Ministers agree common approach to wearing of hijab

Conor Lenihan: declined to say when report would be published
Photograph: The Irish Times

A COMMON approach to the issue of Muslim girls wearing the hijab in classrooms has been agreed by Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe and Minister for Integration Conor Lenihan.

A spokeswoman for Mr Lenihan said that “the report for publication is now been finalised at official level”.

Mr Lenihan refused to be drawn further on the matter, however.

Contacted last night, he also declined to say when the report would be published.

At the Parnell summer school in Avondale, Co Wicklow, last month he indicated that the Government had decided not to issue a directive to schools on the wearing of the hijab by pupils but would provide general guidelines on how such matters might be handled.

He said more than 4,000 school principals had been consulted on the issue “and we received lots and lots of e-mails . . . the overwhelming evidence is that it is not an issue in schools”, he said. This also applied to “other forms of clothing”, he said.

Mr Lenihan wrote to the school principals in June to seek their views on the issue, after being asked by Mr O’Keeffe to examine whether national guidelines were required on the wearing of “certain types of clothing for religious reasons at school”.

The previous month a school principal in Gorey, Co Wexford, had called on the Minister for Education to issue guidelines on the wearing of the hijab in State schools.

Mr Lenihan and Mr O’Keeffe met yesterday to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile, nine Muslim organisations in Ireland issued a joint statement pointing out that “the hijab is an Islamic obligation as stated in the Quran and Prophet Muhammad’s traditions” but that “it is not a religious symbol”.

It said that Muslims in Ireland, since they began to arrive here, had “enjoyed the freedom of wearing the hijab at school and work” without there being any problems. Where difficulties had arisen these were dealt with on an individual level, with understanding and under the terms of the Education Act 1998, it said.

The statement was issued on behalf of the Irish Council of Imams, the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, the Islamic Foundation of Ireland, the Islamic Centre in Cork, the Alhidaia Islamic Centre, Madrasa Nurul-Islam, the Islamic Cultural Centre in Tuam, the Islamic Centre in Galway and Ar-Rahman Foundation in Portlaoise.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times