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Schavan says school Islam lessons improve integration
Published: 25 Jul 10 14:42 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100725-28733.html
Education Minister Annette Schavan has defended the controversial policy of introducing lessons about Islam into German school classes, saying they aid integration.
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“Of course I know about the fears of many Germans in connection with this topic,” she told Focus magazine. “But I see it as experienced religious freedom, as a dialogue between Christianity and Islam.”
She said there was no way such lessons were about installing Koran schools, or offering a platform to radical Islamists.
“No, we want to use this to bring Islam out of the back yard and make it transparent,” she said.
Schavan first introduced Islam lessons in Baden-Württemberg when she was culture minister.
“My experience was very positive,” she said. “The acceptance of Muslims by Germans clearly increased. This was also to do with the fact that the lessons were held in German and no secret was made about it."
She also supported the idea of university courses in Islamic studies.
“We will soon be educating Imams at German universities, who will then work in mosques as preachers. We need leaders there who have learned about their religion scientifically and thus also critically,” she said.
The minister also said that Islamic communities in Germany should understand themselves as part of German society.
“So, no isolation, rather the greatest possible level of transparency. Only in this way can prejudices be reduced,” she said.
Yet Schavan was critical of burkas, saying they made integration much more difficult.
“Is the burka an expression of self-determination or rather much more the expression of a fundamentalist attitude? I find clothes should not make a person impossible to recognise. Fear and uncertainty comes from such things,” she said.
The Local (news@thelocal.de)
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Your comments about this article:
if ignorance is good enough for us its good enough for those kids - we didn't get where we are today by understanding people!
The topic is Islam classes for Muslim students, not mandatory Islam classes for Christian students. Dear God, the pitchforks would be out faster than you could blink, if that were the case.
And I for one thinks it's a good idea, since it allows the school to introduce moderate Islam rather than this fundamentalist non-sense that the extremists are spouting. If you consider it in the long-term, it worked quite effectively at de-radicalizing Christendom in Germany and ending the constant conflict between Catholics and Lutherans.
Assuming you don't automatically discard all religions, there is much to be admired in the tenets of Islam. That said, there are clearly other issues that cannot be ignored. Perhaps the worst is that mainstream Muslims don't "seem" to be upset with the radicals. Is that a problem with the way the media reports the news, or is that an accurate statement?
Personally I have no idea, but I do believe that petty fears might be lessened if people learned what is behind "those strange beliefs" that they blindly attribute to others.
wa
Do they do this in German schools?
Why do they only allowed Islamic lessons in schools?
This is unfair...
No, that is NOT what the article was about.
Schavan "said learning lessons about Islam had been very constructive in schools, leading to better understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim students." This sentence is quite clear: she is talking about Islam lessons for all people.
However, I wonder what these lessons will consist of. Will it be the usual nonsense pretending that Muhammad was the same kind of person as Jesus? Jesus was a pacifist, but Muhammad told Muslims to spread Islam by the sword.
Jesus preached his lessons of non-violence, but if someone refused to accept his teachings, he would move on. Muhammad instructed Muslims to invite someone to join Islam. If they refused, Muslims were to either collect the jizya (a tax on infidels often collected in a humilating manner) or fight them.
Will these classes compare the early Christians and early Muslims? For example, Saints Perpetua and Felicitas were two martyred women. Perpetua was such a believer that after being mortally wounded in the ring, she grabbed the hand of the young gladiator assigned to dispatch her and guided his sword to her neck because his hand was trembling. Compare this to early Muslims who invaded the Iberian Peninsula by force in the late 600s and occupied it until the end of the 1400s.
- the christian bible is only a few percent the words of jesus - the other 97% contains things at least as vicious as anything in the koran
- whatever jesus did, christians certainly do not 'move on' when someone disagrees with them - if there was some sort of competition for which religion can force-convert the most, christianity would be in the finals
- muslims invaded the iberian peninsula, christians re-invaded the iberian peninsula (after 800 years we can call it a muslim state), christians at around the same time also invaded the south american continent and slaughtered millions of inhabitants for the glory of god
you are comparing *your* flavour of christianity against *your* idea of islam. Perhaps you should attend a few of schavan's lessons and broaden your horizons
See
http://www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/focus-interview-schavan-will-islam-aus-dem-hinterhof-herausholen_aid_533966.html
Schavan's proposal is to add Islam to the list. There is no proposal to introduce mandatory religious teaching.
Before some "likes-to-think-of-him/herself-as" bright spark shouts "Hey, why not let the child chose?", my son is 5 years old. The words "Catholic", "Protestant" and "Ethics" have no meaning for him. How is he supposed to chose?
Oh come on. Christendom is no more tolerant than Islam is. Yes, it's less common these days for Christians to be blood-thirsty murdering holy warriors than Islamists, but I might remind you that it used to be the exact opposite, and it was turned around at least twice more before that. All religions that claim absolute truth have an innate danger of turning towards extremism, and the majority reason that Christendom is tempered today is because we're insanely rich. The fatter the belly the duller the temper. Don't come spouting this non-sense.
"we don't need these other 'ethics' lessons. Islam has no place in the european classroom"
Very tolerant.
Oh, and if christianity is tolerant, please explain "excommunication" to me.