German bishop wants Islam classes in all state schools

Says teaching Islam in schools will give Muslim pupils the tools needed to ward off radicals

BERLIN: The head of the Protestant Church in Germany has called for Islam to be taught in state schools across the country as a way to make young Muslims impervious to the ‘temptation of fundamentalists’.

Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm told the Heilbronner Stimme newspaper that teaching Islam in schools nationwide would give Muslim pupils a chance to take a critical approach to their own religion.

Seven of Germany's 16 federal states offer some form of Islamic religion classes in their schools, similar to the Catholic and Protestant religion classes they have traditionally had.





Germany has about four million Muslims, about five per cent of the total population.

Hundreds of them have left the country to join the radical Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq since 2012, according to the interior ministry, and Bedford-Strohm said all faiths in Germany must be compatible with the country's democratic constitution.

"Tolerance, religious freedom and freedom of conscience must apply to all religions," he said in the interview published on Friday. He said Islamic associations in Germany should be responsible for these courses and hoped they would organise themselves to be a ‘clear partner’ for the German state.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2016.