"I would not stop a young girl from going to school with a headscarf," said Schroeder (AFP)

HAMBURG, December 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder vocalized opposition Sunday, December 21, to public servants wearing hijab, adding he was not against students wearing them in schools.

"My position is clear: headscarves have no place in the public service, and that includes teachers. However I would not stop a young girl from going to school with a headscarf," he told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper Sunday.

The statements came a few days after French President Jacques Chirac reiterated support for a new legislation banning hijab in public schools and institutions under the pretext that it is a religious symbol like the Jewish skullcap and the cross.

"Germany is a secular state influenced by three great traditions; Greco-Roman philosophy, Judeo-Christian religion and the heritage of the Enlightenment," Schroeder said.

There was no immediate reaction from the Muslim community in Germany on his statement.

Germany's highest tribunal, the federal constitutional court, ruled on September 2003 that the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg was wrong to forbid Afghan-born Fereshta Ludin from wearing hijab in the classroom.

However, the court specifically said individual states could legislate to ban hijab if deemed to unduly influence children.

But the 16 German states failed to reach agreement during their meeting in October on whether to ban hijab for public school teachers.

Since then, Baden-Wuerttemberg and neighboring Bavaria, both run by the Christian Union alliance parties, have drawn up legislation and plan to put a ban in place.

On December 3, seventy of Germany’s woman intelligentsia, all non-Muslims, launched a counter-campaign against draft laws banning hijab in public institutions.

They signed a statement warning of the grave consequences of such discriminatory laws on the German society.

Germany’s council of Catholic bishops called on Wednesday, September  24, all institutions to secure legitimate rights to the three-million-estimated Muslim community and positively interact with them.

The council members decided to exert all efforts needed for Muslims to get the rights entitled to them legally and constitutionally, read a document issued out of the gathering.

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.