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INFO RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 FRANKFURT 003463 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KISL KIRF GM
 
SUBJECT:  German State Pioneers Islamic Instruction in the Schools 
 
¶1.  Summary: In 2006 the southern German state of Baden Wuerttemberg 
became the first state in Germany to offer Islam, alongside 
Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism, as a subject for religious 
instruction in some public schools, reflecting the state's 
recognition of Islam's place in society and allowing Muslim school 
children to receive the same type of religious instruction as their 
non-Muslim peers.  Baden-Wuerttemberg continues to train more 
primary school teachers to expand the program, while other states 
look to B-W as a model for creating their own Islamic studies 
programs.  The Muslim community has slowly overcome its skepticism 
of teaching Islam outside the mosque, recognizing that public 
Islamic education is a potent symbol of the religion's equal 
standing in society.  End Summary. 
 
A Pilot Islamic Education Program 
 
¶2.  Islamic instruction courses are currently offered in 12 public 
schools across Baden-Wuerttemberg for children ages six to 10.  The 
classes offer a way for Muslim children, with their parents' 
permission, to learn about their religion in courses similar to ones 
offered to Christian and Jewish children, which have been a part of 
the German public school system since the end of the World War II. 
Since the program was created, the Stuttgart Pedagogic University 
has designed an Islam instruction course and implemented teacher 
training.  Teachers must be Muslim, and must teach other subjects in 
addition to Islamic instruction. 
 
¶3.  Religious instruction in German pubic schools is considered an 
expression of religious freedom, and is typically organized by 
religious communities that have public law corporation status. 
Since no one Muslim organization has been recognized as representing 
the Muslim community writ large, no Islamic entity has public law 
corporation status.  This has hindered the development of Islamic 
instruction in Germany.  In Baden-Wuerttemberg alone there are more 
than 30 Muslim organizations, none of which speaks for the whole 
community. 
 
¶4.  Baden-Wuerttemberg has overcome this hurdle, at least 
temporarily, by taking on the role usually played by the religious 
public bodies, including establishing teacher qualification 
requirements and designing curricula.  Many mosques were reportedly 
initially skeptical of public religious instruction, arguing that 
Koranic instruction should be offered in the mosque in the native 
language of the minority group, not in German as is the case in 
Baden Wuerttemberg public schools.  In addition, the Baden 
Wuerttemberg program offers Islamic instruction only in elementary 
schools, whereas instruction in other religions is offered through 
graduation.  Expanding Islamic instruction to secondary schools 
would require a greater number of teachers and types of instruction. 
 In 2010, Baden Wuerrtemberg will be required to find a counterpart 
in the Islamic religious community to take over the responsibility 
of continuing the Islamic education program. 
 
Islamic Education as a Force of Integration 
 
¶5.  The lack of Islamic education in German schools is another 
symbol of Islam's outlier status in German society.  While their 
Catholic, Protestant and Jewish peers attend religious instruction 
as part of their normal curriculum, the ever-growing number of 
Muslim students must attend other non-religious classes during this 
part of the school day.  One university student taking an Islamic 
instruction course at the Ludwigsburg Teacher Training College 
explained his motivations for wanting to teach Islam to PolOff and 
PolSpec, saying that his Koranic instruction as a child in the 
mosque had been based on memorization and recitation.  He learned 
about Islam from an imam who spoke no German and lived in Germany 
for only a few years before returning to Turkey.  He hoped to teach 
Islam in German in a way that was practical and relevant to students 
with a future in modern German society.  Pol Off and Pol Spec 
briefly attended a class at the college where a Moroccan imam 
resident in Germany gave an analytical lecture in German on teaching 
children the story of how the texts of the Koran were gathered into 
one book. 
 
¶6.  The organizers of the teacher training at the college reported 
that leaders of the largest mosques in Stuttgart are now more in 
favor of the pilot project, having seen its tangible benefits, and 
are now encouraging parents to send their children to the classes. 
For the mosques, the project not only offers an additional platform 
for young Muslims to learn about their identity, but it puts Islam 
on equal footing with other religions in the public forum. 
Non-Muslim students also learn to understand and accept Islam as 
Muslim students educate the broader student body through holiday and 
other activities.  The success of the program has prompted the 
neighboring state of Rheinland-Pfalz to allow its teachers to train 
in Islamic education in Baden-Wuerttemberg's small program.  Hesse 
and Saarland have as yet been unable to overcome the challenge of 
finding a Muslim organization to act as a counterpart. 
 
¶7.  COMMENT: Islamic education has fostered integration in 
 
FRANKFURT 00003463  002 OF 002 
 
 
Baden-Wuerttemberg by bringing Islam out of the mosque, where few 
non-Muslims go, into the public school system.  The classes raise 
awareness about Islam and put the religion on more equal footing 
with religions having deeper roots in Germany.  Significant hurdles 
remain, as the state still must grapple with the challenge of having 
no proper counterpart in the Muslim community with which to 
coordinate its efforts beyond the year 2010.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶8.  This cable was coordinated with Embassy Berlin. 
POWELL