Freedom, equality, fraternity? Towards a liberal defence of faith community schools

After briefly reviewing the current debate about faith community schooling in Britain the paper argues: (1) that those who hold liberal values ought to approach the issue in a spirit of openness and tolerance, keenly aware of the dangers of a neo-colonial imposition of majority liberal values on minority non-liberal religious communities; (2) that the liberal concern for social cohesion is most likely to be achieved if minority religious groups are supported in their attempts to preserve their communal identities and establish a sense of security in relation to society as a whole; (3) that the present mixed economy of local community and faith- based schools constitutes the most likely means of achieving this end (Abstract reproduced by kind permission of the publisher)