A Muslim father has removed his six-year-old daughter from school in protest at her teacher who confiscated her Islamic necklace.
Muhammed Tariq, 34, said his daughter Saniya was upset after a teacher took away her religious locket because she was swinging it around in class.
The Year 2 pupil was told to take off her taweez – a chain containing verses from the Koran – after she was caught playing with it at Nottingham Academy last Monday.
As a result, Britain’s biggest school have now made a U-turn on their uniform policy, which dictates pupils can only wear one plain pair of metal studs, and say she can now wear the jewellery in class.
However, Mr Tariq has still pulled his daughter out of lessons for over a week after he branded the teacher’s actions an ‘insult to Islam.’
He is now demanding that she be placed in a different class away from the teacher who banned her ‘sacred’ locket.
Yesterday Mr Tariq said: ‘My daughter was really upset about it when she came home – she was in floods of tears.
‘This is very sacred to her and to our religion. It should not be taken off Muslims and it is something she holds very dear indeed.
‘To have it taken off her for the entire day and be shouted at by her teacher like that is an insult to our religion.’
‘She said she had only been itching her neck and had got the taweez out to scratch her neck.
‘But the teacher thought she was playing with it and swinging it about.
‘The whole thing really upset her and I don’t think she is happy in the class any more.’
‘I think it will be better if she moves to a different class so I have taken her out of school until we can get this issue resolved.’
‘My taweez means a lot to me and I think she should have asked my parents before making me take it off’, says the girl.
