Berlin Court OKs Muslim Schooling
A Berlin court has ruled that the German city’s 32,000 Muslim school children are entitled to voluntary religious instruction in public schools.
Until now, classes for Roman Catholic and Protestant students have been the only ones offered. Muslim instruction had long been resisted by Berlin officials.
At the same time, some Berlin Muslims said the Islamic Federation, which pushed the court case, is a radical political group that is not in step with the city’s 220,000-member community.
The federation represents just 12 of the 70 mosques in Berlin, and its chairman, Nail Dural, advocates the establishment of an Islamic state in secular Turkey. Turkey is the homeland of 70% of Berlin’s Muslim residents.
Berlin’s liberal Turkish Union urged Muslim parents to keep their children out of religious classes run by the federation. Religious instruction is mandatory in most of Germany, but is voluntary in Berlin.
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