Teaching for prevention

New guidelines on the teaching of Islamic religion are given in an article published in June edition of Herder Korrespondenz, and signed by Harry Harun Behr, professor of the teaching of Islamic religion at the University of Erlangen-Norimberga since 2006. The author reports on experiments underway in some Bundesländer. POSITIVE INTEGRATION. At a conference in Stuttgart in late March, sponsored by the Robert Bosch Foundation and organized by the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart together with ZIR (interdisciplinary centre for Islamic doctrine at Erlangen), the issues discussed were no longer those of a legal and administrative nature (as at the previous conference in 2005), but the contents of teaching and the way they are taught. In Lower Saxony, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, in spite of some difference in the models of teaching Islamic religion, “progress is dependent on partial successes at the local and regional level”. “The teaching of Islamic religion is to be located at the point of intersection of two fields protected by the Constitution: school and teaching on the one hand, and religion on the other. The teaching of Islamic religion “must be based on a theology and pedagogy of religion that are open at the scientific level, and able to promote positive integration and immunize students” against the risk of ideological dogmatism. Of decisive importance “for improving the relation between state and Moslem institutions is an accord on the goals that can be reached together and an accord on fields of competence without any confusion of responsibilities”. SIGNIFICANT SOCIAL FUNCTION. The signals coming from the political world are particularly positive; they confirm the intention to continue along the way of “the teaching of Islamic religion in German” and replace current experiments “with the regular teaching of Islamic religion” (Siegfried Schneider, Bavarian Minister of Education, speaking at the Stuttgart conference). “Local and regional projects are the result of the mutual trust that has come to be created among all the participants”. The new educational plans are to be considered the result of the “best possible consensus and not of the minimum possible compromise”. If the introduction of the teaching of Islamic religion in schools in 1999 seemed to conservatives a sop to “German Turks”, now religion is recognized as an institution “with a significant social function”, also in terms of moral conduct and political security. Moreover, “the debates on the teaching of Islamic religion also prompt a renewed reflection on the role of religion in the context of modern societies with a cultural history influenced by secularisation; this also regards some sections of the culturally Moslem world”. PREVENTING. After the terrorist attacks in New York and in Europe, Islam is perceived in its global dimension, and now the teaching of Islamic religion is spoken of in terms of prevention, especially for those young Muslims without prospects. “The new educational plans for the teaching of Islam clearly show this dimension”: social ethics are placed in the foreground and “only secondarily are they identified as genuinely Islamic”. This objective in support of the local political system is accepted, it seems, by the majority of Muslims in Germany. But to this end it is essential that the project for the teaching of Islam as an ordinary subject in the curriculum be underwritten by the state and properly implemented. German should be the language in which it is taught, and also pupils should speak German among each other to “learn to overcome linguistic, cultural and religious barriers and act as intermediaries” between cultures. For this subject too (numerical) grades are given, together with a written assessment in words, which are decisive in determining whether the pupil is to pass or fail. Classes in Islamic religion should be in the morning, not in the afternoon. The teacher should be qualified and a practising Muslim. Teaching should provide basic information; be educational, as required by Islam, and indicative of the religious practices handed down by tradition. To respond to educational needs in conformity with the Constitution, it is not possible to import teachers from Istanbul or from Cairo: what are required are teachers of Islamic religion who have German university qualifications (in short supply for the time being). Islamic theology at the university level in Germany should be open-minded and able to “give support to situations characterized by brusque social and political changes. By interpreting what has been handed down, it should offer a new significance, thus helping men and women to forge continuity in their specifically religious references”.