For almost half a century, the British authorities have been following the so-called multiculturalism policy in their relations with Muslim communities on their territory, the essence of which is to provide various ethnic and religious groups with equal rights and opportunities to participate in the life of the state. This approach is designed to facilitate the fastest and most painless integration of these groups and minorities into the social structure of the State. In the 1960s, a number of anti-discrimination laws were adopted. Muslim communities actively enjoy such favorable conditions, which resulted in a significant increase in their number since the 1960s. However, while demanding and often receiving new rights and concessions, immigrants from Muslim countries and their descendants are not in a hurry to integrate into the social structure of the state, as the British government expects. A striking example of this statement is the situation in the field of education and the organization of Muslim schools in the United Kingdom.

Laws adopted by the British government in 1965 and 1968 prohibited racial discrimination in public places, as well as on the basis of skin color, racial or ethnic origin in the field of employment, housing rental, and the provision of services [Kozlov, 1991, p.164]. These laws were one of the reasons that contributed to the formation of favorable conditions for the development and activity of Muslim communities in the country. In some cities in the UK, such as Birmingham or Bradford, mosques have long been an integral part of the city's appearance, and you can't walk down the street without seeing a person in characteristic Muslim garb. The larger the Muslim community in a given place, the more active the adherents of Islam are in their initiatives and demands for new rights for themselves and their co-religionists.

Local and central authorities usually do not prevent the establishment and operation of Muslim public and political organizations. This is evidenced at least by the fact that the European branch of the Al-Qaeda organization, which prepared the terrorist attacks in New York at the beginning of the XXI century, operated on the territory of the country until the end of the 1990s. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the well-known comment of Professor B. Tibi of the University of Göttingen: "Today there is not a single fundamentalist movement in the world of Islam that does not have its own office in London" [cit. by: Sobolev, 2004, p. 121]. Currently, there are many different organizations established by Muslims in the UK, such as the Islamic Cultural Center and the Muslim Aid Association in London, the Islamic Support association in Birmingham, and the Al-Muhajiroun organization, which "calls for helping freedom fighters in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, and Bosnia in every possible way". [Landa, 2000, pp. 113-117]. The activities of these organizations are often not carried out at all.-

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It has been going on for years, and only something extraordinary, like the terrorist attacks in London in the summer of 2005, can serve as a reason for verification.

The increased influx of Muslim immigrants to the UK, which began in the 1960s, caused a number of problems, which largely provoked the authorities to pass laws restricting entry to the country (and also prompted the Conservative Powell to come up with a proposal for re-emigration with a payment of 500 pounds for each person leaving). One of the problems was related to the disproportionately increased number of Muslim children in English schools. In cities with large Muslim communities, such as Bradford (which will be the main example of the situation in the organization of Muslim schools), some educational institutions had more than a quarter of the total number of students. Two mosques in the city offered Koran lessons, which most Pakistani children attended for 15-20 hours a week over and above the usual program. This state of affairs has led British Muslims to establish organizations that, like the Bradford Mosque Council (established in 1981), choose as one of their main goals to promote the interests of communities in the field of education, and in particular the establishment of Muslim schools with Voluntary Aid status. The essence of this status is that the state, if the application is granted, assumes the main part of the financial burden of a non-state (created by private individuals) educational institution.

At the same time, the first serious tensions concerning the content of education between Muslim communities and local authorities begin. According to the Education Act of 1944, the responsibility for organizing the learning process was assigned to local educational Authorities (MOOS) - district municipal councils. Religious education was to be compulsory in both public and private schools. Such education consists of two parts: collective worship services and religious instruction. And initially it was based only on Christian dogmas and the Bible. According to regulation 25.4 of the Education Act, parents can exempt their children from one or both of the components. School authorities may also offer religious communities to provide religious instruction as an optional course (outside of the regular school curriculum). However, they are not required to do so. The Act also states that MOOS should not be concerned about their participation in providing religious instruction in schools that exist on voluntary donations. Within the general framework established by the local council, school leaders were granted a certain degree of autonomy. Under their jurisdiction and responsibility were: content and implementation of the curriculum, selection of teachers, conditions of admission of students to the school.

