VIENNA, Dec 3 (AFP) - An Islamic school has opened here in the capital of Austria, where recently more than a third of the voters turned out to back a far-right party's call to reject foreigners.
The Islamic College of Vienna was inaugurated at the end of last month, has state recognition and teaches according to the syllabus of the Austrian ministry of education. Twenty-nine Turkish children aged between 10 and 13, most of them with working class backgrounds, have enrolled.
In the main classroom, a portrait of Austrian President Thomas Klestil and a map of Europe are pinned on the walls.
The children recite verses from the Quran in a room where a shelf holds books of the Quran translated into Turkish and carpets are stacked ready for daily prayers. There is also a wash basin at the ready.
"Lessons are given in German by 10 teachers, paid by the state, and the children have two hours of religious instruction a week", said non-Moslem headmaster Ludwig Sommer.
He said the school was the first of its kind in a German-speaking country. "We are not trying to assimilate the children but to bring them into a process of integration in which they would little by little become Austrian citizens, without denying their identity or culture," Sommer said.
He said that his pupils, already bilingual in German and Turkish, would also learn English and French and become "an asset to society."
No political party objected to the launch of the school. The spokesman for religious affairs of the extreme right-wing Freedom Party, the second largest political party, led by Joerg Haider, refused to comment on the school's existence.
Last week the party called for stricter medical examinations in schools with a high proportion of foreigners, after a case of tubercular meningitis was uncovered in Carinthia, a southern province where Haider is governor.
His party has also campaigned for the fingerprints of foreigners to appear on their residence permits.
The outgoing government coalition, composed of social democrats and conservatives, has been criticized for failing to respond overtly to the clearly racist stance of the Freedom Party during last October's legislative election campaign.
The Islamic College of Vienna is planning to open two new classes next year, raising its capacity to 300.
The college respects Islamic rules - pork is not served in the canteen and gym and swimming lessons are segregated between the sexes. The nine girls in the school wear Islamic headscarves.
Afternoons are devoted to lessons in Turkish and Arabic in the school. Parents must pay 2,000 schillings (144 euros) per month for the school.
Sommer said the girls were not forced to wear headscarves "but if that is what the parents want, it is permitted."
Tuba Eren, 11, said: "At first I did not particularly want to wear the scarf, but I did as the other girls did so that the boys would not tease me."
According to official statistics, there are 300,000 Muslims in Austria, making them the third-largest religious community after Roman Catholics and Protestants. The country's population is slightly over 8 million.
