German parties agree on teaching Islam in schools

BERLIN: Germany's main left and right parties both advocate teaching Islam in schools, according to interviews in the mass-circulation Bild newspaper published Wednesday. Islam is currently offered as a course only in two of Germany's 16 states -- Berlin and the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

A third state, Lower Saxony, wants to add Islamic courses to its school curriculum. Ute Vogt, who is from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic Party (SPD) and head of the parliament's committee for domestic affairs, told Bild it would be worthwhile if "courses in Islam were given in German and in a school framework."

Wolfgang Bosbach, vice chairman of the parliamentary group of the opposition conservative Christian Union coalition, said that "courses on Islam in German and according to an official program should be introduced in all schools in Germany."

There are some 3.2 million Moslems, including 570,000 school-age children, in Germany's total population of 82 million population. Christianity is taught as a required subject in 13 German states. It is an optional subject in the states of Berlin, Bremen and Brandenburg.