In public schools, religious instruction must follow a consistent curriculum. Such a program was approved by a committee assembled by local education departments and organized a conference to develop the program. The conference was attended by representatives of various organizations, such as teachers ' unions, religious groups, the Church of England and the MOO. MOOS had the right to vote and were responsible for the content of the program. It is quite natural that the situation with the absolute dominance of Christian religious education in schools categorically did not suit the stronger and ever-growing Muslim communities.

In October 1969, the Bradford Muslim Association petitioned for the introduction of Islamic religious education in secondary schools. The head of the Department of Education decided that this would conflict with the integration policy of Bradford, and rejected the request. Two years later, a new petition appeared, this time also supported by the Muslim Educational Trust, an organization specifically established to promote the idea of introducing a Muslim religious education system.

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education in secondary schools. In July 1972, the local education authority granted permission for Muslim religious classes to be held in secondary schools in Bradford after school hours, and in 1975, the first charter (program) was approved in Birmingham, which took into account the interests of several religions, not just Christianity. Over the next few years, many MOOS, such as those in Hampshire and Bradford, followed suit in Birmingham. In the educational programs adopted during these years, preference was usually given to teaching information about Christianity and other religions, rather than to confessional training as such.

What was actually the first attempt to establish a private Muslim school dates back to 1974. This year, Bradford introduced co-education for boys and girls in secondary schools, which gave an excuse for two Muslim fathers to take their daughters out of school. This event received a wide response in the press, after which one of these two fathers founded the Association of Muslim Parents (ARM). The Council met only some of the requirements of the AWP, and those were partially met. For example, it was possible to come to physical education classes in completely closed clothes, and joint swimming classes were also canceled. The request for separate education and, consequently, the retention of teaching for girls was not supported. After that, the ARM took the initiative to establish Muslim schools for girls, but due to insufficient support from Muslim parents, this idea was never implemented.

In 1978, the Union of Muslim Organizations established the National Muslim Council for Education in the United Kingdom, which a year later included about 130 organizations. This council has chosen to make proposals for changes to existing public schools, as well as the organization of Muslim schools with the status of voluntarily funded. However, at first the organization's efforts were focused primarily on private schools. The first private Muslim school was established in Coventry in 1979 - the Dar al-Uloom al-Arabiya al-Islamiya, a boys ' secondary school [Rath, Penninx, Groenendijk, Meyer, 2001, p. 242].

In December 1978, the Islamic Cultural Center and the Central London Mosque organized the first conference for Muslim teaching staff in the UK in London. One participant, a former school superintendent who worked for the Inner London Education Authority, stressed that it was time for Muslims to develop plans to establish their own schools, just as Jews and Roman Catholics had previously done. After that, several more Muslim schools appeared, and the issue of their state funding was again on the agenda. However, for a long time, attempts to obtain government subsidies for schools founded by Muslims were not successful, as can be clearly seen in the example of the Islamic primary school in Brenta, established in 1982. After a positive report on the education of children in school, prepared by members of the Education Committee of the Municipal Council of the city, the founders applied to the Ministry of Education for the appropriate status. The Ministry rejected the application on the grounds that the school is too small to accommodate everyone. The next application was rejected on the grounds that other Brent schools have empty seats that need to be filled first. At the same time, the Bradford ARM unsuccessfully sought public funding for five schools, the vast majority of which were Muslim.

An educational institution could receive the status of a state-funded educational institution under the Education Act of 1944. Initially, this was intended to allow parochial schools to receive most of the operating costs from the state, while remaining under the jurisdiction of the church. By the mid-1980s, the Academy of Sciences-

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The Episcopal and Roman Catholic churches had more than 2,000 such schools each, while the Jewish congregations and the Methodist Church had several dozen each. There was no reason in the law to prohibit other communities from having their own schools with voluntary funding status.

