The year is 1933 and Hitler’s rise to power is imminent. Days earlier and the Nazis had exploited the burning of the Reichstag, home of the German parliament, for votes.

Armed security forces patrolled public buildings. On the streets,  Sturmabteilung (SA) ‘brown shirts’ had their violence legitimised by decree. Political violence and intimidation, however, did not grant Hitler his parliamentary majority. The March 5 elections gave the Nazi Party 43.9 per cent of the vote and 288 parliament seats out 647.

On March 10, 1933, Dr Michael Siegel visited a Munich police station on behalf a client. Dr Siegel was one of roughly 4,000 Jewish lawyers in Germany. They held senior positions in the court system, bar association and justice ministry. In 1933, racist laws pushed saw many lose their jobs. The indignity of this discrimination was was compounded by further arrests and violence.

Dr Siegel had entered a Munich police station on behalf of Max Uhlfelder, the Jewish owner of a large city-centre store. Nazi Party members had taken positions of office in Munich a day earlier. Heinrich Himmler, the SS commander, now commanded the Police Authority. The Swastika flew atop public buildings. Nazi paramilitaries had smashed Mr Uhlhelder’s shop windows and deported him to Dachau concentration camp.

Instead of listening to Dr Siegel’s complaint, the police assaulted him. SA ‘brown shirts’ had perforated Dr Siegel’s eardrum. The force of their punches had broken several teeth. They had cut his trousers from the knee down.

Dr Siegel was then made to walk the streets of Munich bloody and barefooted. Surrounded by ranks of SA paramilitaries, Dr Siegel wore a sign that read: “I will never again complain to the police”.

Some debate the actual wording of the sign. Dr Siegel had told his children that it read: “Ich bin Jude aber ich will mich nie mehr bei der Polizei Beschweren”(I am a Jew but I will never again complain to the Police).

Heinrich Sanden, the photojournalist who immortalised this humiliation, disagreed. Dr Siegel soon became an international symbol of the antisemitic persecution in Germany. He did not learn of the photo until the 1970s.

Despite the growing climate of antisemitic violence and discrimination, Dr Siegel and his family remained in Munich. He had passport revoked in 1934 and reinstated in 1935. Local farmers warned Dr Spiegel about the impending Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938. He fled to Luxembourg and returned some weeks later, only to lose his legal license. Few Germans protested this flagrant discrimination.

At the start of 1939, the Siegel family left their home and found other accommodation. Their new ground floor served as an emergency synagogue,  the Nazis had razed the city’s main synagogue. Dr Siegel’s 18-year-old son Peter and 14-year-old daughter Beate soon emigrated to England.

Dr Siegel and his wife Mathilde sought asylum in Peru but were rejected. In a remarkable stroke of luck, a student teaching Dr Siegel Spanish was a nephew of the Peruvian Minister of the Interior.

The arduous road to Peru began in 1940. They travelled through Lithuania, Siberia, Russia and Japan before arriving in Peru. Dr Siegel took up work in a Lima bookstore. In the post-war years, he worked to establish an embassy for the Federal Republic of Germany in Peru’s capital, Lima. He soon became the Rabbi of the German-Jewish community in Lima. By 1953, Dr Siegel could again practise law in Germany, despite the geographical difference.

Dr Siegel helped German Jewish refugees in Peru and other parts of Latin America.

In 1971, at the age of 89, he received the Grand Cross of Merit of the German Republic ‘in recognition of his exceptional services to the state and people’. He accepted the award on behalf of all German Jews in Lima.

In spite of his growing age, Dr Siegel never stopped pursuing restitution cases. He died in 1979 at the age of 96.

Dr Siegel never forgot the ordeal he faced in Munich. In  a 1987 article, The Association of Jewish Refugees retold the story of Dr Siegel’s life and journey to Peru.

The authors, H.P. Sinclair and M.B. Green, wrote that Dr Michael Siegel had one thought in his mind: ‘I shall survive you all’. And he did. But according to Sinclair and Green, he bore no grudge against the German people. For he had known “too many decent ones for that“.

The post Dr Michael Siegel: the Jewish lawyer who survived Nazi violence and humiliation on March 10, 1933 appeared first on Religious Reader.

Over the last few months, we have received a number of cases involving schools and where Muslim young people have been interviewed on the back of alleged comments that they have made within the school environment.

