GERMAN MINISTERS OF EDUCATION DISCUSSED WITH MUSLIM EXPERTS FROM DIFFERENT NATIONS ON „LEARNING COMMUNITY"

On 13 and 14 March 2003 a conference was held in Weimar, the city of the poets Goethe and Schiller in Germany. It has been one of several efforts in Europe to explore ways of organizing good relationships with reasonable Muslim minorities, particulary by means of education. This conference was organized by the Secretariat of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Minister of education in Thuringia, Professor DAGMAR SCHIPANSKI from Erfurt was the host; Professor HANS KÜNG, the initiator of of the „Global Ethos" project from Türbingen, South West Germany, acted as conference president. Professor RITA SÜSSMUTH, formerly speaker of the German parliament and president of the immigration commission of Germany addressed the conference. In addition to plenary sessions four Fora explored sensible areas of state education.

Participants came from state administration, from various university disciplines or other research institutes. Some represented national or international Non Governmental Organizations (NGO‘s). There was also an impressive representation of different Muslim communities from several nations, among them Austria, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Muslim and non-Muslim participants introduced the views of diverse directions among the Muslim world as well as in the profession of academic scholars and teachers of all school levels. Not the least it should be mentiond that a number of internationally well known foundations were represented as well. All of these are concerned with burning social and educational issues. The Körber Stiftung for example is famous for their support of innovative projects in society.

The Fora worked on (1) Islam in the daily work in school (with representation of students), (2) Islam in the teachers‘ training, (3) Islam in curricula and schoolbooks, (4) a subject of Islamic education in school. In Forum 4 the following experts explained their perspectives of a subject of Islamic Education in state schools: Professor MUALLA SELÇUK from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Turkey; Dr KLAUS GEBAUER of the Institute of School Education of Northrhine Westfalia; ISMAIL KAPLAN from the Alevitic Federation; and ASIYE KÖHLER from the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. In Forum 3 the following reported about experiences with schoolsbooks and syllabuses and gave suggestions for further development in those areas: Dr SYED AZIZ PASHA of the National Muslim Education Council of UK; NEŞE IHTIYAR from Georg-Eckert Institute of International Schoolbook Research in Germany; Professor UDO TWORUSCHKA, Chair of Religious Science at Jena university, and Dr WOLFGANG BOEGE, in-service training senior lecturer in Hamburg. Fora 1 and 2 worked in a similar way.

In the opening session, Dr THOMAS KRÜGER, president of the Federal Centre of Political Education explained the approach of his Centre to current challenges to intercultural learning. He introduced new learning and teaching material on Islam, while professor BARBARA JOHN, officer of immigrants to the Senat of Berlin, offered an excellently differentiated description of the life situations of young Muslims. Experiences with intercultural education in Turkey, the UK and Austria were exchanged during a panel discussion. The UK representative, Dr PASHA, highlighted the benefits of the involvement of religious communities in resourcing and realizing the implementation of the Education Reform Act of 1988. Professor ANAS SCHAKFEH from Austria told about the ways which the Islamic Community in Austria prefers to adapt its detailed responsibility in accordance with the Qur’an within the state education system. Professor SELÇUK, Dean of the Theological Faculty of Ankara University reported on Turkish activities culminating in an international symposium on a wide range of different methods in school religious education, held in Istanbul in 2001. For the organizers this resulted in a decisive intercultural project of peace education. Dr. MUALLA SELÇUK presented the conference the impressive documentation of the proceedings of the mentioned symposium, a multilingual book of 812 pages. All conceptions of religious education practised in the German federal states are well recognized in the Turkish publication. The same is true for RE conceptions from Britain, the Netherlands and Norway.

The by one hundred and fifty participants voted finally for an „Appeal of Weimar". This document confirmed the civil rights of three million Muslims in Germany. This includes a mutual support of German values, as stated in the constitution of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz) and the very own values of the Muslims in Germany, according to their home countries and their different branches of Muslim tradition. Therefore the „Appeal of Weimar" stresses equal rights of different cultural and religious communities who live in Germany and dialogue between these and various cultural and religious communities in the Federal Republic of Germany. Schools and other educational activities contribute to this aim. Islamic studies and other academic disciplines have the task to support such dialogue. Publishers have a particular responsibility in presenting topics and didactics useful for that dialogue. Religious education in schools plays an important role within this process. For the improvement of Muslim school religious education the Muslim communities in the Länder should create the appropriate organisational provision. Muslims and non-Muslims should co-operate in schools to con tribute to the integration of Muslims in the Federal Republic. All this is a mutual process.

After discussion in plenary sessions this „Appeal of Weimar" was accepted. The Weimar conference in March 2003 and its participants themselves gave a convincing example of the intended dialogue. It will be of interest to observe firstly how soon now Islamic religious education in German schools will be realized, and secondly whether the promising exchange between representatives of the German administration and participants from other nations will result in follow up activities. There is no lack of declarations in Europe but rather a need of building bridges between human beings. In case this will happen, discrimination and violence will have less and lesser chance in European societies.

The author of this report, Dr. Herbert Schultze is chairman of the European Association for World Religions in Education (EAWRE). He was invited and took part in the Weimar conference on behalf of EAWRE. The organisation will evaluate this contact under the auspices of its intense co-operation with the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.