JNN 17 Feb 2011 : German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière has asked federal states to introduce a nationwide Islamic curriculum in schools across the country.

In a meeting with more than one hundred experts in the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in the city of Nuremberg, German officials and representatives of Muslim communities tried to solve legal problems hindering the initiative, a Press TV correspondent reported on Tuesday.

“We need Islamic education in German schools and we need it now, not just the pilot projects,” the German minister said.

Almost all German states have introduced such pilot projects for Muslim students, but only one in twenty Muslim students is able to attend such classes.

Neither their families nor their communities always provide young Muslims in Germany with the moral and practical counseling they need. The consequences are often conflicts, alienation from religion and identity crises. This is why the government supports Islamic education in schools for the benefit of the children, despite the obstacles.

As a temporary solution, the government is now calling upon the local authorities to accept councils with Muslim members as partners in the development of the curriculum for Islamic courses.

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