A London teacher has been banned from working with children after telling a Muslim pupil that “Britain is still a Christian state.” Given the fallout which followed the 2021 Batley caricature incident and the 2023 Wakefield Quran “desecration”, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. But this case feels different: a simple statement of fact — that Christianity remains the UK’s largest faith and its established religion — has been treated as if it were an act of hostility.

This is just the latest instance where safeguarding concerns have been used to discourage discussion of British values and heritage in the classroom, and it lays bare our inability to discuss basic issues as is necessary in a multicultural society. The primary school teacher reminded a Muslim pupil that Britain was a Christian country after catching several pupils washing their feet in the bathroom sinks as part of a ritual ablution ahead of prayer. He then told them that the school was non-faith, and suggested that a nearby Islamic school might be more appropriate if they wanted a religious environment.

Three children complained about his conduct, saying that it made them feel upset and scared, and the headteacher dismissed him for gross misconduct. This was a major overreaction to a simple historical statement, one which suggests we have reached the point where even a factual assertion can lead to professional ruin.

Yet the irony is hard to miss. The conversation the teacher attempted to start is exactly the kind of conversation our society needs but continually avoids. Modern Britain is often described as a secular, liberal, and pluralistic society, but we cannot simply wish away the country’s Christian inheritance, including its established church, its moral assumptions and its cultural memory. These have shaped everything from our public holidays to our intuitions about fairness, duty and restraint.

Over the past 50 years, however, accelerating secularization and the growth of other faith communities have stretched our understanding of British identity. The idea of “being British” has become more elastic. With that elasticity has come a heightened sensitivity around cultural and religious differences. The tension is clear. Christian identity remains a historical fact, woven into the national fabric, yet it has become increasingly politically and socially fraught to assert in secular public spaces.

Conflict over ideas is unavoidable in a multicultural society. A culture is a shared system of beliefs, values, customs and behaviors. Having several cultures coexisting in one nation makes disagreement inevitable. What allows such a society to function is not identical values but instead a shared commitment to mutual respect and the dignity of differing worldviews.

This requires us to distinguish between emotional sensitivity and genuine safeguarding, between intellectual honesty and the policing of discourse. A liberal democracy cannot survive on avoidance. It depends on teaching people, especially children, how to navigate disagreement with confidence and charity, rather than shielding them from every uncomfortable exchange. Schools are a microcosm of society, and the tensions found there should not be ignored. Indeed, some courage in the curriculum would make awkward conversations later in life far less likely.

If there is a fair criticism of the teacher in this case, it is the suggestion that the pupils should attend another school. Children don’t decide which school they go to. But that misstep should not obscure the deeper problem. Our institutions seem increasingly unable to hold together honesty about Britain’s heritage with genuine sensitivity toward those who do not share it. The more pluralistic our society becomes, the more uncomfortable these conversations will be. They are also more essential now than ever.

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Jide Ehizele writes on faith, culture, and belonging in modern Britain.

OBEhizele

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