A new study has found that 54,000 high school students in Germany receive Islam religion lessons – but ten times as many would be interested. Experts say religion classes encourage integration and counter extremism.
Not enough German high school students receive Islam religion lessons, according to a new study by the media info service Mediendienst Integration.
Around 54,000 students at 800 schools across the country currently receive Islam religion lessons, a significant increase on the 42,000 who attended such lessons two years ago, according to official statistics from Germany’s 16 state education ministries.
But this is still much less than the 580,000 students who would potentially be interested in such lessons, a number that came out of a 2008 report entitled “Muslim Life in Germany” carried out by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). Given that this survey was carried out before the recent refugee influx into Germany, that figure is likely to be even higher now. Though exact figures are not known, Rauf Ceylan, professor for contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Osnabrück, believes the number of Muslim children aged six to 18 at German schools is around 750,000 to 800,000.
That survey also found that an additional 70,000 students would be interested in Alevi Islam lessons – currently only 800 students attend such classes in the whole of Germany, Mediendienst Integration found, after collecting data from the state education ministries. “That’s pretty ridiculous,” is Ceylan’s clipped judgement.
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