COUNCILLORS may feel they are stuck between a rock and a hard place in having to make a decision on the desire of Blackburn's Tauheedul Islam Girl's High to become Lancashire's first state-aided Muslim school.

Church of England and Roman Catholic schools already get financial support from the public purse so why shouldn't a Muslim school be entitled to equal treatment? Is it nothing short of religious discrimination to refuse to give an Islamic institution state help?

That's the argument Labour-controlled Blackburn with Darwen Council seems to have taken on board in agreeing to help the high school move out of the private sector. It may have been difficult for them to do anything else after allowing St Wilfrid's C of E High School to return to the local authority fold after opting out and then rebuilding it with public money.

Executive member for education Coun Mahfooz Hussain says the new move will "extend parental choice and school diversity" and his stance is strongly supported by Lancashire Council of Mosques.

But is it logical to argue that, because some existing schools restrict entry on religious (and in practice this means racial) grounds, we should expand what is fast becoming a segregated education system?

People need to know more about each other to break down barriers - that's something hammered home by recent reports into racial disturbances in Burnley and Oldham which spoke of the dangers of people leading parallel but separate lives.

The part of the UK with the strongest tradition of separate religious education is Northern Ireland, a place that provides a classic example of how leading separate lives helps to breed fear and ignorance that extremists will exploit for their own destructive ends.

Different cultures should be recognised and respected. But history shows us that separation is not the answer to any perceived problem.