Public opposition is hampering plans to expand the number of state-funded Muslim schools, a leading Muslim headteacher said yesterday, as the Government confirmed plans to encourage the growth of faith schools.

Mohamed Mukadam, the chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools, said that while there was a “huge demand” in the Muslim community for more state schools, local Muslim organisations encountered “a lot of negativity” when proposing to set up new schools.

The perception that Muslim schools could be a breeding ground for fundamentalists could make negotiations with local authorities “quite difficult”, he said.

Dr Mukadam, the headteacher of the Madani High School in Leicester, a state secondary, added that the Muslim community in Britain was still relatively young. Muslim leaders in Britain had first concentrated on establishing mosques, but now second and third-generation Muslims were turning their attention to schools.

At present there are seven state-funded Muslim schools in England, with a further 115 in the independent sector. At least 30 independent schools have expressed an interest in moving into the state sector.

“There’s a huge demand for faith schools. We are confident that in the fullness of time, more faith schools can be established,” he said.

Dr Mukadam was speaking at the publication of Faith in the System, a joint document agreed by the Government and all of Britain’s main faith organisations on the value of faith schools in society.

The document follows a government retreat last year on plans to force new religious schools to take a quarter of their intake from pupils of other religions or those with no affiliation.

It also comes at a time when schools are facing a new statutory requirement to promote cohesion and integration in their local communities.

About one third of the 21,000 state schools in England are faith schools, the vast majority Christian. Of the 48 that are nonChristian, 37 are Jewish, seven Muslim and two Sikh.

Critics of faith schools claim that they can be divisive and socially selective. But the Right Rev Stephen Venner, acting chairman of the Church of England board of education, said that many parents regarded a school’s faith links as a “kitemark of quality”.

Ed Balls, the Children, Schools and Families Secretary, said that he wanted to remove “unnecessary barriers” to the creation of more faith schools. He was particularly keen to see more joint faith schools, run by more than one religious community.

Talks are already under way for the creation of a new academy school in Oldham, backed jointly by the local mosque and the Church of England “Such a school – the first here and possibly in the world – would be a significant 21st-century addition to the wider family of faith schools,” Mr Balls said. He added that in future all new academy schools would have to give at least 50 per cent of their places to pupils of other faiths or of none.

He denied that there was contradiction between government equal-rights policies and most Christian and Muslim teaching that homosexual practice is wrong. New guidelines designed to stamp out homophobic bullying, to be published next week, would insist that all schools refrained from stigmatising homosexuality. He also emphasised that faith schools would be bound by a strict new admissions code and must not discourage applications from poor families.

John Dunford, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, called for the introduction of a national curriculum for religious education to ensure that all faith and nonfaith schools bring a common understanding of major faiths to all young people.

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