New plans to keep a register of students who pray regularly in Sydney schools have drawn sharp criticism from Muslims and civil rights groups, saying the new plans threaten marginalizing the Muslim community as well as denying the student's “safe spaces” to interrogate their views.
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“We can’t look away from the fact this is real. I’m not going to say it’s a joke, there is a realness to it. But we need to be very sensible about the way we address it. We can’t generalise and tar everyone with the same brush,” Lakemba MP Jihad Dib told The Guardian Australia on Tuesday, 11 August.
“This audit, potentially, if it just looks to audit one particular group, then it also seeks to isolate that group [and] even further marginalise them, and that pushes kids further away.”
Troubles started after a New South Wales public school has floated plans to keep a register of students who pray together during breaks.
On the school’s own initiative, a letter was sent to parents at Marsden High school which cited a “federal government requirement” that a register of attendance be taken during prayer meetings and informal prayer groups.
The NSW premier, Mike Baird, said auditing prayer groups, most of which are run by approved clerics, was an “appropriate step to ensure … extra sensitivity to movement, words [and] actions that we may see that might be appropriate to report and take action against”.
Principals have also been issued with a memo outlining their obligations to report extremist behaviour.
The president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Stephen Blanks, said the prospect of children having to register to practise their religion during school was “thoroughly alarming”.
“Of course the department should know what is going on in terms of religious activities within schools,” he said.
“But that does not extend to keeping a record of students who attend religious meetings, and must be done in a way that is sensitive to all people’s freedom to practise whatever religion they choose.”
The new plans sparked worries of Muslim who contacted solicitor and community advocate Lydia Shelly to express their concerns about the audit.
“Many parents are concerned that their children are being unfairly targeted based on their religion,” she said.
“They are concerned with why the need for an audit has arisen, who will collect the information and who will have access to it.
"There is a concern that information will be provided to police or security agencies and that their children will be subject to attention from these agencies,” she added.
Shelly said it was necessary that young Muslims be given “safe spaces” to interrogate the views of groups such as Isis.
“If we continually stifle and restrict our youth … it would create a dangerous void that will only be filled by those who do hold nefarious intent to harm our society,” she said.
“Telling kids to be quiet and not to ask questions didn’t work with drugs, alcohol abuse, or sex. So if it’s not working for these issues, why do we think it will work for this?”
Dib said he had heard similar worries from some of his Muslim constituents, who feared that any schoolyard discussion of extremist groups such as Islamic State could trigger a police response.
“There is almost this fear to even talk about anything now, or even to joke about it. Parents say to me, ‘We’re so worried if the kids even start talking about it’,” Dib added.
