A Quebec Superior Court judge has denied a request to suspend the province’s ban on prayer room spaces in public schools.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the National Council of Canadian Muslims have argued that the ban was causing irreparable harm to Muslim students.

Justice Lukasz Granosik disagreed, ruling today that the groups did not prove that there was an urgent need to stay the province’s decree while their case is heard on its merits.

Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville in April barred public schools from making space available to students for prayer, citing the province’s policy on institutional secularism.

Drainville had said that students would still be allowed to pray discreetly and silently.

But the groups argued that Muslim prayers require physical action and that students had been threatened with disciplinary measures for attempting to pray on school property.