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PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSL RUEHSR RUEHVK
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DE RUEHRL #0993/01 2251608
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 131608Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4946
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BERLIN 000993 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
PASS TO IVAN WEINSTEIN AND JENNIFER ELDRIDGE, EUR/PGI 
PASS TO NANCY HEWETT, EUR/DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: GM KIRF KISL PGOV PHUM
SUBJECT: GERMANY'S FEDERAL STATES WRESTLE WITH INTRODUCTION 
OF ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS EDUCATION CLASSES 
 
REF: BERLIN 845 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  This cable provides an overview of German state 
programs to introduce Islamic religious education at high 
school and university levels.  Since the 3rd plenary meeting 
of the German Islam Conference in June 2008, Germany's 
federal states -- with varying degrees of engagement and 
success -- have embarked on a path of ensuring that Islamic 
religious instruction can be provided at public schools. 
Successive German Islam Conferences, launched under the aegis 
of the Ministry of Interior and chaired by Minister of the 
Interior Wolfgang Schaeuble have attempted to draw up plans 
to formalize religious education in public schools and set up 
Islamic theology departments at universities.  Only a few 
schools offer Islamic religious education classes, but pilot 
programs to increase levels of religious instruction in 
public schools and universities look promising.  However, 
many of Germany's federal states are still lagging behind in 
their efforts to offer Islamic religious instruction, 
suggesting that the principal messages of previous German 
Islam conferences have not been fully heard nor implemented. 
End summary. 
 
GERMAN ISLAM CONFERENCE AND ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶2.  (U)  One of the major conclusions of the 4th Plenary of 
the German Islam Conference in June 2009 (see REFTEL) was an 
agreement that Islamic religious instruction be introduced as 
a regular subject to be taught in the German language at 
German public schools.  The 3rd plenary meeting of the German 
Islam Conference in 2008 laid the groundwork for this 
development by formulating the necessary prerequisites and 
options for the introduction of Islamic religious 
instruction, provided there was a consensus amongst all 
parties involved and Germany's legal situation was taken into 
account.  A study published by the Federal Office for 
Migration and Refugees (BAMF) in 2009 -- commissioned by the 
Ministry of Interior for the German Islam Conference -- 
exposes several challenges the federal states will face as 
they attempt, in some cases, to begin offering Islamic 
religious instruction, and in others to enhance existing 
programs. 
 
¶3.  (U)  According to the BAMF study, 25 per cent of Muslim 
school children attend ethics lessons, 5 per cent attend 
Catholic and 3 per cent Protestant religious education 
lessons respectively, and 11 per cent Islamic religious 
education when offered.  More than half of the Muslim pupils 
attend no religious education or ethics lessons. This may be 
due to the fact that there are not enough classes.  This 
assumption is supported by the fact that the majority of the 
Muslims (76 per cent) advocate the introduction of Islamic or 
Alevite religious education.  The number of those who are in 
support of such measures is particularly high among the 
Sunnis (84 per cent) and a little lower among the Shiites (71 
per cent), the Ahmadis (79 per cent) and the other Islamic 
denominations (69 per cent). Only 54 per cent of Alevites are 
in favor of introducing Islamic religious education as a 
school subject. Alevites were also asked whether they were in 
favor of the introduction of separate Alevite religious 
education in state schools. 64 per cent of Alevites answered 
in the affirmative.  The same study also concluded that 
between 3.8 and 4.3 million Muslims currently live in 
Germany, a much higher number than anticipated.  Expressed as 
a percentage of Germany's total population of around 82 
million, the proportion of Muslims is between 4.6 and 5.2 per 
cent. 
 
NORTH RHINE WESTPHALIA - LEADING THE WAY 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (U)  Over the last decade, Germany's 16 federal states 
have achieved different levels of progress in providing 
Islamic religious education.  Some have made no attempt to 
implement programs, but many have achieved quite impressive 
results, and several are beginning to follow the leading 
states' examples.  The programs vary from large scale, long 
standing, multi-school projects to plans on the drawing 
board, just beginning to take root.  The most successful 
projects at the moment are in the state of North-Rhine 
Westphalia (NRW).  More than 8,000 Muslim students at 128 
schools have been provided with Islamic religious education 
("Islamkunde-Unterricht") since 1999. 
 
BERLIN 00000993  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶5.  (U)  The success of this pilot project led to a 
state-wide introduction of German language religion courses, 
compulsory for Muslim students to achieve promotion, 
beginning in the summer of 2010.  This program will be led by 
50 teachers, specially trained in Germany, who will follow a 
curriculum defined by the NRW Ministry for Schools and 
supervised by the German school supervisory board.  In NRW, 
Muenster University was implementing plans to develop the 
state's first academic center and chair -- under the 
leadership of Professor Muhammad Sven Kalisch -- for training 
school teachers to conduct Islamic religious instruction. 
Unfortunately, Germany's Muslim Coordination Council (KRM) 
withdrew from the advisory board of Professor Kalisch's 
center as it did not agree with Kalisch's religious 
teachings.  At present, Muenster University hopes to 
establish a second chair.  NRW has no state-run Imam training 
programs.  Private Imam training in NRW is conducted by the 
Association of Islamic Cultural Centers (VIKZ), affiliated 
with some 700 mosques throughout Germany. 
 
