is for one of separatism, and ghettos in the future.

She's quite wrong.

Steve S, Wiltshire, UK

How can isolating faith groups by putting them in seperate schools benefit integration? This is ridiculous. If muslims really feel beseiged by the hostile way schools serve food and brazenly allow children to mix then maybe they should live in a muslim country instead. Not change our counrty.

Ed, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Utter nonsense, Crisitina. Faith Schools, perpetuate seperatism.. It is after all the very "raison detre" for them.
This myth of "multi culturism" is no longer viable, and moreover is increasingly dangerous.
Religion should have no connection whatsoever to the State, private & person it should be.

Peter Bolt, Redditch, UK

You mean forcing a child of 13 or 14 into marriage isn't illegal in Britain? Apparently muslim adults in Britain can do anything they want as regards their children, especially female children. So, they operate outside the law, with impunity. Quite a state of affairs you've permitted to develop.

MJ Hoeber, Orlando, USA

Mr Wilson, They're called Church of England Christian Schools

Nick, Woking, UK

M Wilson echoes my sentiments exactly: where *are* the 'Atheist schools'?

Louise, Manchester, England

Where are the 'Atheist schools".??

M Wilson, Bidache, france