A growing number of parents have reported into us that their children have been questioned on the back of Prevent related interventions. In one interview with a young Muslim student, he was asked whether ‘he owned a gun’. In another, he was questioned as ‘to which mosque he went to and whether he prayed a lot.’ In both of these cases, the parents have been so outraged that they have sought to meet with senior officers in the relevant Departments for Education and strongly believe that their children have been treated in this way because they are Muslim.

Listening to the parents of these children, it is hard not to come to the conclusion that some schools are over-reacting to scenarios involving Muslim children and the impacts on the children and the families are clear to see. Yet, these are not isolated cases and the cases that we have received have come from across the country.

We are also clear that many schools manage safeguarding issues in a manner which does not impact on young people and on families. We also understand that many schools do this on the basis of the protection of young people and throughout the process students do not feel that a specific part of their identity is the trigger for the school to take some form of action. Saying that, other schools seem to have no understanding of safeguarding and manage to alienate the parents of children who happen to be Muslim. They also leave a lasting impression on the minds of young Muslims who believe that they have been targeted because of their faith. This is the worst outcome that anyone wants to see.

We will be monitoring these situations across the country and we believe that the safeguarding of young people and communities is of importance to us all so that the learning outcomes for young people can be the most fruitful for them. Yet, over-reactions to students who are Muslim and who receive a different standard of treatment because of Prevent is unacceptable. Of that, we are clear.

The post Over-Reactions on Prevent Are Causing Fears Within Muslim Students appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Over the last few months, we have received a number of cases involving schools and where Muslim young people have been interviewed on the back of alleged comments that they have made within the school environment.

A growing number of parents have reported into us that their children have been questioned on the back of Prevent related interventions. In one interview with a young Muslim student, he was asked whether ‘he owned a gun’. In another, he was questioned as ‘to which mosque he went to and whether he prayed a lot.’ In both of these cases, the parents have been so outraged that they have sought to meet with senior officers in the relevant Departments for Education and strongly believe that their children have been treated in this way because they are Muslim.

Listening to the parents of these children, it is hard not to come to the conclusion that some schools are over-reacting to scenarios involving Muslim children and the impacts on the children and the families are clear to see. Yet, these are not isolated cases and the cases that we have received have come from across the country.

We are also clear that many schools manage safeguarding issues in a manner which does not impact on young people and on families. We also understand that many schools do this on the basis of the protection of young people and thoughout the process students do not feel that a specific part of their identity is the trigger for the school to take some form of action. Saying that, other schools seem to have no understanding of safeguarding and manage to alienate the parents of children who happen to be Muslim. They also leave a lasting impression on the minds of young Muslims who believe that they have been targeted because of their faith. This is the worst outcome that anyone wants to see.

We will be monitoring these situations across the country and we believe that the safeguarding of young people and communties is of importance to us all so that the learning outcomes for young people can be the most fruitful for them. Yet, over-reactions to students who are Muslim and who receive a different standard of treatment because of Prevent is unacceptable. Of that, we are clear.

The post Over-Reactions on Prevent Are Causing Fears Within Muslim Students appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Over the last few months, we have received a number of cases involving schools and where Muslim young people have been interviewed on the back of alleged comments that they have made within the school environment.

A growing number of parents have reported into us that their children have been questioned on the back of Prevent related interventions. In one interview with a young Muslim student, he was asked whether ‘he owned a gun’. In another, he was questioned as ‘to which mosque he went to and whether he prayed a lot.’ In both of these cases, the parents have been so outraged that they have sought to meet with senior officers in the relevant Departments for Education and strongly believe that their children have been treated in this way because they are Muslim.

Listening to the parents of these children, it is hard not to come to the conclusion that some schools are over-reacting to scenarios involving Muslim children and the impacts on the children and the families are clear to see. Yet, these are not isolated cases and the cases that we have received have come from across the country.

We are also clear that many schools manage safeguarding issues in a manner which does not impact on young people and on families. We also understand that many schools do this on the basis of the protection of young people and thoughout the process students do not feel that a specific part of their identity is the trigger for the school to take some form of action. Saying that, other schools seem to have no understanding of safeguarding and manage to alienate the parents of children who happen to be Muslim. They also leave a lasting impression on the minds of young Muslims who believe that they have been targeted because of their faith. This is the worst outcome that anyone wants to see.