Even if the British authorities do not provide financial support to private Muslim schools, they still exercise control over them. According to the Education Act, such schools are subject to registration. To receive it, they must meet specific criteria established for school premises, teaching staff, and the quality of education. All this is checked by employees of Her Majesty's Inspection Service (ISEV). A school can be excluded from the register if it does not meet all the requirements, which automatically leads to its closure.

British education legislation allows you to choose the form in which government funding will be provided. Existing private Muslim schools can achieve this by applying for the status of voluntarily funded educational institutions. Communities can take care of a public school with a large number of Muslim students and then apply for the above status.

It is obvious that public funding gives the school a number of advantages. The Foundation Board contributes a small percentage of the initial cost of maintaining the school, which also includes areas such as recruitment and curriculum components. Two-thirds of the school's leadership team is chosen from among the founders of the religious community, and the remaining seats are reserved for representatives of local authorities. In primary education, secular teaching is supervised by the MOO, but the content of religious instruction is controlled by supervisors. In secondary education, both secular and religious instruction is the responsibility of school leaders. In fact, the management of a Muslim school can use money from the British government to teach students anything, especially if we take into account the well-known policy of non-interference of the British authorities in the internal affairs of communities.

By the early 1990s, there were about 20 private Muslim schools, but petitions from some of the school leaders for public funding were also rejected. The reasons for refusal could be different: the unsatisfactory quality of school premises that do not meet the requirements, and the availability of free places in schools in the neighborhood, as well as schools for girls, and many others. The main reason was that such requests were in conflict with the adopted municipal policy and could impose an additional financial burden on the local budget, which was, of course, extremely undesirable for the authorities.

It should be noted that by the 1980s, Muslims who received a British passport began to increasingly enjoy their active and passive voting rights, mainly at the local level. This led, in particular, to a sharp increase in the number of Muslims on the Bradford City Council: in 1981, only three of the 90 members were Muslim, but by 1993 the number had increased to 12. The increased representation in political life favourably reflected the existence of Muslim organizations that claimed special conditions. Some of the first achievements were the introduction in 1983 of a new coordinated program that emphasized the transfer of religious instruction to a multi - religious basis, as well as the inclusion in school menus in 1984 of meat from animals slaughtered in accordance with ritual norms-halal. This decision provoked protest responses, including from animal welfare organizations. In response, the Council of Mosques called on all Muslim parents to boycott schools and demonstrate. As a result, halal meat was left on the school menu. At the same time, an additional option was added-

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There is little hope of receiving financial support from the State for Muslim schools.

The expediency of state support for Muslim schools has become the subject of a broad discussion in British society. The National Secular Society (NSO), for example, warned that if the government decided to subsidize Muslim schools, it could lead to segregation based on race and skin color. This organization was established in the XIX century. and its main goals were the separation of church and state and the struggle against the dominant position of the Anglican Church in the public sphere (in particular in education) and in the political life of the country. The NSO claims to be the most active organization in British society, protecting the rights of non-believers from the demands and pressure of religious politicians and public figures. The NSO conducts campaigns in various areas, including the fight against religious influence in government, the abolition of the Church of England and the Bishops ' Bench in the House of Lords. Initially, criticism was directed only at Christian churches, but with the emergence and increase of Muslim communities in the country, the NSO began to pay more attention to their activities. This organization has repeatedly spoken out on issues related to Muslim education in the future [About the National Secular Society...].

The problem became even more acute when Bradford Council wanted to introduce co-education, and the Association of Muslim Parents tried to establish a Muslim school for girls. The MOO Association believed that the requirement of separate education for boys and girls should be respected as long as it was based on educational and social benefits.

By the early 1980s, when Muslim communities were actively seeking government funding for their schools, all types of organizations were involved in the discussion. Many expressed their opposition to the establishment of Muslim schools, most often based on the fear of possible isolation and racial division. For example, the National Union of Teachers strongly opposed Muslim schools because they could sow the seeds of segregation, and it was feared that these schools would increase racial prejudice at the local level.

