A London court rules against a Muslim girl who wanted to pray at a school known for strict rules

LONDON (AP) — A Muslim student who wanted to pray during lunchtime lost a court fight Tuesday against a strict London school that had banned prayer on campus.

A High Court judge said the female student had accepted when she enrolled in the school that she would be subject to religious restrictions.

“She knew that the school is secular and her own evidence is that her mother wished her to go there because it was known to be strict,” Justice Thomas Linden wrote in an 83-page ruling. “Long before the prayer ritual policy was introduced, she and her friends believed that prayer was not permitted at school and she therefore made up for missed prayers when she got home.”

The fight was over a rule put in place last year by the Michaela Community School after a small group of students who began praying in the schoolyard caused divisions at the school that spread to the community and led to a bomb threat. A Black teacher, who had confronted the praying students, was accused of “disgusting, Islamophobic behavior” and subjected to racist abuse in an online petition.