PLANS for Lancashire's first state-funded Muslim faith school look set to go ahead - even though half of the controlling Labour members of Blackburn with Darwen Council's cabinet are against it.

Four leading councillors are to be congratulated on standing up and admitting they disagree with the move.

Two of the four, Coun Maureen Bateson and Coun Andy Kay, have publicly explained that they are opposed in principle to faith schools within the state education system.

"We should be promoting integration and building up the number of community schools we have, not going the other way," said Coun Kay.

As we said on Monday a considerable amount of public money goes into a comparatively high number of existing church schools in East Lancashire.

With a brand new St Wilfrid's C of E High School building in Blackburn nearing completion it's quite clear that it would be politically difficult to deny funding to a Muslim faith school.

Council leader Coun Bill Taylor says segregation is already blighting existing high schools and Muslim parents will continue to send their daughters to faith schools so it is better that they are in the state system where they can be closely monitored.

But we live in a society in which, as reports on the Burnley and Oldham riots pointed out, too many people of different ethnic backgrounds lead separate but parallel lives.

If you support the principle that people from different faith backgrounds should be educated together to break down barriers bred by ignorance and fear, a start has to be made somewhere.

Pity these four councillors did not go one step further and refuse to allow pragmatism to defeat idealism.