The Public Education Association and the Labour Party's education advisory bodies were satisfied that a multicultural education system could teach people of all races and religions together, and separate schools were thus not a step forward. This view was also shared by the State commission headed by Lord Swann (the Swann Committee). The Committee, at the request of the British Government, prepared and issued the Education for All report on the education of children from ethnic minorities in 1985. The public response to the report was a testament to the significant changes that had taken place over the previous two decades. On the one hand, there are signs of growing discontent among English parents that the problems of ethnic minorities are increasingly taking precedence over the interests of the "white" majority. On the other hand, the response of Muslim organizations, while generally satisfactory, was strongly critical of the Swann Committee's attitude to Islam and Muslim issues.

The Committee and Muslim community leaders were divided on two issues: religious education and Muslim schools. The report stated that religious education is one of the few areas where the multicultural nature of British society is seriously reflected, so the committee strongly recommended that such policies continue. Reaction of Muslim communities-

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schin argued against the secular foundations and goals of British education, which assumed that all religions were equally good. As for Muslim schools, the Committee also supported the position that such educational institutions do not contribute to the integration of ethnic and religious minorities into the social structure of British society [Nielsen, 1995, p. 57].

However, five years later, the Commission on Racial Equality (CRC) expressed the opinion that " the number of demands for the free status of Muslim schools will significantly decrease if the state pays more attention to providing support to schools with a genuine, active component of multicultural, anti-racial and anti-discrimination education, including understanding the needs of believers, the need for appropriate information and education." food and clothing, and in particular respect for the culture of behavior in race relations" [Rath, Penninx, Groenendijk, Meyer, 2001, p. 247].

There were definitely positive aspects to the existence of special schools for Muslims. The increase in the number of immigrant children in British schools has almost triggered a serious crisis in the education system. First of all, teachers encountered poor knowledge of English by such children (many did not know it at all), while the offspring of immigrants from former colonies often spoke local dialects of English, which also did not simplify the teaching process. Teachers, in turn, did not know the native languages of such students. Another problem was the discrepancy between the curriculum and the level of training of high school students. For these reasons, the majority of immigrant children objectively lagged behind their peers in learning. This forced teachers to adapt the educational material to their capabilities and level of training, which led to a decrease in the quality of education of English children, and accordingly the overall level of education sharply decreased.

At the same time, after the adoption of anti-discrimination laws, teachers were under pressure and control from the public. When the headmaster of a school in Bradford, where about half of the students were immigrant children (mostly Pakistanis) who did not know the language well, published an article in the early 1980s about the feasibility of separate education for Pakistani and English children, he was considered a racist. Muslim parents held protests and boycotted the school, so the city authorities were forced to dismiss the principal.

The active position of British Muslims provoked a response from the British authorities, which was expressed in new wording and definitions in the Education Reform Act of 1988. Now it was strictly stipulated that collective worship services would generally and primarily be of a broad Christian nature and any agreed programs should reflect the fact that The religious tradition in Great Britain is based primarily on Christianity [Nielsen, 1995, p. 59]. All MOOS were required to review previously agreed and approved religious education programs in the light of the 1988 Act.However, this Act did not apply to schools that existed on voluntary donations, the heads of such schools were free to set their own restrictions on religious teaching, which staff had to adhere to.

Thus, the government effectively put an end to the hopes of Muslims to gain state support for their schools. At the same time, the new legislation also had positive aspects for the British Muslim communities. Under the new law, the role of parents and local communities in school management was increased, including the transfer of the lion's share of the school budget to their control. As a result, many schools across the country had councils by the end of the 1980s, half or even most of which were made up of Muslim parents, and in some cases only a few were Muslim.

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In some cases, Muslims presided over such councils. Additional funds allocated to schools for the election of governing councils helped them to free themselves from a significant part of the control of local authorities and gain autonomy, which previously could only be obtained by applying for the status of a publicly funded educational institution. Since Bradford (and some other cities) already had a very large Muslim diaspora at the time of the 1988 Act's entry into force, MOOS simply could not ignore the wishes of Muslim parents. For example, an agreement was reached on facilities for Muslim worshippers, and schools could now invite the imam to conduct services on Fridays. Muslims were also allowed to participate in the Advisory Council on Religious Education.

