North Rhine-Westphalia has given Islamic religious instruction a new organizational basis.

From now on, the country has a commission with members from initially six Islamic organizations as contact persons.

It replaces an advisory board that was formed around ten years ago.

School Minister Yvonne Gebauer (FDP) spoke of a "new important step for the further expansion of Islamic religious instruction".

Pure burger

Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

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    Currently around 22,000 students at 260 schools from 300 teachers trained in Germany are receiving Islamic religious instruction in German and according to clearly defined curricula. Gebauer said that all democratic parties have seen the expansion of Islamic religious education under the supervision of the school authorities as an important task for many years. Knowledge of other religions would also be imparted in the subject. The lessons protect against prejudice and strengthen tolerance, respect and openness.

    Islamic religious education was introduced in North Rhine-Westphalia at the end of 2011 by the then government factions of the SPD and the Greens together with what was then the largest opposition party, the CDU.

    A serious problem had to be avoided: the Muslim associations are not recognized as religious communities.

    However, only they are entitled to the constitutional preferential treatment for religious instruction.

    The state made do with an advisory board that took over the function of a religious community and decided, among other things, on the admission of school books and the granting of teaching permits.

    Problems with the Ditib

    The body had eight honorary members. Before that, four of them were appointed by Islamic organizations in North Rhine-Westphalia, four others were appointed by the Ministry of Education in agreement with these organizations. The most important cooperation partner, the “Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion” (Ditib), soon caused considerable difficulties. After the attempted coup against Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, it continued to sideline.

    After a spying affair involving several of their imams working in Germany, Ditib, which is subordinate to the Turkish religious authority Diyanet, had to withdraw from the membership. There had also been criticism of the body because the associations represented in it, such as the Central Council of Muslims, only represent a small proportion of Muslims in Germany and stand for a conservative, Turkish-Sunni Islam, while other ethnic Muslim groups and also liberal Muslims did not sit on the body.

    In the new commission, unlike in the council, there are no longer any members appointed by the ministry, and the number of seats is no longer limited. In addition to the currently six organizations, others can be included, provided they respect the constitutional principles, operate nationwide, and are independent and independent of the state. The respective organization undertakes in a public law contract with the state to comply with these requirements set out in the Schools Act.

    Ditib is now represented again in the new committee. School Minister Gebauer said that the Ditib had "internally, but also publicly" set out a "distant state". At the request of the FAZ, the Ministry of Education also said that the North Rhine-Westphalian Ditib state association and its associated regional associations had ensured their independence through an amendment to the statutes. As a result, “the influence of Ditib committees, which are largely determined by the Turkish state, has been significantly restricted on the national association and has been completely excluded from Islamic religious instruction”.

    The Green politician Volker Beck, who has dealt with religious-political issues for many years, criticized the return of the Ditib. "Anyone who believes that the internal relationships at Ditib are based on the statutes has not understood this organization," Beck told the FAZ. "As long as mosques belong to the Cologne headquarters and the imams have contracts with Ankara, it is naive to believe regional ones or local organizations have something to report. "