Sir,
We sometimes behave irrationally, & often don't question whether our prejudices are supported by the facts.
How many of the British born terrorists were educated in British faith schools in comparison to British secular schools?
Perhaps well-policed faith schools could help long term integration as opposed to outright assimilation as evinced by our Jewish & Catholic communities.

SC, London , United Kingdom

What an interesting contrast between the Rabbi and the two Bishops, one acknowledges a problem exists and seeks to address it the others choose simply to deny any problem exists.

Well said Rabbi Romain!

PJ, Chinnor, Oxon

Bishop Chartres claims that his church bans covert selection – but overt selection?

Nationally more than three quarters of its Voluntary Aided schools have religious criteria in their admissions regulations; its Voluntary Controlled schools (almost all the rest) are urged seek agreement to include them (Dearing Report).

He must know of the graded preferences being used by Greig City Academy for 200 places: 71 places for actively participating Church of England families; 56 for other active Christian families; 19 for families of other "recognised world faiths".

His final paragraph attacking "secular liberalism" is deeply disturbing and shows a culpable misrepresentation of community schools. Staff work hard with great success to meet the concerns, including religious ones, of children and families from many different backgrounds.

Demonizing of community schools and secular society is creeping into the Church’s rhetoric: it is revealing, dangerous and unacceptable.

Allan Hayes, Leicester, UK

Faith schools should not be lumped together, 'for fear of giving offence'. RC schools are for RCs, and are closed if not enough RCs attend, hence Cardinal Vincent Nicholls vitriolic campaign against government proposals to force faith schools to take 25% 'others'. Islamic schools are yet another few notches to the right: they are there to inculcate conservative Islam and mould lives, hence boys and girls are separated, daily Islamic ablutions performed, and the Koran memorised, never treated with any sort of critical questioning, a radical apartheid effect. Anglican schools are quite different: their ethos is 'serve the community locally', not promote a sectarian style of faith. We all know this, but cannot say it - for fear of spurious offence, the great dishonesty of our time, 'thought crime' in Orwell's dictionary.

Hildebrand, Oxford, UK

Voyager is talking nonsense. Rationalists do not want to “force the conversion of the religious”. They merely want religions to keep to themselves and not force their irrational beliefs on the rest of us by trying to hold on to their overpriveleged position in society.

Jim Hadfield, Kendal, Cumbria

When Clarendon restored the Church of England in 1660 it was to prevent another Civil War and hold the nation together. It did bind the people of England together until this century when the rise of Secular Socialism has become a new compulsive deity for those who view the world through forms of Marxist prism.

Attack religion and watch this society unravel and perhaps even explode. There is nothing more dangerous for Secularists to attempt than the forced conversion of the religious to the axioms of atheistic politics.

Voyager, Peterborough, UK

Rabbi Romain is absolutely right! I was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers and between beatings we were encouraged to think of Catholics as special. Ecumenism was merely a tool to show how others want to join us.

Dónal Thompson, Madrid , Spain