From Europe News:
Muslim Prayer in School? Germany Says No
Huffington Post 14 December 2011
By Alexander Goerlach
"Christian pigs" is a favorite nickname of adolescent Muslims for their German neighbors and fellow students. The devaluation of, and distancing from, Christians is part of the standard repertoire of the worldview of Muslim youth. It is a worldview that is usually inherited from parents and/or Islamic traditions. Those role models are not especially squeamish in their descriptions of non-Muslims. That's old news.
The dispute that now culminated in a ruling from the German Constitutional Court (which did not grant the Muslim the right to a prayer room in school, out of consideration for others in a multi-faith environment) kept multiple levels of the German judiciary on their toes for years. One court would affirm the right to a prayer room, another court would deny it. Now a final verdict has been reached.
The German Muslim Council has lamented the limits this verdict places on the exercise of one's freedom of religion. It argues that the state must not balance something as fundamental as the freedom of religion against the rather trivial commitment to a peaceful learning environment. Well, Muslims are wrong in this regard. When prayer inhibits peaceful coexistence, when religion does not foster the formation of community, it does not have a place in schools. Others argue that religion should generally be banned from schools. The Constitutional Court disagrees: The verdict is particular to this case. Circumstances matter.
Yet the school environment was not disturbed by prayer as such. The problems arose from the conditions that Islamic prayer imposes on the environment. Celebrated in the hallways or the courtyard, it serves to culturally differentiate Islam from other religions. That attitude has long been cultivated in Islamic circles; it is not something that adolescent Rambos just dream up. We often read that Islamic prayer does not respect other faiths, and that it is not predicated on the idea of loving thy neighbor (as we can expect from faithful Christians). Instead, praying Muslims insult all those who do not believe in their One God and their idea of religious celebration as "skanks," "Jews" or "Christian pigs." (...)
Posted December 14th, 2011 by pk
Muslim Prayer in School? Germany Says No
Huffington Post 14 December 2011
By Alexander Goerlach
"Christian pigs" is a favorite nickname of adolescent Muslims for their German neighbors and fellow students. The devaluation of, and distancing from, Christians is part of the standard repertoire of the worldview of Muslim youth. It is a worldview that is usually inherited from parents and/or Islamic traditions. Those role models are not especially squeamish in their descriptions of non-Muslims. That's old news.
The dispute that now culminated in a ruling from the German Constitutional Court (which did not grant the Muslim the right to a prayer room in school, out of consideration for others in a multi-faith environment) kept multiple levels of the German judiciary on their toes for years. One court would affirm the right to a prayer room, another court would deny it. Now a final verdict has been reached.
The German Muslim Council has lamented the limits this verdict places on the exercise of one's freedom of religion. It argues that the state must not balance something as fundamental as the freedom of religion against the rather trivial commitment to a peaceful learning environment. Well, Muslims are wrong in this regard. When prayer inhibits peaceful coexistence, when religion does not foster the formation of community, it does not have a place in schools. Others argue that religion should generally be banned from schools. The Constitutional Court disagrees: The verdict is particular to this case. Circumstances matter.
Yet the school environment was not disturbed by prayer as such. The problems arose from the conditions that Islamic prayer imposes on the environment. Celebrated in the hallways or the courtyard, it serves to culturally differentiate Islam from other religions. That attitude has long been cultivated in Islamic circles; it is not something that adolescent Rambos just dream up. We often read that Islamic prayer does not respect other faiths, and that it is not predicated on the idea of loving thy neighbor (as we can expect from faithful Christians). Instead, praying Muslims insult all those who do not believe in their One God and their idea of religious celebration as "skanks," "Jews" or "Christian pigs." (...)
Posted December 14th, 2011 by pk
No comments:
Post a Comment