NYT: Lessons of Islam in German Classrooms

[DeepModem Mom]

LETTER FROM EUROPE
Lessons of Islam in German Classrooms
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN

Published: June 30, 2004


BERLIN, June 29 - You could call it Exhibit A. It's a drawing in a text used to teach Islam to Muslim students at German elementary schools, and it shows a family at a table, a father, two children, and a mother, with plates of food in front of everybody - except the mother, who wears a head scarf.

"The mother is shown like a servant," said Marion Berning, the principal of the Rixdorfer Grundschule, a large elementary school in Neukölln, a largely immigrant neighborhood of Berlin. "This is a big problem for the girls."

Ms. Berning has become something of a figure in Berlin lately for the complaints she has been raising about the way a German Muslim group, the Islamic Federation, has been teaching about Islam in the local public schools. Her complaints, moreover, are echoed by some people in the Berlin educational establishment, who believe that, under the cover of giving court-mandated religious instruction to Muslim children, a sort of fundamentalist or, at least, separatist philosophy is being imparted to children inside the very schools that should be teaching equality and the essential sameness of all people.

Representatives of the Islamic Federation, which is believed to have about 30,000 members in Germany, vehemently deny that accusation, saying that the difficulty they confront in trying to carry out a program already being carried out by other religious groups is a bias against Islam, not an accurate description of what takes place inside any classrooms....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/30/international/europe/30lett.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. there's a revolution inside Islam

with fundamentalists trying to take over. Rest assured that the Muslim women I know don't act like servants and eat with the rest of the family (in fact, their husbands often serve them!)

[struggle4progress]

4. Kinder resembles the fundie revolution in the US, don't it? eom

[TO Kid]

8. I think the revolution is going in the other direction

There is a growing reformation movement taking place now, similar to that experienced in Christianity during the Middle Ages. Iran is the place to watch.

[sam sarrha]

2. I know a German woman who immigrated here because she was afraid of the

Muslim men in Germany. she said it was terrifying to go anywhere the way they behaved and looked at her.. she said the Muslim population is Huge in Germany.

i saw a documentary about the Islamic population in Europe. the Algerian Muslims in France are posing an ever increasing problem there. A Muslim woman activist told of being gang raped in PUBLIC...by 4 Muslim men. she told of a 12 year old child being gang raped for DAYS by about 80 men because she wore clothes with bare arms and the men felt she tempted them.. The gang rapes were not uncommon.. and because of the stigma of rape which will result in being banished from family because the woman, or child as the case may be.. had to have initiated the rape. The result is usually that the woman/child falls into the sex trade.

I disagree that there will be a revolt or revolution. The mullahs dictate the interpretation and beliefs.. in a situation where there is a village or Ghetto like in France.. the neighborhood protects you and provides for you.. if you are shunned or banished.. you are in TROUBLE. Unfortunately the Mullahs control and prevent any revolution. and i dint think they are eager to stick their necks out these days.

If you get the chance see the documentory..."Behind the Veil" i saw it on the Sundance Channel

[akitamata]

3. Your technique...

is called smearing. I doubt you actually intended to associate the world's billion plus Muslims with the crimes of degenerates and extremists. Islamic culture is hardly defined by such tales of horror, anymore than you are defined morally by the crimes of Bushco.
Shame, but no flame. Try to use some common sense when posting such inflammatory diatribes, factual or not, common decency does not equate with weakness, but with strength. Try to be strong ;P, akita

[Bridget Burke]

5. Links, please.....

Until I see some real information, I'll view this as racist claptrap.

[sbreen]

10. i agree

completely

[DivinBreuvage]

11. Here are links. Muslim gang violence against woman IS a problem in Europe.

I'm sorry if these stories conflict with anyone's enlightened belief that Muslim immigrants can do no wrong.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/13/60minutes/main617270.shtml

http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2002/1202/crime/bellil.htm

http://www.iht.com/articles/114798.html

[TO Kid]

6. I've been seeing similar attitudes in Toronto

There are a lot of muslim recent immigrants who have adopted a separatist mentality who are causing similar problems here. The muslims who arrived here in the 1970s and 1980s (mostly from India and Pakistan) generally get along well, but the newer arrivals tend to be aloof and many are downright hostile. I am in business with two partners who are muslim and they tell me that most of the mosques are funded by the Saudis and the Imams like to preach Canadian values in English to the media but during Friday prayers their sermons, in Arabic, condemn our culture and urge the congregations to avoid all contact with "infidels".

[TO Kid]

7. Last year I read similar reports

There were reports in the media about problems in Muslim communities in Holland and in Australia because of a separatist attitude. We are now witnessing a head-butting contest between two sacred cows- religious freedom vs. equality of the sexes. Such conflicts are inevitable when people are regarded as anything but individuals.

[toopers]

9. This is another reason the separation of church and state is important.

If we don't teach religion in schools then we will not have this issue, at least in the public schools.