Non-Christian clerics urge the Kirk to push religious teaching in schools

London, England - HINDU and Muslim leaders are urging the Kirk to boost religious teaching in schools in order to counter the "secular society".

David Lacy, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said senior clerics from other faiths were now telling him to offer a more "strident" view of Christian beliefs, in order to provide young people with more moral teaching.

The non-Christian leaders added that the Kirk had been "too concerned" with being inclusive at the expense of laying down its own beliefs in schools.

The surprising calls come with religious communities preparing to mark Scottish Inter Faith Week from today, in which the links between the country's main faiths will be celebrated.

Their leaders will present the Scottish Parliament with a framed compilation of quotes from their respective scriptures which support the values engraved on the Scottish Mace.

It also comes with the debate about Britain's plural society back at the forefront following a powerful attack on multiculturalism last week by Dr John Sentamu, the new Archbishop of York, and Britain's first African-born archbishop

Sentamu claimed that the creed of multiculturalism has "seemed to imply, wrongly for me, that other cultures be allowed to express themselves but do not let the majority culture at all tell us its glories, its struggles, its joys, its pains."

Lacy said he did not back Sentamu's comments, insisting that greater multiculturalism had led to more people in Scotland dropping their hostilities to one another.

But he said pressure to assert more Christianity in Scotland was now coming from other faiths, following a meeting of religious leaders from all faiths earlier this month.

He said: "This point was being made about the need to counter secular culture. We were being told that we should be calling for religious observance and religious education far more stridently in schools.

"This is a Christian country, they told us, and others are happy to live within a Christian country."

He added: "They wanted us to be demanding more Christian education in schools and that we were far too quick to make room for other religions.

"Their point was that youngsters often came away from school with nothing at all and that we should be pushing our own beliefs more. That surprised me. I am not sure that they are right.

"We want to be inclusive but I hadn't previously considered that we might want to be far more stridently Christian for their sakes.

"I am not sure about it. Multiculturalism is at least encouraging people to come out of their shells and I wouldn't want that momentum to stop."

Leaders from the Hindu and Muslim faiths said last night that they backed the teaching of Christian values, because of what they saw as the need to promote all religions.

Salah Beltagui, a prominent Scottish Muslim in who works in the Scottish Inter Faith Council, added: "We want people to know about all kinds of faiths because they have lots in common. It all adds to the aim of teaching more morals and values about life."

Mohan Sharma, a spokesman for the Hindu community added: "Everyone should try and teach their own religion but also respect all other religions."

The Inter Faith Week will be celebrated by leaders of all the major faiths this week, including Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Imam Mustaqeem Shah from the UK Islamic Mission, and Rabbi David Rose.

An initiative will be launched to promote calls for faith groups to work together more in order to prevent prejudices developing between communities.