The controversial Islamic Federation starts its own religion classes in Berlin schools

By Birgit Loff

Berlin - It is a first in the history of German public schools, where the subject religion has always been taught under the auspices of the Lutheran Church: In two Berlin elementary schools, the Islamic Federation is now taking sole responsibility for weekly religious lessons for Muslim pupils.

Dark eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses, short black hair, a scarf with a blue and white stripes: Under the street lamp at the corner of Tabor Street and Goerlitzer in Berlin-Kreuzberg, the Green party has put up an advertising poster with a portrait of their speaker for education politics. The slogan: "For education and respect: Mutlu!" Representative Oezcan Mutlu is a Kreuzberger of Turkish origin.

In the schoolyard near the poster, significantly more Turkish is spoken than German. About 300 kids are skipping rope, climbing, tussling, talking excitedly to each other about their summer holidays. Some of the boys are catapulting diabolos into the air.

Three or four of the girls wear head scarves.

In the hallway of Fichtelgebirge elementary school, a bulletin board displays photos of "our mediators". Last year some pupils from the three sixth grades spent time training their listening and conflict resolution skills, and this year their volunteer work begins. They have names like Alice and Sabine, but also Kübra, Mustafa, Zuehal and Ahmet. In her office around the corner, Headmistress Annette Spieler glances up from her desk at the timetable, which she had just managed to work out and which she will now have to revise.

That doesn't bother her much. What is worrying her more is that pupils might "get involved in this friction," when, in the future, some of the third grade children visit the Islamic Federation of Berlin for religious lessons.

The Berlin umbrella organisation of more than two dozen fundamentalist Islamic organisations, including mosques and womens' and youth clubs, has just fought a legal battle for its right to teach Islam in the Berlin public schools. The Berliner Administrative Court found that religious lessons fall under the constitutionally-secured right to freedom of religious belief and practice, and are therefore "fundamentally free of state control".

According to the court, this freedom of religion can only be limited by the state where there is reason to fear "that teachers of the religious body in question deviate completely or in respect to key principles from the declared educational goals of the state, and that they are teaching a sort of "anti-lesson".

Concerns voiced by current school senator Klaus Boeger, that the teaching plans provided by the federation did not clarify whether the pupil's constitutional right to a free development of personality or their right to gender equality in the classroom would be upheld, were swept from the table by the court. Boeger fears that the children could now be left hanging in the deepening rift between what is taught in their fundamentalist Islamic lessons and in the secular curriculum.

That the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's internal security organization, classed the Islamic Federation as extremist played no role in the court decision. They are known to have ties to the radical religious group "Milli Goerues" (National Worldsight) and the now-banned Turkish political party REFAH, or Welfare Party, of former Premier Nezmatin Erbekan.

Even the great majority of liberal Berlin Muslims considers the Federation ill-suited to give Islamic religion lessons. The group represents only about five percent Berlin's Muslims.

As the new Muslim religion teacher, accompanied by the speaker of the Islamic Federation, Burhan Kesici, introduces himself to his colleagues on the first day of school, the atmosphere in the room is " cool to cold," as headmistress Spieler says. Immediately, someone brings up the issue of head scarves. In state schools in Turkey, they are forbidden.

In Germany it has to be the parents' decision, Berhan Kesici say, adding later that when the time comes, he will recommend to his little daughter that she wear one. The headmistress and her colleagues aren't convinced, "because we notice that head scarves isolate the girls who wear them." And what about in gymnastics, where the scarves can turn into a safety hazard? Kesici stands his ground: It is for the parents to decide, not the sport teachers.

Despite such reservations, the schools teachers are hardly opposed to the idea of Islam on the curriculum. After all, eight of ten pupils in the school are of non-German background, and of this group, nearly all are Muslim. Two years ago, two staff members had signed up for courses that would qualify them to teach the subject, after former Senator of Schools Ingrid Stahmer announced that she wanted to introduce Islamic religion courses in Berlin.

At that time, the Islamic Federation had just gained official recognition as a religious community, the first step in its legal struggle before the supreme administrative court, and the school association was hoping that it could get there first with its own Islam studies lesson, giving the organisation its chance to get its foot inside the school door. But the action was dropped again quickly when local SPD (Social Democratic Party) members raised their hackles.

In both court decisions, Berliner Representative for Immigrants Barbara John sees "an indication of how muddled our relationship to this religion is in general." According to John, part of the confusion has to do with the fact that the religious community is not hierarchically structured, so that there is no chance for dialogue with appointed spokespeople; the individual, rivalling umbrella organisations tend to send conflicting messages.

On the other hand, it can no longer be valid to deny Germany's many Islamic children their own religion lessons, John feels. She has appealed to the national Conference of Ministers of Culture "to come to a common solution, despite the religious lessons falling under the jurisdiction of state government.

The Green's speaker for educational politics, Ozcün Mutlu, recommends a new, alternative school subject: "Lifeskills, ethics and religion" (LER), which would introduce the pupils to all world religions, and provide them with an opportunity for dialogue and exchange with one another. He doesn't see the sense in continuing with the old-model faith-based religious classes: "We live in a multicultural society. In Berlin, alone, there are 130 religious communities. Imagine the chaos, if all of them wanted to come into the schools now!"