Berlin - German schools are to teach Islam to Muslim
schoolchildren, appointing teachers trained at German universities,
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Thursday.
He was giving details of agreements reached in three years of
unprecedented consultations with the Muslim community, which makes up
5 per cent of Germany's population.
In one final document, Muslim leaders and government officials
recommended that German schools make concessions on the controversial
issue of mixed-sex swimming classes.
An official survey this week found conservative Muslims object to
their daughters being taught to swim in classes with boys. The
parents want the girls to wear conventional swimwear and swim, but
not where boys can see them.
Some parents have gone to court asking in vain for girls-only swim
classes.
The survey found 7 per cent of Muslim girls to not attend swim
classes because of the issue, and 10 per cent skip class trips
involving stays in mixed dormitories.
One of the documents issued at the end of the Islam Conference in
Berlin was a good-practice brochure for schools on how to resolve the
dispute over swim classes and girls wearing scarves in defiance of
school rules.
The conference documents said that where the pool issue becomes
heated, separate swim classes were a 'sensible' solution. It says
there is no legal basis for school rules banning head scarves.
But the document added that Islamic practice does not require
girls to wear scarves before the age of puberty.
German education ministers will be asked to debate the
recommendations this autumn.
The three-year conference drew up plans to formalize religious
education in public schools and set up Islamic theology departments
at universities. At present, only a few schools offer Islam classes.
'The academic status is needed because Islamic theology based in
Germany can offer appropriate answers to issues of Muslim life in the
diaspora and participate in discourse on general political issues,'
Schaeuble said.
The conference began in 2006 amid government fears of homegrown
terrorism, but became a platform for Muslims to raise concerns,
especially over what they see as a failure of public schools to cater
to their children.
The meeting called for special aid for Muslim-majority schools
including appointing more Muslim-origin teachers.
Both sides also drew up a joint brochure, 'Muslims for Freedom and
Pluralism,' saying the Islamic community supports democracy.
Schaeuble said the meeting had not settled every issue, but had
managed to 'fundamentally alter' the relationships between Muslims
and the German state and was a 'clear sign' that Muslims were part of
Germany.
Both sides said they hope to resume the consultations after this
year's general election. The conference was set up for the lifetime
of the current government only.
This week, data compiled for the conference revealed for the first
time that 5 per cent of Germany's population is Muslim, more than was
previously thought.
Chancellor Angela Merkel met at her office with the Muslim
community leaders before the three-hour final conference began, and
said, 'We need your voices to understand the entire range of Islam in
Germany.'
She said heated debate at the conference on gaining permits to
build mosques had led to proposals to smooth the process and
pinpointed the officials to approach.
Most of the work since 2006 of the Islam Conference, including
information gathering, has been done by committees and officials
appointed by Schaeuble.
Divisions remain within the Muslim community, with liberal Muslims
at the talks quick to affirm their support for the German system,
whereas fundamentalists perceived continued hostility towards them
from the German state.
A newspaper, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, said one mosque group, the
Council of Islam, representing conservative groups, refused to sign a
call for full public disclosure of funding sources, calling it
'discriminatory.'
'We reject the declaration in this form because it is infused with
suspicion in general towards Muslims,' the Council of Islam chairman,
Ali Kizilkaya, told the newspaper.
Fundamentalist Islamic groups in Germany have been accused by
officials of taking secret funding from abroad.
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