Europe News
German court affirms swim compulsion for Muslim girl
Jun 30, 2009, 15:38 GMT
Muenster, Germany - The controversial powers of German schools to compel Muslim girls to attend swimming lessons with boys in the pool were affirmed Tuesday by a tribunal.
The ruling came just five days after a federal convention had appealed to German schools to end compulsion on the issue, which has antagonized some of the Muslims who make up 5 per cent of Germany's population.
Judges in Muenster said a school in Dusseldorf was entitled to make entry conditional on a written undertaking from parents that their daughter, 11, would attend mixed swimming lessons.
The parents had contended to the administrative tribunal in Muenster that the undertaking was void, and asked that their daughter, now 12, be excused from mixed classes.
The school said the only acceptable solution was for the girl to wear a full-body swimsuit.
Some Muslims say semi-undress in mixed groups breaches Islamic precepts about modesty.
A survey has shown that only 7 per cent of Muslim girls actually do skip swimming classes. But the practice of barring Muslim children from elite schools if they refuse to conform has resonated through the Islamic community.
Last week a conference of German officials and Muslim leaders in Berlin appealed to public schools to segregate pool lessons if need be to defuse the long-running conflict with parents.
A legal document drafted by the conference said freedom of religion meant older girls had a constitutional right to refuse mixed swimming, but just not learning to swim was a 'second-best solution.'
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Older Talkback
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Moving to another country? How about checking out the local customs first, rather than moving and demanding that your host country satisfy your every demand...or stay in your home country.
Welcome to your new country. Start to assimilate now. If you don't want to adopt the culture of your new country you are welcome to return to wherever it was you came from.
Muslim students should be forced to follow the traditions of german schools. No special privilages to any class of student. The german nationality need to be reinforced at schools specially at that age , because is when you create your loyalty to your country.
I would vote for any polititian that eliminate any discriminatory policy againt the majority.
Go to PRIVATE school (that you pay for in addition to your taxes--like everybody else). But keep in mind that once these students enter the workforce, no accomodations will be made there either.
Chilldren cannot be deprived of swimming lessons because of their pearents superstitions, their right to education trumps their pearents right to freedom of religion - which does not in fact extend to the right to controll their childerens belief and education. Equaly the state cannot be expected to pay for seperate swimming lessons, for no good reason. Seperating childeren based on gender or religion undermines social cohsion. If girls or boys want to opt out of swimming lessons when they're old enough, fine, but if its compulsory for us rational people, then its compulsory for muslims, christians, budhists, shiks, pagans, and people who belive in the father christmas.
Iftikhar Ahmad, there is no such thing as a Muslim child, only a child of Muslim parents.
All schools have bilingual teachers, they teach English, French, German, Italian, Spanish et al.
These immigrants should understand that these countries only pay lip service to democracy. They just talk about multiculturalism, but they are the worst at handling it. Only the west will praise 'diversity' and then ask you to 'assimilate'.
I'm sorry to say you have been hoodwinked at your visa consultants! Remember in the west as most other things 'Democracy' is actually 'Democracy*' you need to read the small print!
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Iftikhar AhmadJun 30th, 2009 - 19:47:16
Salaam
The demand for state funded Muslim schools is in accordance with the law of the land. Muslim community is not asking for any favour. Muslim community pays all sorts of taxes and is less burden on social services.
There are hundreds of state and church schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools.
There are only 140 Muslim schools and only ten are state funded. All Muslim schools have lengthy waiting lists and all Muslim schools should be state funded. Only less then 5% of Muslim children attend Muslim schools while over 95% keep on attending state and church schools to be mis-educated and de-educated by non-Muslim monolingual teachers. Bilingual Muslim children need bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during theiur developmental periods.
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