Rau's interview with ZDF television

By Khaled Schmitt, IOL Correspondent

BERLIN, December 29 (IslamOnline.net) – German President Johannes Rau said Sunday, December 28, Muslims in Germany should not be treated as second-class citizens, asserting that they have become part and parcel of the German society.

Speaking to the semi-official ZDF television, Rau urged the German people to demonstrate mutual understanding with Muslims living in the north-central European country.

On the controversial issue of the employment of hijab-clad women in state-run schools, the German leader made clear that all public schools are open to qualified teachers without discrimination and irrespective of their religious backgrounds.

He said if hijab was banned in state schools on the grounds that it represented a religious symbol, then all crosses and other religious symbols should be banned as well.

Rau said hijab should not be a cause for concern inside the German society, criticizing such concerns as groundless.

He said there is nothing wrong for Muslim women to put a piece of cloth atop of their heads in obedience to their religion.

The President lashed out at those who are trying to find faults with the other and put people's attentions "under the microscope".

He said it makes no sense that hijab is used in schools as a means of convincing non-Muslim students of converting to Islam.

Asked whether he goes for banning hijab in state-run schools and institutions, Rau said the main problem lies with hijab-clad teachers, noting that it has nothing to do with students like France.

Some six thousand French Muslim women, many of them wearing hijab, took to the streets of Paris on December 22 to protest a planned law banning hijab in state-run schools and President Jacques Chirac's support for "the discriminatory" measure.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder voiced on December 21 his opposition to public servants wearing hijab, but said he was not against students wearing them in schools.

Seven German states have 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 the government of Baden-Wuerttemberg was wrong to forbid a Muslim female teacher from wearing her hijab in the classroom.