This ban on Muslims praying in school is a dystopian, sinister vision of Britishness | Nadeine Asbali

The decision by Britain's strictest head' reflects a wider culture with a myopic view of what multiculturalism should look like

• Nadeine Asbali is a secondary school teacher in London

Muslims pray five times a day, beginning before sunrise and ending after sunset. It is a central pillar of our faith, and we believe it will be one of the first things we will be questioned about by God after we die.

As a Muslim secondary school teacher, I pray in my own classroom at lunchtimes - and in winter, when the days are shorter, I pray once more after lessons are finished. Never has this private, spiritual act threatened the cohesion of the schools in which I have worked. Never has it diminished my Britishness. And yet, that is exactly the argument given by the controversial headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh this week as she defends the decision to ban prayer rituals" at her north-west London secondary, Michaela.