LOWER SAXONY - IMPLEMENTING PROGRAMS WITH MIXED SUCCESS 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶6.  (U)  Since 2003, 29 public elementary schools in Lower 
Saxony have participated in an Islamic education pilot 
project.  Unfortunately, there have been low levels of 
participation; out of the 18,462 Muslim children attending 
elementary school in the state, only 1,121 were involved in 
the project.  This has been caused by the fact that many 
Muslim families find public schools too liberal, preferring 
mosques to conduct Muslim education.  Since 2007, there has 
been a master's program in Islamic education at Osnabrueck 
University, but this also attracted little interest; only 
four qualified students participated that year (20 
unqualified applicants from Turkey were rejected).  Imam 
training with 4-5 chairs for 50-80 prospective students will 
only begin at Osnabrueck University in five years time at the 
earliest. 
 
BAVARIA, HAMBURG AND HESSE - PERENNIAL PLANNING 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  In March 2009, the Bavarian government was 
prompted to offer Islamic instruction in German as a 
five-year pilot project after a successful trial period in 
two schools in Erlangen.  There are curricula for all school 
levels, with the one for high school being a modified version 
of the others.  Private plans to establish an Imam-training 
academy in Munich over the next five to ten years are in 
place.  This training would be in German regardless of the 
origin of the future Imam and is designed to engender 
commitment to the values of the German constitution. 
 
¶8.  (U)  In Hamburg, Islamic religious education remains in 
the planning stages with no concrete information available as 
to when and where it will be implemented.  Islamic education 
instructors will eventually receive training at the Academy 
of World Religions in Hamburg as foreseen by a current 
project carried out by the World Religions Dialogue 
Interdisciplinary Center at Hamburg University.  Segments of 
the Muslim community in Hamburg are critical of the prospect 
of Islamic education conducted at public schools, as opposed 
to offerings provided by mosques.  In September 2008, a 
private Turkish secondary school "Alsterring" supported by 
the educational institute Alsterbildungsring e.V. and backed 
financially by a Turkish businessman was opened for all 
students.  However, at present the school consists of only 
one class with nineteen students, all of whom have a Turkish 
background raising fears that such initiatives may be harmful 
for the state's integration efforts.  In Bremen, a pilot 
project established in 2003/2004 was established to provide 
Islamic religious instruction in one school. 
 
¶9.  (U)  In Hesse, there is an initiative by the Culture 
Minister to devise an Islamic religious education plan.  A 
round-table discussion with Muslim associates is planned for 
the end of August to draft a concrete curriculum and prepare 
classes, but there is no set date for the program to be 
implemented.  As for teachers, Frankfurt University offers 
training courses for the teaching of Islam and an Offenbach 
Adult Education Center has been offering integration classes 
for Imams since March 2009. 
 
STATES PURSUING SMALL PROJECTS 
------------------------------ 
 
 
BERLIN 00000993  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶10.  (U)  In Bremen, a pilot project established in 2003/2004 
was established to provide Islamic religious instruction in 
one school.  A two-course system for Sunni, Shi'a and for 
Alevis was established in Baden-Wuerttemberg in 2006/07, yet 
as of April 2009 only ten of the 4,700 public schools in the 
state offer such courses.  In Schleswig-Holstein, nine 
elementary schools have implemented Islamic education courses 
taught by German speaking Muslims in the last two years. 
Instructors are required to receive a two-year training 
course.  This qualifies them to teach their two hour per week 
classes dealing with the Muslim community, Islamic ethics, 
stories of the Prophet, the life of Muhammad, the Qur'an and 
the fundamentals of Islam.  Finally, Berlin has no state 
mandated Islamic education programs, but in February 2009 the 
first German speaking private school for Imam training opened 
in Berlin-Karlshorst.  The school offers a six-year training 
program where Muslims are educated to serve as prayer leaders 
for Muslim communities.  It is financed by private donations. 
 
BRINGING UP THE REAR IN EASTERN GERMANY 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  (U)  With the exception of the state of Berlin, no other 
state in eastern Germany (Brandenburg, Mecklenburg 
Western-Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Saxony) 
offers Islamic religious instruction.  The low number of 
Muslim residents and a lack of interest in the subject are 
the reasons provided by state officials for not offering 
Islamic religious instruction.  There are no plans to begin 
offering Islamic religious instruction in these states in the 
future. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  Schaeuble,s commitment to the German Islam 
Conference has remained steadfast throughout his tenure as 
Minister of Interior.  There is no reason to believe -- 
whatever the outcome of the elections may be -- that a new 
German government will abandon this effort, although a strong 
domestic political actor with an interest in this area will 
be required to realize the conference's main objectives. 
After the 4th plenary of the German Islam Conference, 
Schaeuble stated: "The manifold results of the study on 
"Muslim Life in Germany", the various initiatives undertaken 
by the Laender (federal states) with regard to Islamic 
religious instruction at school and the encouraging signals 
sent by the representatives of German Muslims show that the 
German Islam Conference must be continued."  Many federal 
states have answered this call, primarily driven by Muslim 
demographics.  Others maintain that there are no significant 
Muslim populations in their respective states.  The topic of 
Islamic religious education in German schools and 
universities will continue to remain controversial but there 
are signs in several of Germany's larger states that the 
issue is being tackled head on.  End comment. 
Bradtke