“The Trojan horse Affair”: The call for an independent inquiry

The Trojan Horse scandal centred on an anonymous letter that was leaked to Birmingham’s City Council (United Kingdom) in 20131. It alleged that teachers and governors in certain schools, within predominantly Muslim areas of Birmingham, were being “systematically overthrown and replaced by people who would run the schools according conservative Islamic principles”2. The photocopy of…

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Teaching Islam in Spanish schools: an ongoing debate

For the first time, Islamic religious education has been offered as an elective course in public schools in Catalonia, an autonomous community in north-eastern Spain, during the academic year 2020-2021. Despite Catalonia being the region in Spain with more Muslim students (around 90,440), until now, they were not able to attend classes on Islam in…

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Cartoon Controversy in UK Schools

At the end of March, a teacher at Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire was suspended following a religious studies lesson in which the teacher showed cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. Despite the school issuing a statement of apology, parents have protested against the use of offensive cartoons . The situation has generated widespread…

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Towards the Ban of the Veil for French Women under 18?

Early April, the French Senate started to discuss the Bill aiming at reinforcing the Republican principles (a novlangue expression to talk about the Bill against “separatism”). In the French legislative system, two chambers are in charge : first the National Assembly, then the Senate that can propose amendments, and third a shared reading of the…

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“Islamo-leftism”, Culture War and Academic Freedom: It’s All about Islam

On February the 14th, Frédérique Vidal, the French Minister for Higher Education made controversial declarations on “Islamo-leftism” – Islamo-gauchisme – and its negative influence on Universities during a TV interview. She even stated that French University (including academics and some students organisations) could deliberately promote it. A few days later, during a debate in the Assemblée Nationale, Vidal…

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