German Schools Embrace Islam

by Herbert I. London
In an odd form of social suicide, rather than increasing efforts to integrate Muslims into German society, German students will be taught about Islam. In a sense, German educators will be engaged in proselytizing for Islam.
The German state of Lower Saxony will start including Islam in its schools' core curriculum as part of an initiative to counter growing anti-Islam sentiment in Europe. Dr. Bernad Althusmann, Minister of Education in Lower Saxony announced that schools there will start including Islamic education in their main curriculum, saying, during a visit to an elementary school in the city of Hanover which offers an Islamic education class, "I think we will be able to start implementation by the academic year after the next," said
Justifying this approach, Juergen Zoeliner, Berlin Minister for Education, Science and Research, notes, "For years, society and schools have been faced with a variety of new duties and challenges. One of these big challenges is to have people from different traditions, cultural and religion affiliations living together peacefully and respectfully." .
One might assume that Muslims in the West should come to know and appreciate Western Civilization. Students who are not versed in the history and customs of the polity they find themselves in will be handicapped. Yet integration -- once the overarching strategy for dealing with immigrants -- has been replaced in Germany, and throughout Western Europe, by efforts to bend over backwards to accommodate the Islamic population. In the process, this effort produces results that counter good intentions. First, the Islamic population believes, with considerable confirmation, that Europeans do not possess the will to assert the importance of their own culture and traditions. Second, the insertion of Islam into German schools suggests tacitly that Islam is on the rise and cannot be denied even in non-Islamic nations
"Diversity education" is predicated on the belief that we in the West have on obligation to understand Islam -- however, the converse does not follow.
Of course, whether the program ultimately leads to a peaceful result is questionable. Why did the armies of Europe turn back the Turks at the gates of Vienna 500 years ago when programs, like these instituted in Germany, are handing Islam the keys to the future?
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