We will be monitoring these situations across the country and we believe that the safeguarding of young people and communties is of importance to us all so that the learning outcomes for young people can be the most fruitful for them. Yet, over-reactions to students who are Muslim and who receive a different standard of treatment because of Prevent is unacceptable. Of that, we are clear.

The post Over-Reactions on Prevent Are Causing Fears Within Muslim Students appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Over the last few months, we have received a number of cases involving schools and where Muslim young people have been interviewed on the back of alleged comments that they have made within the school environment.

A growing number of parents have reported into us that their children have been questioned on the back of Prevent related interventions. In one interview with a young Muslim student, he was asked whether ‘he owned a gun’. In another, he was questioned as ‘to which mosque he went to and whether he prayed a lot.’ In both of these cases, the parents have been so outraged that they have sought to meet with senior officers in the relevant Departments for Education and strongly believe that their children have been treated in this way because they are Muslim.

Listening to the parents of these children, it is hard not to come to the conclusion that some schools are over-reacting to scenarios involving Muslim children and the impacts on the children and the families are clear to see. Yet, these are not isolated cases and the cases that we have received have come from across the country.

We are also clear that many schools manage safeguarding issues in a manner which does not impact on young people and on families. We also understand that many schools do this on the basis of the protection of young people and thoughout the process students do not feel that a specific part of their identity is the trigger for the school to take some form of action. Saying that, other schools seem to have no understanding of safeguarding and manage to alienate the parents of children who happen to be Muslim. They also leave a lasting impression on the minds of young Muslims who believe that they have been targeted because of their faith. This is the worst outcome that anyone wants to see.

We will be monitoring these situations across the country and we believe that the safeguarding of young people and communties is of importance to us all so that the learning outcomes for young people can be the most fruitful for them. Yet, over-reactions to students who are Muslim and who receive a different standard of treatment because of Prevent is unacceptable. Of that, we are clear.

The post Over-Reactions on Prevent Are Causing Fears Within Muslim Students appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The festival of Navratri (nine nights) celebrates the triumph of good over evil. Navaratri begins around harvest time in October, and, celebrations last for nine days.

Navarati sits within the wider festival of Durga Puja, which honours the mother goddess Durga. In one retelling of the triumph of good, a demon named Mahisha, who took the form of a buffalo, threatened the gods. To meet this threat, the gods pleaded with Durga to do what they could not – kill the demon Mahisha.

Bestowed with the weapons and strength of the gods, including Shiva’s trident, Vishnu’s disc, Yama’s iron rod, and Indra’s thunderbolt, Durga took on this mission. But it did not prove an easy victory. For the demon Mahisha’s blood created new demons to attack Durga. A prolonged battle ended with the demon’s decapitation.

Another popular story in northern India concerns the slaying of the ten-headed demon King Ravana. In a final and epic battle with Rama, who pursued Ravana in his chariot. Rama’s golden arrows, which transformed into serpents as they reached the demon King. The arrows had decapitated Ravana’s many heads but they regrew in an instant. This prolonged the conflict for many nights as Rama fired hundreds of arrows.

Matali, Rama’s charioteer, advised that he use the divine arrow to end this battle. The ‘dreaded arrow of Brahma’ was a gift presented to Rama by Agastya. Its divinity stems from its capacity to never miss its target. That divine arrow, powered by the gods, pierced the demon King’s heart and killed him. Ravana’s ten heads represent the ten days of the festival. And Hindus use the each day to remove bad characteristics – such as jealousy and lust.

Motherhood is an important festival theme. Stories allude to Shiva’s decision to allow Durga to visit her mother for nine days of the year. Families attempt to follow this tradition and return on the tenth day.

To propitiate the nine planets and harvest season, nine different kinds of food grain seeds are grown in small containers and then offered to the goddesses.

Some devotees fast and offer prayers relating to health and prosperity. Others seek introspection. In Tamil Nadu, celebrations extend to the goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati.

Durgashtami, Mahanavami and Vijayadasami are the names of the final three days of Navarathri. In Kerala, those celebrating worship Saraswathi as the goddess of knowledge. The deity of Gayathri represents the fountain of fine arts and science.

Diverse celebrations take place across India.

Vijayadasami marks the end of the nine-day festival. Across India, effigies are burnt and idols are cast into rivers in the hope of rekindling of the soil’s fertility.

