In a rare case involving religion and family law, a Sydney court has ordered that the child of a Muslim-Christian marriage be sent to a secular state school.
The magistrate, Judith Ryan, found it was in the boy's best interests to attend a religiously diverse school.
His parents and extended family could teach him about his mixed heritage, allowing him to choose a religion when he was mature, she said in the Federal Magistrates Court, Parramatta.
The case arose after the marriage ended and the mother, a Muslim, sought orders that the boy live with her and that the father, of Lebanese Catholic Maronite background, be prevented from taking him to church on contact visits.
The mother, who favours a secular education, later withdrew her church objection, but the father pressed on with his wish that his son be educated at a Maronite Christian school.
Paul Tabar, associate researcher at the centre of cultural studies at the University of Western Sydney, told the court that both the Muslim and Maronite cultures within the Lebanese-Australian community in western Sydney were patriarchal and strongly religious.
Dr Tabar said the boy would be treated as an outcast by Muslims if he followed Islam and ignored his father's religion. But patriarchy meant he would "safely find a place" within the Maronite Catholic community, despite his mother being Muslim.
Ms Ryan ruled that the boy should not be placed in a school with a predominantly Muslim student body, where he was likely to be victimised.
Neither should he attend a Maronite Catholic school, where he would be "increasingly inculcated into a religious faith that differs markedly from the parent with whom he lives".
Ms Ryan said that in the past, the resident parent had generally decided issues such as schooling, but law changes in 1975 had made both parents equal decision-makers - hence the court's involvement.
She noted that "neither [parent] suggested that their religion should be preferred because it alone is the one true religion".
As well as weekend contact, the boy will spend Christmas Day and Easter Sunday with his father. He will spend two nominated days of Eid - a religious obligation and social celebration for Muslims - with his mother.