Germany seeks to build bridges with Muslim community (News Feature)

Berlin - Germany took an historic step this week to find pragmatic answers to conflicts between its strict Muslims and the secular school system, over issues such as whether devout girls should wear headscarves. Some public schools have tried to ban scarves in Germany, where teachers often believe their task is to keep religion out of school and shape children for modern life. With Muslim women and girls sometimes deliberately adopting the scarf as a badge of identity, friction has grown. Teachers have also largely rebuffed misgivings among conservative Muslim parents about explicit sex education or forcing girls to wear swimwear while boys watch. The parents have not won much sympathy from the German media, which depicts observant families as a minority within a minority. But this week, an official document suggested a case-by-case exit from the conflicts. In 2006, Berlin began three years of consultations, the 'German-Islam Conference,' with figures the government chose itself from the splintered Muslim community. Many of them were liberal or lapsed Muslims who were not expected to support more devout views. That makes the final, joint document issued this week all the more surprising. In the dry officialese of legal advisers, it sets out recommendations on accommodating Muslim parents while upholding secular policies. The recommendations have not been adopted yet: they must be debated this autumn by state education ministers. But a compromise is taking shape on issues that have bedevilled other European nations with large immigrant communities, particularly France, whose government has taken a confrontational approach. Scarves covering the hair are banned in French schools as illegitimate religious symbols. The German joint document suggests the state's interest in educating the generation of tomorrow and the parents' rights to shape their children's religious values are of equal weight. Where they come into conflict, schools and parents have to negotiate to find the 'least painful' outcome. The document says face-covering veils ought to be banned, since they are obstacles to communication in the classroom. But there was no legal basis for schools to ban scarves covering the hair, though schools could forbid pins, which could wound other children during games, or flammable fabrics, which could catch fire in chemistry class. Berlin officials noted this week that when dealing with Muslims from 49 nations, ranging from Sunni Muslims to Shiites and Alawites, there was no united Muslim voice. But schooling issues have resonated powerfully through the community of 4 million German Muslims. At the conference, even liberal Muslims who regard faith practices as old-fashioned allowed the concerns of highly observant Muslims to rise up the agenda. Yasemin Karakasoglu, a professor of education at the University of Bremen and leading researcher on integration, said two months ago the conference developed in ways the government never foresaw. By giving Muslims a voice, it let a 'genie out of the bottle,' she said. Many proposals in the document directly contradict long-standing policy in Germany's co-educational schools. Conservative Muslim parents also object to children taking part in school excursions where they might sleep in mixed dormitories, eat pork or be exposed to the alcohol abuse that is rife on school trips by older children. A survey shows 10 per cent of Muslim schoolgirls in Germany use excuses to skip trips because of those issues. The agreed document said children should have a right to exemption from these compulsory trips. The document, negotiated with officials in Chancellor Angel Merkel's government over many months, is not legally binding, but is described as a circular to the nations' schools. Mixed school swimming classes are another hot-button issue in Germany, with teacher unions and education authorities adamant that girls and boys must be cured of any embarrassment at seeing one another in swimsuits. Conservative Muslims on the other hand object to their daughters revealing themselves to boys, and demand segregated lessons where girls can learn to swim. The conference document appeals to schools to backtrack. It says that from the age of about 10, the religious rights of the girls themselves prevail over the school's right to dictate any form of instruction. It adds girls have a legal claim to be exempted from swimming lessons, but this is a 'second-best solution.' Schools could better fulfil their purpose by pragmatically organizing girls-only classes in the pool for all age groups if parents insist, the document said. It also asks schools not to plan examinations during major feasts such as Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha and routinely let Muslim children have those days off. Currently, not all of Germany's 16 states allow this. The give-and-take of the conference, in which government officials also demanded some trade-offs from the Muslims, is evident in other points where the document suggests it is up to Muslims to adapt. It says for example that compulsory sex education in schools, including a demonstration of contraception, is not negotiable, but teachers should use language and movies that do not offend religious sensitivities. Referring to the ordeal of Ramadan fasting, it appeals to schools to be considerate, but adds that there is no justification for younger children fasting. It instead appeals to the parents to ensure during the fasting month that older children obtain adequate sleep.