The spectre of a growing Hindu nationalism continues to haunt parts of India. It morphed into a paroxysm of anti-Muslim anger and violence last year. Police had arrested 140 people after violence between Muslims and Hindus broke out in the state of Gujarat.

That violence came in a climate where radical Hindus, spurred on by the success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), lobbied to ban Muslims and other religious minorities from participating festivals like Navratri.

Before his electoral success, the United States had denied him entry in 2005. The State Department can deny foreign dignitaries visas on grounds of “severe violations of religious freedom”. Narendra Modi remains the only person ever denied entry to the United States under this provision.

Modi faced allegations that he failed to stop deadly riots by Hindus against the Muslim minority in the state of Gujarat in 2002. At least 1,000 people died as a result of the riots that lasted a matter of days.  Though the courts later found that Modi had no case to answer.

A reminder of the faultlines of exploited religious tensions appeared in Bishara, near Delhi last week. A mob murdered Mohammed Akhlaq, a 50-year-old labourer, on the belief that he and his Muslim family had consumed beef, an animal considered sacred in Hinduism.

The seductive narrative of religious nationalism can undermine religious cohesion, even in times of celebration.

The post What is the Hindu festival of Navratri? appeared first on Religious Reader.

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year and commemorates the creation of the Earth. During this two day celebration, the traditional greeting “L’shanah tovah”… “for a good New Year” rings loud among members of Jewish communities.

Ancient Hebrews relied upon the Torah, which celebrated it on the “seventh month” or Nisan. Passover also begins in Nisan. Today, Rosh Hashanah falls between September and October (or Tishrei).

Jews believe that God weighs a person’s good and bad deeds over the previous year, and decides what the year ahead will bring. God records this information in the Book of Life. God seals this book on the festival of Yom Kippur.

Rabbi Jonathan Romain, noted that the Book of Life created a  ‘theological catastrophe’ that created false assumptions and blame upon God for human deeds. Romain pointed to Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 3.19 to remind Jews of their free will and agency in decisions that impact the year ahead.

Rabbi Naftali Brawer reflected that this time of year creates of a paradox of comfort and fear under God’s scrutiny. He wrote “It is frightening, because under God’s scrutiny there is no place to hide. Indeed, this is the major theme of the Days of Awe. Yet it is also comforting to know that we matter to God and that our lives and actions are of consequence“.

Hence why another traditional Rosh Hashanah greeting is Gmar Chatima Tova or “Be inscribed and sealed for a good year” .

Others know this holiday as Yom Teruah – or the day of the shofar blast. A synagogue ritual involves the blowing of the shofar, or a ram’s horn trumpet, a hundred notes form a special rhythm. Some fashion these horns from antelopes or ibex; but not cattle due to its association with the idolatrous Golden Calf.

From a historical perspective, the horn reminds Jews about the binding of Isaac or a tool of intimidation in battle. Other examples of it use included the coronation of kings.

Food plays an important part in Rosh Hashanah. The tradition of apples and honey dates back to the 14th century. Some Sephardi Jews avoid honey during this holiday period and substitute it for sugar. Different Jewish communities across the globe add their own nuances to dishes.

With an emphasis on sweetness, a sweet carrot stew called a tzimmes is often served.  Challah (Hallah) bread, baked in a round loaf, symbolises both the circle of life and year remains a customary home treat. Pomegranates, with their 613 seeds, serve as the traditional reminder of each commandment a Jews must keep.

The post What is the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah? appeared first on Religious Reader.

The harvest festival of Onam is a moveable feast: it colours the landscape of Kerala in South West India in a rhythm of elaborate dances, music, sports and banquets.

A festival of secular tradition, where different faiths and castes celebrate. It falls on the Malayee month of Chingnam, which coincides with Shavan Masa of the Indian calender. This ten day celebration falls between August and September 15.

It honours the homecoming of the beloved King Mahabali, who makes a yearly return to Kerala. Legend dictates that the jealous king of the gods, Indra, hatched a plan to oust Mahabali. Indra begged Lord Vishnu for protection who then transformed into a Brahmin boy, or dwarf, named Vamana. The people of Kerala adorded the wisdom and generosity of King Mahabali; Vamana sought to exploit the latter. He approached King Mahabali and asked for as much land as his feet could cover in three steps.

