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"With this law, we are defending pupils against a potential fundamentalist influence," Hohlmeier claimed
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MUNICH,
December 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The government of
Bavaria, Germany's biggest and most conservative state, unveiled a
draft law Tuesday, December 9, banning hijab in public schools, but
excluding Christian and Jewish religious symbols.
Explaining
the proposed ban, Bavarian Education Minister Monika Hohlmeier claimed
hijab was increasingly used as a political symbol, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"With
this law, we are defending pupils against a potential fundamentalist
influence and are respecting the wishes of the majority of
parents," she argued in a statement.
The
measure must be ratified by the regional parliament, a rather
formality given the dominance of the Christian Social Union (CSU)
which runs Bavaria.
The
BBC News Online asserted that the mooted ban would not cover Christian
and Jewish symbols.
Bavaria,
thus, becomes the second German state after neighboring
Baden-Wuerttemberg to draw up an anti-hijab bill.
Baden-Wuerttemberg's
draft law, unveiled last month, is expected to be ratified early next
year.
Seven
states had backed a
legislation barring hijab at a recent meeting of
16 regional ministers for culture, education and religious affairs in
the western German city of Darmstadt while eight opposed such laws.
The
issue of hijab became a hot topic after a landmark ruling by Germany's
highest court in September.
The
federal constitutional court ruled
that Baden-Wuerttemberg, whose premier is a
Christian Democrat, was wrong to forbid a Muslim female teacher from
wearing her hijab in the classroom.
'Not
Offensive'
Meanwhile,
Germany's Social Democrats and former Communists governing the
city-state of Berlin say they oppose "this symbol cherished by
all those who do not want Islam to open up to Western values".
However,
Volker Steffens, the director of a Berlin school, stressed hijab was
not of an offensive character.
"Although
we are in one of the most ethnically mixed districts in the capital
here in Neukoelln, I do not think the headscarf is used here in an
offensive way," he said of his Thomas Morus School.
Seated
in his office flanked by the files of his 490 students -- about one in
10 of female pupils covers her head - Steffens said he did not mind
accepting hijab-wearing teachers at his school.
"I
have nothing against Muslim headscarves if the teachers don't make a
political instrument out of it," he said.
"With
44 different ethnicities at this institution, the tolerance level is
pretty high. I know the situation is very tense in some suburbs of
Paris or Marseille," he said, referring to the piercing hijab
debate in France.
Last
week, 70 of Germany’s woman intelligentsia, all non-Muslims, launched
a counter-campaign against the proposed anti-hijab draft laws.
Civil
rights organizations and groups representing the 3.2 million Muslims
living in Germany have defended the right to wear hijab as a question
of religious freedom.
