Wait!... What??

Anyway, in England a Catholic schoolgirl has been listed as truant for refusing to wear a headscarf to a mandatory trip to a mosque... 

Now, I am trying to figure out what part of this is the most unsettling... that a Catholic schoolgirl is being required to go to a mosque... that it is a Catholic school that is requiring her to go to a mosque... or that it is this same Catholic school that is punishing this girl for refusing to wear a headscarf...

I can understand that a Catholic school can mandate students to do things that they may not want to do... and I agree that a Catholic school should function in loco parentis and that a Catholic school should be given fairly wide-ranging authority over the actions of its students... however, it seems bizarre to utilize this authority to force a Catholic child to dress as a muslim and go to a mosque.  If it were the case that this was a Catholic student attending a muslim school, I would completely support the school requiring their students to adhere to their dress codes and cultural mores (I would ask why a Catholic parent was sending their child to a muslim school, though); however, I have deep problems with this sort of 'ecumenism' that seems to serve no purpose other than to water-down the unique nature of the Catholic Church.

I should also point out that I completely support requiring women to cover their heads when attending Mass... so I am not against head-scarves in general... nor do I consider them to be 'muslim'.