Education and Schooling
Ofsted’s mission to tackle extremism in British schools criticised for unfairly targeting the Muslim community
The head of Ofsted, Amanda Spielman, has called for “muscular liberalism” in order to tackle ‘extremism’ in British schools. However, the organisation’s approach has been criticised for unfairly targeting the Muslim community and for promoting Islamophobia.
Jesuit college’s decision to appoint hijab-wearing teacher makes headlines in Germany
The Canisius-Kolleg, an elite Catholic secondary school in Berlin has made national headlines in Germany by appointing a Muslim teacher wearing a hijab. The school is run by the Jesuit order and is located in the calm and upmarket diplomatic district of the German capital. Long-standing court battles Teachers with Islamic headscarves have for years…
Ofsted criticised for decision to question primary school girls wearing the hijab
The head of Ofsted says the hijab “could be interpreted as sexualisation of young girls”.
Exhibitions in Berlin emphasise past and present interrelations of the three Abrahamic faiths
Germany, like many locales, is currently undergoing processes of societal boundary drawing giving renewed salience to religious difference. The aftermath of President Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital brought fierce debates about the (real or imputed) anti-Semitism of Muslim immigrants and their descendants. The result was a further instance of the discursive…
Debating ‘neutrality’: Conflict surrounding Berlin’s controversial law on religious symbols enters new round
In flashy advert campaigns, Berlin, Germany’s capital city, vaunts itself as the world’s “capital of freedom” defined by the coexistence of the widest possible array of diverse lifestyles.1 On a more mundane level, however, successive city administrations have struggled to come to terms with the implications of ethnic and religious diversity. Berlin’s ‘laic exceptionalism’ Unsurprisingly,…