Originally a comment by Papito on Peaceful but conspicuous.

The greatest amount of coercion employed in this “not very subtle form of proselytising” is against other Muslims, or people who were born Muslim and may be moving away from Islam. The rest of the students are just “kafirs” and the holy rollers don’t really care about them. Group prayer serves a function of guarding a society against apostasy – whoever didn’t show up and participate properly can be persecuted. Unlike in many other modern religions, in Islam apostasy is very strictly judged – it is punishable by death in some countries. Insisting on group prayer is insisting that you can do violence to those who waver.

The ruling was absolutely correct. A community school is no place to impose Sharia. As the headmistress said, the group prayer ban occurred “against a backdrop of events including violence, intimidation and appalling racial harassment of our teachers.” This is what the parents and students who insisted they get to turn all schools into madrassas did to the teachers and to other students, and it’s not random, it’s part and parcel of an intolerant and aggressive system of beliefs. People who want to live like that should just choose a different school, and leave alone the kids who want to be free of such impositions.