Public schools in Amsterdam’s Slotervaart district will not offer Islam classes, Telegraaf reports. The classes were requested a year ago by district mayor Ahmed Marouch, who hoped that offering the classes outside the regular school-day would offer parents an alternative to religious education in the mosques. Currently, in-school Islamic classes are offered to children in…
Berliners voted Sunday on whether students can take religion instead of compulsory ethics classes. In the end, the referendum failed to attract either enough voters or a majority of those who did vote. Now the proposal’s backers are saying Berlin’s mayor hasn’t been playing fair. It was a referendum that dominated discussion in Berlin for…
A referendum on religion lessons in schools has triggered a fierce debate about how to boost tolerance and improve the integration of the hundreds of thousands of Muslims who live in the German capital. Sunday’s vote may lead to a change in law in the city state of Berlin that would allow pupils to choose…
The era of multiculturalism in Canada has made many people more familiar with the festive traditions of other groups, and given common currency to new words such as Ramadan, Kwanza and Diwali. But knowledge of those religions rarely goes much beyond the surface, according to John Stackhouse, professor of theology at Vancouver’s Regent College. “If…
Western curricular and Muslim needs are always a source for dispute. An article in The Economist demonstrates a visit to a state school with 98 percent Muslim pupils. While the non-Muslim head teacher praises the children’s spirituality and the school caters for their needs, some concessions are controversial. After the intervention of some parents sex…