Upon granting what appeared a simple and humble request; Vamana grew at an exponential rate; one footstep covered the sky and the stars. The second step covered the netherworld. Vamana then turned to King Mahabli, who came to realise that a third step would destroy the Earth. To prevent this calamity, Mahabli offered his head. Before disappearing, Vishnu granted the King’s request  to return to the Earth once a year.

Preparations for the festival begin with a cleaning and decorating of the house. Onam presents an opportunity for family members to wear new clothes. For women, the traditional outfit is the kesav saree (a white saree with golden border), for men, it is the mundu (a white dhoti with golden border).

Outside of houses, rests the pookalam (athapookalam), or flower mat. This is a symbol of welcoming King Mahabali.

Mahabali visits his kingdom on the second day of Onam, the most important day of the festival. Mounds of earth representing Mahabali and Vishnu rest in courtyards, decorated with flowers.

The Thrikkakara Temple, in Thrikkakara, two kilometers east of Idapally near Cochi in Kerala, remains one of the few Indian temples dedicated to Lord Vamana (the fifth incarnation of Lord Vishnu). Thrikkakara means ‘the holy place where Lord placed his foot’.

Other celebrations incorporate traditional Kathakali dances and parades with fireworks and elephants. The Vallamkali (boat race) sees around one hundred oarsman take to the water in spectacular boats. Others sing traditional songs, called Onappatt.

In Thrissur, artists paint their bodies in the likeness of tigers to perform the annual ‘Pulikali‘ or tiger dance. This folk art performance settles on the theme of tiger hunting to entertain during Onam. Others in Thrissur began celebrations with a tug-of-war.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, retired cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, and some Bollywood celebrities wished individuals a happy Onam.

The post Happy Onam! But what is this festival about? appeared first on Religious Reader.

The story of Jan Karski’s bravery in the Second World War came to life in a recent documentary in his native Poland.

Sławomir Grünberg’s ‘Karski and the Lords of Humanity‘ (Karski i władcy ludzkości), blends archival footage, animation, and interviews to retell a story of wartime heroism.

Born in the Polish city of Łódź in 1914, the youngest of eight Catholic children, Jan Romuald Kozielewski later adopted the nom de guerre of Karski. The city exposed a young Karski to multiculturalism. He found himself living alongside Germans, Jews, Russians and Poles. That exposure to Jewish life created an affinity within Karski.

Academic pursuits helped him join Poland’s diplomatic service. When interning for the foreign minister, he found himself in Nuremberg, Germany. Karski saw the Nazi propaganda rallies in 1933 and the toxicity of Nazi antisemitism. It created a deeper sympathy for their plight and a sense of foreboding.

Other diplomatic assignments brought him to London and Paris.

But the outbreak of war brought a career change as he enlisted in the army in 1939. In a few short weeks, invasions from German then Soviet troops divided Poland.

The Soviets arrested Karski and placed him in a detention camp; but a lucky escape meant he avoided execution. A fate other Polish officers did not escape.

After returning to Warsaw, he joined Poland’s Underground State as a courier. A photographic memory and language skills made Karski a valuable asset.

A courier’s job was to cross enemy lines and liaise between Polish forces and Western allies. But in 1940, while on a mission in Slovakia, the Gestapo captured Karski. Under the pain of torture, and fearing he might reveal secrets, he slashed his wrists and ended up in hospital. Karski was later smuggled out of hospital and able to resume his work.

Against that backdrop, it had taken the Nazis less than a year to enclose Warsaw’s main Jewish areas in barbed wire. The birth of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940 gave way to first mass deportations of Jews to death camps in 1942.

In that same year, Karski received the most important mission of his life – to travel to England and expose the plight of Jews in Poland.

Before departing, he met with various underground factions, including the Jewish Zionist and the Jewish Socialist Bund movements. The underground leaders informed Karski that the Nazis had deported more than half of the 500,000 Jews inside the Warsaw Ghetto to death camps, where roughly 1.8m had already died. Their final message to Karski was simple: “Our entire people will be destroyed“.

In August 1942, resistance groups smuggled Karski into the Warsaw Ghetto. From inside he observed emaciated Jews struggling to survive. He also posed as a guard at the Izbica transit camp, where he observed the mass transportation of Jews to death camps.

Karski received a hollow key that contained microfilm evidence of genocide in Nazi-occupied Poland. He crossed Europe on local rail networks at a great personal risk before arriving in London.

