ROME – When Zeinep Ozbek told her parents how she planned to pursue her education, they were shocked. Not only was the young Muslim woman about to leave her native Turkey, she was venturing into a strict traditional bastion of Christianity: Rome. Ozbek, 25, is now one of several Muslim students ensconced in the Vatican’s…
MADRID – Nearly one hundred thousand students wish to receive classes on Islam, according to numbers issued by the Comision Islamica Espanola (CIE). According to a 1992 agreement with the Ministry of Education, instruction in the subject must be provided if at least a tenth of the students request it. To date, 28 teachers of…
VIENNA – Experts believe that Islamic religious education in state schools could be the way to the better integration of Muslims. Now students can even take Islam as a high-school degree subject. Critical thinking and social issues like women’s and human rights, social responsibility, the compatibility of Islamic, Austrian and European identities are parts of…
BRUSSELS – Two Muslim teachers from the Brussels public education system have been sacked for wearing an Islamic headscarf. The Muslim teachers were first issued a warning, but continued to wear their headscarves and were later sacked. They have lodged an appeal. The director of the Brussels school group, Jacky Goris, said the dismissal was…
BERLIN – At the “Trialogue of Religions” interfaith meeting Jewish, Christian and Muslim experts, opinion-makers and social representatives sat down with students and the public to discuss both wide and specific problems of tolerance, integration and assimilation.
