My child's secondary school seems to teach about islam mainly and little about other religions. They portray islam as a wonderful thing when in reality there are many extreme fundamentalist islamic groups within this religion. The children are not told about the nasty side of islam, the brainwashing of young men, the ill treatment of women, the terrorism throughout the world in the name of islam.
I do not want my child having islam pushed in her face. It is completely irrelevant to our family and lifestyle.
This particular school is obsessed !

mother, watford, uk

My (excellent) RE teacher tells us that RE can be teaching about religion or to be religious. We discuss different beliefs and are in no way forced to accept them. But nobody can deny religion was forced upon the people of South America and Africa by Christian missionaries.

Ben, 15,

Sorry - but I have to comment again on muddled thinking in some comments. - As an atheist, I want all children to be taught ABOUT religions/ideologies in school, so that they can then come to an informed judgement about ALL of them. This, I think, is the right of every child.- However, if parents want their children to practice their religion, sings hymns, listen to sermons and pray, they can send them to church or sunday school and say prayers with them before going to bed. I think this is not good for a child, but I would not interfere with PARENTS' rights either. So please, no more confused criticism like that from Pete B. of London.

alan, cologne,

Sorry, but I have to reply to the muddled thinking in some comments. I must once again make it plain that I, as an atheist, wish for children to be taught ABOUT religion/religions/ideologies in SCHOOL so that they can can reach INFORMED opinions on them and come to their own conclusions. I do not want them to be indoctrinated/brainwashed/ritualised in SCHOOL by any religion or ideology, whichever one it is.- If parents wish to indoctrinate their children, they are free to send their offspring to CHURCH or sunday school and say prayers with them at mealtimes or before going to bed. I think this is not good for the children, but I would be the last person to try and stop it.- Got it?

alan, cologne,

Father Storey - to hear all sides of an argument , to dispute theories and scientific results , to inquire , to freely debate , to be subjected to all manner of likes/dislikes , to hear sales pitches and marketing from competing brands is hardly "indoctrination".

It is called freedom - freedom to think and choose and to speak and write - without the dead hand of a suspect idealogy limiting your horizons.

Indoctrination on the other hand is the imposition of one set of ideas to the exclusion of all others - say like Communism or Christianity - on vulnerable , helpless or simple people.

Its what your Church is expert at.

Incidentally why "Father" Storey? Does that odd title confer power on you over others? On children?

It may be difficult for you to understand , but , as a secularist I fully accept your right as an adult , to live in a fantasy world of your choice.

But try to impose it on others and expect to be subject to the interrogation rightly due to all such ideas.

Rob Green, Braintree, England

Sorry, but I have to reply to the muddled thinking in some comments. I must once again make it plain that I, as an atheist, wish for children to be taught ABOUT religion/religions/ideologies in SCHOOL so that they can can reach INFORMED opinions on them and come to their own conclusions. I do not want them to be indoctrinated/brainwashed/ritualised in SCHOOL by any religion or ideology, whichever one it is.- If parents wish to indoctrinate their children, they are free to send their offspring to CHURCH or sunday school and say prayers with them at mealtimes or before going to bed. I think this is not good for the children, but I would be the last person to try and stop it.- Got it?

alan, cologne,

But unconscious and conscious indoctrination is going on all the time. Secularists never cease doing it. They fear children learning what they so much need to learn from people who believe it.

father bryan storey, tintagel, uk

To have choice you need to have information. If Religious Education explains faith in a world where kids are bombarded by consumerist advertising, sexist and bigoted music lyrics, amoral stories on TV, is an hour a week really going to indoctrinate them? Kids watch more TV in growing up than spending time at school. Surely to make a choice in faith they need to understand what the choices are - and I don't see the media outside school making that comparison unbiased and easy. I would prefer to have my child deciding if there is a god having heard about Buddism, Islam and Christianity, than assuming there is none because they never heard the alternative. Surely excluding faith from education is another indoctrination in itself?

