Ahlul Bayt News Agency - ABNA - Berlin’s Ministry for Education, Science and Research has just published a guide called "Islam and School" giving practical advice on how to resolve issues relating to Muslim students and encouraging "people to live together respectfully and peacefully".
The handbook is meant as a reference for teachers in Germany who are unsure whether to allow their Muslim pupils to pray at school, to skip swimming lessons or wear the veil, and other aspects of the sometimes difficult task of reconciling Muslim practices with German schooling.
The guidelines aim to boost the integration of Germany’s Muslim community, Europe’s second largest Muslim population after France. Around 4 million Muslims live in Germany, meaning about 5 percent of the overall population.
"For years, society and schools have been faced with a variety of new duties and challenges. One of these big challenges is to have people from different traditions, cultural and religious affiliations living together peacefully and respectfully," said Juergen Zoellner, Berlin Minister for Education, Science and Research, in the introduction to the booklet.
"This document should give insight into Islam and its diversity. In addition, the knowledge that Islam can be read and practiced flexibly opens up room for manoeuvre for schools and Muslims both parents and pupils .. so that they can find pragmatic solutions for issues that arise."
Germany seems to be treading a careful path in order to avoid the kinds of conflicts with its Muslim community that other countries have incurred, such as France which in 2004 banned pupils from wearing conspicuous signs of their religion at school, including headscarves.
Unlike France, Berlin recommends teachers to have a relaxed attitude towards pupils wearing headscarves, noting that in the debate over Islam "for some it is the symbol of oppression and inability to integrate, while for others it is a specific expression of the assertion of identity and religiousness. Also in schools, these two camps occasionally confront one another, to the detriment of the pupils."
The ministry also said it would fix two days for Muslim pupils to take off for Islamic religious holidays, given that legal school holidays in Germany are based on Christian customs. "It is a sign of recognition if schools and pedagogues make the effort to inform themselves about Islamic holidays," it wrote.
The initiative shows willing on behalf of the German administration and contrasts with the fear-mongering talk in some countries about a Muslim "invasion"; but it is still to be seen whether these tentative proposals will be heeded - by both sides - without any enforcement apparatus in place. Also, given that in Germany's federal system, each of the country's 16 states sets it own education law, it needs to be seen if other states will follow Berlin's example.
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