Bavaria bans teacher headscarves

BBC News Online ^ | November 12 2004

[knighthawk]

The southern German state of Bavaria has become the latest of the country's federal states to ban Muslim school teachers from wearing headscarves. The Bavarian parliament approved the measure after Culture Minister Monika Hohlmeier argued that the headscarf was a symbol of the repression of women.

Three other German states - Lower Saxony, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Saarland - have already imposed similar bans.

Displaying Christian and Jewish symbols will still be allowed in Bavaria.

More than three million Muslims live in Germany and many have complained that the laws restrict their freedom to express their religion.

In the state of Hesse, the headscarf ban applies to all civil servants.

But Ms Hohlmeier said the headscarf had become a political symbol which was widely abused by Islamic fundamentalist groups and was not consistent with democracy, equality and tolerance.

"It's true that the veil of Islamic fundamentalist groups as a political symbol has been massively abused," she told German television.

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Greens, who rule in a coalition on a national level, voted against the ban in the Bavarian parliament, adding that it was questionable from a legal point of view.

Religious freedom

The issue has been fiercely debated in Germany since Fereshta Ludin, who was denied a job in Baden-Wuerttemberg in 1998 because she wore a headscarf in school, went to court.

She argued that the German constitution guaranteed her religious freedom.

Last September, the federal Constitutional Court ruled by five votes to three that, under current laws, she could wear the scarf.

But it also said new laws could be passed by individual states banning them if they were deemed to unduly influence pupils.

In France, there is similar controversy about a ban on the wearing of religious symbols by pupils in state schools.

[knighthawk]

ballen

[knighthawk]

Yes it it. There the lefties never gets a foothold.

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Christian%20Social%20Union%20in%20Bavaria

[knighthawk]

Yes, they got less unemployment and such.

[IStillBelieve]

Thanks. :-)

[lormand]

Hefeweizen...yet another reason to like Bavaria!

[AMDG&BVMH]

"If they were a Christian country with an occasional Muslim immigrant peacefully following their religious priniciples, this would not be a problem."

1. Last I heard, Bavaria still allowed crucifixes in classrooms. Another case where their state sovereignty allowed them to go against the national trend. Bavaria is not Berlin.

2. "Muslim immigrants peacefully following their religious principles" ==> NO religious freedom for Christians, because they intend to use Western freedom to advance and gain control . . .
IOW the scarves ARE a type of "gang clothing". The early Turkish immigrants who came to Germany to work did not wear scarves; it is only militant Islam that makes an issue of it.

[AMDG&BVMH]

"If they were a Christian country with an occasional Muslim immigrant peacefully following their religious priniciples, this would not be a problem."

1. Last I heard, Bavaria still allowed crucifixes in classrooms. Another case where their state sovereignty allowed them to go against the national trend. Bavaria is not Berlin.

2. "Muslim immigrants peacefully following their religious principles" ==> NO religious freedom for Christians, because they intend to use Western freedom to advance and gain control . . .
IOW the scarves ARE a type of "gang clothing". The early Turkish immigrants who came to Germany to work did not wear scarves; it is only militant Islam that makes an issue of it.

[Kulturkaempfer]

Yep, years ago a wacko instituted proceedings against the mandatory cross in classrooms in the Federal Supreme Court.

He succeeded, but the Bavarian Government reacted wisely. Now the cross is mandatory until someone in the class complains. I guess in 99 % of classrooms still have got a cross on the wall. There are also crosses in courtrooms and mandatory religios education in state schools which is guaranteed by state constitution.

The Christian Social Union once was more or less the political arm of the Catholic Church. The ties loosened to attract a broader electorate but the Christian principles were not abandoned (I never heard of a CSU-Politician who was for voting for the baby-killing).

[IStillBelieve]

Welcome to Free Republic!

I daresay everyone on the board is happy to hear from a European who actually likes America! :-)

Please stay for a while!

[Kulturkaempfer]

Thank you for your welcome!

The American triumph of last week was also a personal victory because I told everybody who believed the propaganda of the leftist media: "I told you so!".
Since every American phenomena sweeps the old continent a few years later I'm now waiting for the conservative revolution.
The Left is intellectually and morally bankrupt over here but the Right is to reluctant to go for the jugular. There's a lack of social movements supporting the case. In America there's a growing Christian community (ours still in decline), there are sportsmen, there's a landright's movement (we have to suffer the projects of the enviro wackos) etc. Let's pray the tide will change.

[valkyrieanne]

Have to say I am torn on this one. Would hate for the same standard be applied to other religious symbolism.

This is *not* a "religious freedom issue." The headscarf is used as a symbol of political ideology among radical European Muslims. It's the equivalent of a teacher wearing an SS uniform to class (also banned in Germany, BTW.)

[valkyrieanne]

The banning of headscarves in France and other European countries is an valid attempt to integrate Muslims into the mainstream society. Muslims love the headscarf as it forces their women to look so different as to be unreachable by mainstream society. That way they can control women without outside influence.

Thank you! Not only does the headscarf symbolize the ideology of militant radical Islam, it also serves as a practical way to isolate and control Muslim women. Without this dictatorial control over their women, radical Islam would literally evaporate in a generation. It's within the prison of the traditionalist Muslim family that little jihadi are raised up.

[dennisw]

Dignity of Difference
... Islamic groups had visited on Jews, Maimonides insists that Islam in a genuine
monotheism. Though he did not hold the same view of the Christianity of his time ...
www.chiefrabbi.org/dd/views.html - 26k - Cached - Similar pages

[Clemenza]

Can we ban du-rags and baggy pants for our black and Latino population?

[AMDG&BVMH]

"(I never heard of a CSU-Politician who was for voting for the baby-killing)."

Thanks for that good news! There is hope for Germany, then, as long as Frei Staat Bayern keeps the faith! Long live the Blue and White!

Not only that, it is the most beautiful area . . . I also love the TrachtenModen, that people wear for dress clothes. I need to get to Munich some day and buy some of it!

Alles Gute . . .

[processing please hold]

Then Germany should maintain their school roofs better. Water dripping in a classroom must realy suck.

[processing please hold]

REALY=REALLY

[AMDG&BVMH]

"I'm now waiting for the conservative revolution.
The Left is intellectually and morally bankrupt over here but the Right is to reluctant to go for the jugular."

Good assessment in my view. European expression of opinion seems to be held hostage to a very strong form of "political correctness." The European media have a lot to do with that. Read about the New Media's role in this past election here on FR and you will see how opinion and news can be shared confidently without the Main Stream Media . . .

I'll be waiting for that conservative revolution! :)

[cardinal4]

I just went to the site. I feel like I should take a shower..

[longjack]

I don't know how to say balls in German, but this lady has a set.

The slang term would be eier, the German word for eggs.

longjack