Pete B, London, UK

To John Leonard of Leeds - If YOU were FORCED to attend (for example) daily scientology instruction for several years, would you not feel that YOUR rights were being abused?

alan, cologne,

Learning about all religions , and , equally , the arguments and views of those who have non should be a part of the education process and should give all children a rounded insight into the fundamental problems of humanity caused by those beliefs.

If only one or just a few religions is taught - as in faith schools - that effectively is indoctrination , fosters division in society and should be banned.

I find it strange that the HUMAN rights act gives adult humans the right to force their chidren towards their particular brand of religion but does not confer an equal right on young people - humans as well - not to be indoctrinated in this way..

Why do religions and those who proffer such beliefs ,always seek to undermine the freedom of young and old humans to make up their own minds about such issues?

Could it be that , without that control , religions would have died out centuries ago?

Rob Green, Braintree, England

The BNP supporter who removes his child from RE lessons is not abusing his right to not have his child indoctrinated. It is simply that Professor Brian Gates happens to agree with the particular form of indoctrination that goes on.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

If 'forcing' children to pray is child abuse, what then is beating, starving, neglecting a child?

Stop trying to use emotive words to back up a case that is nothing of the kind. This term is used far too glibly. Last year we had some twerp saying it was child abuse to 'force' children to do cross country runs.

Grow up.

John Leonard, leeds, yorkshire

How very convenient. The religious want to be able to legally discriminate against homosexuals as a matter of "conscience", yet are attempting to remove parents' right of "conscience" to exclude their children from indoctrination.

Again, we see the hypocrisy of the religious with their "do as I say, not as I do" attitude.

Gates saying that "it's about learning from the wisdom of other faiths" presumes a "wisdom" that has yet to be proven.

nullifidian, Edinburgh, UK

I teach Religious Studies at a large State secondary modern school.

I believe that learning about how faith informs the lives of hundreds of millions of people throughout the world is a valuable educational experience.

However I cannot think of any proposal which is likely to harm the subject more than the suggestion to remove the long-established right of parents to withdraw their children from the subject.

There is nothing like the removal of parental rights and choice for creating parental resentment.

F Waddams, UK,

Why can't we be content to teach children ABOUT religion (religions) in school? Parents who want their children to pray, sing hymns or listen to sermons should send their children to church - it's as simple as that. Even that, in my opinion, is a violation of every child's right to unadulterated information. The choice can be made later. I do understand, however, that religions are horrified and alarmed at any such proposals. They know that "catch 'em young" is the only guarantee of their existence.

alan, cologne,

Quote - Currently it is a legal requirement for schools to offer daily acts of collective worship.
In fact children are forced to pray to what is in all probability a mythical entity. Surely the role of schools is to instruct children in academic subjects. To force children into prayer is nothing short of child abuse.

Martin, York,

when will this government stop interfering in parental choices for their children

soon we will be handing our children over at birth and collecting them again at 18

parents are no longer deemed capable of making any decisions

Hope, uk, england

Yes, comparative religious education should be compulsory - and it should include atheism on a par with the religions, and the scientific case against such nonsense at the earth being only 6000 years old, then it would truely be education and not indoctrination. To be education, it must _question_ as well as state the dogmas. To teach mainly one religion in a school is completely anti-education - it is 'believe this - there is no alternative - just believe what I say'. There should be no faith schools at all, they are divisive.

nick ayres, huddersfield, Yorkshire

The National Secular Society are right. Children need to understand how preposerous it is to belive these things in the twenty-first century. They should be told about Faiths, but these faiths should not be given an unusually think wall of respect they currently enjoy. To do so is intellectually dishonest.
Children need to be taught how to think, how to reason, how to question.
A child's emotional needs and their wonderful capacity for curiosity can be, and should be satisfied without feeding them superstitious nonsence.

Stephen Evans, London, UK

There is a major difference between teaching children ABOUT religion, and indoctrinating them in RE lessons. Teaching about relgion can easily be caried out in PSE lessons, and need not take a vast time, whereas scrutinising holy books and teaching their contents as fact cannot be described as anything else but indoctrination

Martin, York,