A file photo of Muslim girls in Germany

HANOVER, April 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Lower Saxony is to ban Muslim public school teachers from wearing hijab after regional deputies voted in favor of a new law to that effect on Wednesday, April 28.

The state parliament, dominated by a coalition of the conservative Christian Democratic Union and the liberal Free Democrats, pushed through the vote with support from the Social Democrat opposition, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

State culture minister Annette Schavan argued after the vote that hijab is "open to interpretation" including a possible espousal of the "Islamist political views" and that is way it had no place in the classroom.

Islam deems hijab a religious obligation which has nothing to do with portraying any political affiliation.

Lower Saxony is the second state to approve the ban, after the legislature in the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg voted almost unanimously in April 1 for a similar law, which goes into effect this month.

Germany's highest tribunal, the constitutional court, ruled in September that Baden-Wuerttemberg was wrong to forbid a Muslim female teacher from wearing hijab in the classroom.

But it said Germany's 16 regional states could issue new legislations to ban it if they believe hijab would influence children.

Six states have now put forward draft laws banning hijab or other religious symbols in public institutions.

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

'Comprising Freedom'

The ban is expected to draw criticism among Muslims in Germany, where community groups have fiercely criticized the move as compromising their freedom of religious expression.

Germany is home to around three million Muslims, making Islam the country's third religion, after Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

The Central Council of Muslims in Germany had earlier blasted the Baden-Wuerttemberg ban as opening the door for other states to issue similar blanket move.

"That would be a severe action against Muslims," council chairman Nadim Elias has said.

"Wearing hijab had become part of everyday life here."

Mistrust

The ban could also create mistrust between Muslims and the government, amid fears the move could isolate the Muslim community and disrupt integration plans.

On January 7, officials of Baden-Württemberg decided to introduce Turkish as an optional language in all schools.

But the ban came to remove the satisfaction of the Turkish majority there over the step.

German President Johannes Rau said in an interview published December 28, that there is nothing wrong for Muslim women to put a piece of cloth atop of their heads in obedience to their religion.

He stressed that if hijab was banned, all crosses and other religious signs should be taken off as well – a recommendation ignored in the Baden-Württemberg where the ban did not include Christian and Jewish symbols.

The ban came less than two months after French lawmakers overwhelmingly backed a law to ban hijab, despite the fierce opposition from the country’s sizable minority and international rights groups.