Posted on 04/18/2004 2:28:41 PM PDT by Eurotwit
Among the issues dividing Europe and its Muslim communities, the headscarf, or hijab, is perhaps the most controversial. In Germany, Muslim teachers are fighting for their right to wear headscarves to class.
Having spent the last 15 years of her life wearing the Muslim hijab, teaching student Emine Oztürk can’t imagine taking it off in public, even for just one minute.
But that’s exactly what Oztürk might have to do if she ever wants to get a job in a Berlin public school.
“It’s part of my identity,” said the 25-year-old German of Turkish descent. “How can I lay my identity at the door of the classroom?”
It is a question on the minds of many here following a decision last fall by Germany’s highest court allowing teacher Fereshta Ludin to wear her head scarf in class as long as there are no state laws against it. Since the decision, the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg, where Ludin brought her case, has passed just such a law.
The state government in Berlin has proposed a law banning all symbols of religion - including the Jewish Kippa and Christian crucifix - from jobs in the public sector. A majority of the remainder of Germany’s 16 states are expected to follow with their own versions.
Banned in France, encouraged in England
In the debate taking place across Germany, politicians and Muslim leaders have begun to ask some very serious questions about the place their religion and identity holds in a Europe rooted in Christianity and Judaism, but with a growing and powerful Muslim population.
“You have a new generation of Muslims …reasonably educated, fluent in the cultures and languages they live in … demanding a sort of legitimization. They want it without having to become assimilated,” said Shireen Hunter, the head of the Islam Program at the Center for Strategic Studies and editor of “Islam, Europe’s Second Religion.”
In France, the parliament in March approved legislation that banned head scarves and other religious symbols from state schools beginning in September. In Great Britain and Sweden, a more open attitude prevails. Teachers and even female Muslim police officers are allowed to wear their head scarves.
Germany’s relationship to its 3.2 million Muslims is decidedly more fragile.
Touchy issues of integration such as Muslim dress and the ritual slaughter of sheep in accordance with Islamic law have been brought before courts in recent years. Earlier this summer, the constitutional court ruled that a department store could not fire a Muslim woman because she wanted to wear her head scarf during work.
Is a square foot of cloth a threat?
The legal conflicts are symptoms of the neglect both the German government and the Turkish community in addressing the issue of integration, say historians. By the time integration became a topic, the sons and grandsons of the Turkish guest workers that arrived in the 1960s had already carved out little Ankaras and Istanbuls in
Germany’s major cities. The hijab has long been part of the German streetscape.
“We live in a free, modern society, where everyone has their own self-awareness,” says Ali Kizilkaya, head of the powerful and controversial Islam Council, Germany’s largest Muslim group. “Are we (DOES HE MEAN GERMANS? MUSLIMS?) so weak that a square foot of cloth can make us feel threatened?”
Opponents argue that it is not the head scarf, but the fact that Ludin wants to wear it the public school classroom in a country with a strong secular tradition. Eight years ago, the constitutional court ruled that crucifixes would have to be removed from classrooms in Bavaria if just one student objected. The fact that Muslims want what many see as more freedom to express their religion than German Christians makes parliamentarian Wolfgang Bosbach angry.
“The debate is absurd,” says the domestic affairs expert for the conservative Christian Democrats in the German parliament (photo). “This is not an Islamic country, it’s a Christian country, and we should not be forced to accommodate Islam.”
The headscarf also remains a sore spot because many consider it a symbol of fundamentalism and female discrimination in a Western society.
“There are very few women who wear the head scarf voluntarily, and their number is so small they are not worth talking about,” said Seyran Ates, a women’s right activist and lawyer in Berlin.
"What we're talking about is fundamentalism"
The 40-year-old, who wrote a book about leaving her traditional Turkish home in Berlin, says she is astounded at the legitimacy with which some German politicians give the headscarf. “We need to never forget that what we’re talking about here is fundamentalism,” she said.
Instead of deciding what place a piece of cloth that represents religious freedom to some, fundamentalism to others has in a state-run school, Germany’s constitutional court referred the question to the state parliaments and the public domain--where many believe it belongs.
“We’re (SOCIETY? COURTS?) not ready for such a decision,” says Riem Spielhaus, an Islamic Studies lecturer at Berlin’s Humboldt University. Referring to Germany’s integration problems, Spielhaus said “we need an atmosphere of openness where we can accept that other religions might also change our values.“
How a headscarf ban produces terrorists
The direction the debate is going worries both Muslims and Germans. Misconceptions that the head scarf and fundamentalist Islam are one and the same could have the opposite effect. (??) (SOME FEAR THAT) pockets of devout Muslims, facing limited job opportunities because of their religious dress, would withdraw into parallel societies that might harbor the type of terror nests that produced the Sept. 11 hijackers.
“There’s not a fundamentalist under every head scarf, and thinking that would be fatal,” said Spielhaus. “Mrs. Ludin’s head scarf, which she willingly puts on, is good for the Western society. Banning head scarves would be a victory for fundamentalists.”
Oztürk makes a similar argument, adding that her head scarf could even begin dismantling prejudices before they arise in her young students.
“I think it’s very sad that this society continues to look at the head scarf as something of a threat,” said Oztürk. “I find it shocking that so many things are projected onto the headscarf without anyone ever asking the women who wear them.”
Can you imagine an American politician saying that?
Suddenly I have a lot of respect for the CDU. Geht Merkel!!!
The debate was ended a long time ago, it cannot be about Christian or Islam, it was national sovereignity or globalism. When Germany jumped into the EU with both feet, these kind of debates become mute.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.