Canadian judge allows Muslim students’ prayer in school

Muslim students in an Alberta private school will be allowed to pray after a judge upheld a human rights decision that rejected school’s discrimination against them. 

 

 

Muslim students in an Alberta private school will be allowed to pray after a judge upheld a human rights decision that rejected school’s discrimination against them. 

“The tribunal applied well-established principles of law. For many years, public and private schools have been required to adhere to human rights legislation in offering their educational services to the public,” wrote Justice Glen Poelman in a decision posted this week cited by The Canadian Press. 

The Alberta Human Rights Commission tribunal found, in 2015, that Webber Academy in Calgary unlawfully discriminated against the students and fined the school $26,000.

The decision came after the two students, Sarmad Amir and Naman Siddiqui, who were in Grades 9 and 10, testified that praying is mandatory in Islam.