But others did not welcome Karski’s evidence of genocide. Superior Polish diplomats worried that it would undermine their own appeals for international support.

Worse still was British indifference. In 1943, he met with Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. Eden had retorted “that Great Britain had already done enough by accepting 100,000 refugees”.

In London, Karski met Szmul Zygielbojm, of the Jewish Socialist Bund, and member of the Polish government in exile, to detail active resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Zygielbojm questioned Karski’s intentions because he was not Jewish. Only after explaining his role as courier for the Jews in Warsaw and their plight did Zygielbojm calm down. He interrupted Karski’s testimony by replying “You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know”.

After arriving London in 1942, Zygielbojm had microfilm evidence of genocide in Nazi-occupied Poland. The information made its way to the Telegraph newspaper – who revealed the use of gas chambers as tools of genocide since 1941.

Yet, in spite of its headline “Germans murder 700,000 Jews in Poland,” the story only made page five of a six-page newspaper.

In 1943, the Allies agreed to a secret conference to discuss the plight of European Jewry in Bermuda. It lasted nine days and began on the same day as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Allies denied the Joint Distribution Committee and the World Jewish Congress entry.

A fog of indifference clouded the conference. Neither government referenced the “Final Solution”. The U.S. government sent a low-level delegation and refused to reduce strict quotas to let in more Jewish refugees. From a British perspective, there was a refusal to aid Jewish migration to Palestine.

The only success was to create a refugee centre in North Africa; but that took more than a year to establish.

Britain and the United States “ruled out the possibility of taking in Jewish refugees from Nazism” fearing that the Nazis would accept.

On 11 May 1943, as the Nazis murdered more than 10,000 Jews to crush the second Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Nazis then deported the remaining 56,000 Jews to the Treblinka death camp. The added failure of the Bermuda Conference compounded Zygielbojm’s misery. He took his own life in a final protest against Holocaust indifference.

After the war, Karski spoke about the impact of Zygielbojm’s death.

Karski arrived in the United States in the middle of 1943. He spoke with President Roosevelt (and other officials) of the Nazi’s genocide but their reaction was of disbelief. It took the U.S. government six months to establish the War Refugee Board – to assist those displaced by Axis tyranny.

After the war, Karski settled into a professorship at Georgetown University, in Washington DC (until his retirement in the 1980s). He did not speak about his wartime activities until Claude Lanzmann’s 1985 documentary, Shoah.

Yad Vashem recognised Jan Karski as Righteous Among the Nations in 1984. In 1992, he suffered the tragedy of his wife taking her own life. He married Pola Nirenska, a dancer and choreographer in 1965, the daughter of an observant Jewish father. The Nazis murdered her family.

In 1994, Karski became an honoury citizen of Israel. In his speech he stated:

“This is the proudest and the most meaningful day in my life. Through the honorary citizenship of the State of Israel, I have reached the spiritual source of my Christian faith. In a way, I also became a part of the Jewish community… And now I, Jan Karski, by birth Jan Kozielewski – a Pole, an American, a Catholic – have also become an Israeli”.

Jan Karski died on 13 July, 2000, at the age of 86.

The post Jan Karski: the Catholic spy who warned about the Holocaust in 1942 appeared first on Religious Reader.

Derby’s first free Sikh school still intends to open in September despite council opposition.

Akaal Primary school opens its doors in September on the grounds of the city’s national Sikh museum. Lord Nash, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, wrote to Derby City Council requesting permanent land for the school. A request now under review as they explore their legal position.

The council insists that extra primary school places are not required.

Dr Daljit Singh Virk, one of the school’s insisted that a ‘political game’ is at hand due to the local and national political divide.

In spite of its Sikh ethos, the school offers 50 per cent of places to non-Sikhs. It also offers optional ‘Sikh studies’ outside of school hours alongside an ‘inclusive vegetarian food policy’.

The curriculum promises a ‘Sikh ethos and a strong focus on literacy development. Our curriculum will be broad, balanced and thematic’. It will be the first East Midlands school to follow the International Baccalaureate Primary Years programme.

By 2020, the school hopes to offer places to 420 students in the region.

In a statement, the National Secular Society took a critical stance in line with broader criticisms of faith schools.

The post Derby’s first free Sikh school set to open in spite of land problems appeared first on Religious Reader.