It is the fact that in England and Scotland the leading status of the Christian church is legally fixed, and the head of state is also the head of the church, that some authors tend to see the reasons for the long-term opposition of the authorities to the initiatives of Muslim communities in the field of education. However, in the late 1980s, bishops of the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches expressed their support for the idea of Muslim schools becoming voluntary funded institutions, and some of them drew parallels with the history of their own churches. The Catholic Bishop of Leeds said: "The experience of my community (which was a persecuted minority) shows that having your own school within the state system helps to overcome the initial isolation and gain confidence. The consequence of separate schools is integration, not division" [Rath, Penninx, Groenendijk, Meyer, 2001, p. 248]. However, the British authorities seem to have held a different opinion and not without reason.

The refusal of the British authorities to provide state support to Muslim schools has caused a very mixed reaction from the Muslim public. Its most common form was protest actions, but there were also very harsh statements. In particular, the director of the Muslim Institute in London, Kalim Siddiqui, called for a tax boycott in 1992 as a protest against the refusal of financial support for Muslim schools. In the Muslim Manifesto, he outlined his views on the situation of the Muslim community in the UK. In his opinion, Muslims were not obliged to obey any British law that would contradict their interests; they had to develop their culture and religion in order to convert as many Europeans as possible to Islam, for which, without stopping before difficulties, to achieve more and more rights and opportunities for Muslims from the British government [Sobolev, 2004, pp. 106-107]. Siddiqui almost immediately received a tough response from Secretary Patten: "Any British citizen and anyone who permanently resides in our country must comply with the laws of the state. This is my message to every community in our country, whether Muslim or otherwise" [Rath, Penninx, Groenendijk, Meyer, p. 232].

Nevertheless, the demands and protests of Islamic communities probably still had an effect, since, despite the fact that until the mid-1990s in the United Kingdom, no Muslim private school was able to obtain the status of a publicly funded one, by the end of the 20th century, several schools had acquired the coveted status [Levin, 2002, p. 10]. The number of Muslim schools continues to grow, and communities continue to struggle to get government subsidies for as many of them as possible. This raises some concerns among the authorities. Some of them, like David Bell, head of the Ofsted Inspection of schools, say that "independent Muslim schools pose a potential threat to the cohesion of British society" [Well Performing Muslim Schools...].

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Despite much improved educational conditions in recent decades, people from Muslim countries and former colonies still often lag behind their peers. This is stated in the latest report of the Children's National Bureau. In order to meet the needs of ethnic minority students enrolled in mainstream schools, various organizations such as the National Charity School and Home Support are being set up. Such organizations are a driving force for parents ' participation in multi-ethnic schools, and they also make considerable efforts to increase attendance, address behavioral and other problems. To help parents and students who don't know much (or don't know at all) English language, the school invites staff who speak two or more languages [Charity prevents multi-ethnic schools...].

However, there are often incidents that call into question the possibility of co-education of representatives of different faiths in regular schools. In the mid-1990s, the British press reported extensively on a case where a Christmas concert at a school in Birmingham was interrupted by a Muslim teacher. During a rehearsal for the choir, a third of which was of Asian descent, performing a song about Christmas, math teacher Israr Khan got up and started shouting, " Who is your God?! Clap your hands and shout 'glory to Allah'!" The teacher's actions were condemned not only by the parents, who demanded a public apology and said that Khan should have expressed all his concerns to the principal in advance, and not yelled at the children, thus showing disrespect for other religions, but also by an 18-year-old Muslim student, who said:: "I don't agree with what Mr. Khan said. Islam teaches you to respect all religions, and we also recognize Jesus as a prophet" (Charter, 1996). There is no doubt that this and similar incidents deal a serious blow to the policy of multiculturalism and the expectations of the British authorities that Muslim communities are easily integrated into the social structure of the United Kingdom.

