ZE23P01539 - [2025] EWHC 1403 (Fam)

The respondent wants to bring up AB a Muslim. The applicants are largely relaxed about his exposure to Islam and Islamic culture by the respondent but want him in due course to form his own views. At the beginning of the trial a document was produced by the respondent in which she set out her religious plan, which required, for instance that the applicants should not challenge his Muslim religion.

It is impossible for me to work through the document, and arguably unhelpful of me to do so given the attitude of the applicants and indeed the more relaxed evidence which the respondent gave in the box. I would not require the applicants to take AB to religious classes. I would suggest that they should show respect (as I fully anticipate they will) to that faith. I would not require them to support it, and as AB becomes older, I would not restrain them discussing their own beliefs with him. As far as the information given to his future school might be concerned, I consider the school should be told that the respondent is a Muslim and the applicants are not, which has the obvious advantage of being the reality.

Obviously, and I hope unnecessary for me to say, it would be harmful if religion were to be used as a vehicle to condemn the applicants’ relationship as sinful.