Private Muslim schools, where children perceive the essence of the Muslim religion and the priorities of their upbringing through relationships with teachers and fellow students, as well as acquire skills that will help them succeed in other disciplines, protect students and teachers from such excesses. However, according to some researchers, including Tariq Ramadan, such schools cannot be considered as the "only" solution to the problem of Muslim education in the West, since they are usually attended only by children of wealthy parents due to the fact that entrance fees are high and often higher than a very limited number of scholarships. Usually, such schools are created to protect children from the bad influence of society, place them in an Islamic environment and distance themselves from an unhealthy environment. The result is an artificially closed Islamic space created in the West, but almost completely cut off from the surrounding society. "We take comfort in saying that the programs are designed in accordance with national regulations, but the reality is that these young people live in a society surrounded by teenagers who do not share their faith and whom they never meet. The school highlights a way of life and parallel reality that has virtually no connection with the society around it, " Ramadan writes (2004, p. 131).

He believes that it is necessary to teach children to contact and communicate with non-Muslim peers, to develop not only their Islamic, but also their British identity, which, as a rule, does not happen in existing Muslim schools. Ramadan writes that today there are several new type of Muslim schools (mainly in Sweden, the United States and Britain) that are open to qualified personnel of any origin and religion "and in various ways

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they help their students develop a more adequate understanding of their surroundings, connect with their peers and friends in the city, and apply their ethical skills in practice, through real acts based on solidarity with the society in which they live" [Ramadan, 2004, p.132-133].

But much more often, representatives of Muslim communities, including those in the United Kingdom, refuse this course of action, fearing inadvertently to depart from the strict dogmatic norms of religion, and prefer to protect their children from any contact with the non-Muslim world around them.

It is not surprising that the Government is extremely reluctant to provide State funding for Muslim schools. Today, it can be argued with good reason that the hopes of the authorities and the policy aimed at the rapid and painless integration of Islamic communities into the structure of British society have not been justified. One of the main conditions for implementing such a policy was the education of Muslim children in public schools with a multi-religious contingent of students, and not the creation of closed Islamic worlds in private schools with state money. To this end, in the 1970s and 1980s, the country's authorities granted many requests of the followers of Islam, such as closed clothing for girls or halal meat on the school menu. But instead of the expected result, the state faced ever-growing demands and mass protests. The policy of favorability has led to the formation of an independent Muslim diaspora on the territory of Great Britain, which is actually completely separate from British society, one of the most important elements of which is schools.

Currently, many politicians, researchers and public figures, like Tariq Ramadan, are looking for ways out of this situation: developing students of both identities, broad contacts with non-Muslims already at the secondary school stage, taking into account European legal norms and British traditions and values in the learning process as much as possible, and strengthening the authorities ' control over the content of education in Muslim educational institutions. The main condition for mutually beneficial cooperation and coexistence, as well as at least partial integration of Muslim communities into British society, remains the desire of the Islamic diaspora to achieve this. However, today there is very little evidence that this desire exists at all.

list of literature

Kozlov V. I. The essence of everyday racism and its manifestation in Britain. Istoriya i sovremennost', Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1991.

Landa R. G. Moslemskie partii i organizatsii v Great Britain [Muslim parties and organizations in the UK].
Levin Z. Moslems-immigrants in the West / / Moslems in the West, Moscow, 2002.
Sobolev V. G. Muslim communities in the states of Western Europe in the 1990s. Diss. on the map. art.cand. history of sciences. St. Petersburg, 2004.

About National Secular Society II Internet: http://www.secularism.org.uk/about.html7CPID=6202a24af9727b8ada69232a2890a3 97 (information site of the National Secular Society of Great Britain)

Charity Prevents Multi-Ethnic Schools Segregating II Internet: www.themuslimweekly.co.uk (electronic journal of British Muslims).

Charter D. Muslim Teacher Berates Carolers // The Times. l9.12.1996.

Nielsen Y. Muslims in Western Europe. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995.

Rath J., Penninx R., Groenendijk K., Meyer A. Western Europe and it's Islam. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2001.

Ramadan T. Western Muslims and the Future of Islam. New York-Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Well Performing Muslim Schools Singled out for Criticism II Internet: www.muslimdirectory.co.uk (Information portal of Muslims of Great Britain).

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