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Deutsche Welle

Multicultural Symbol or Gateway to Fundamentalism?

Having spent the last 15 years of her life wearing the Muslim hijab, Emine Oztürk, who is studying to become a teacher, can’t imagine taking it off in public, even for just one minute.

But that’s exactly what Oztürk might have to do if she ever wants to get a job in a Berlin public school.

“It’s part of my identity,” said the 25-year-old German of Turkish descent. “How can I lay my identity at the door of the classroom?”

It is a question on the minds of many here following a decision last fall by Germany’s highest court allowing teacher Fereshta Ludin to wear her head scarf in class as long as there were no state laws against it. Though the court upheld Ludin's right to wear the hijab, it also opened the door for states to pass laws banning teachers from donning it in the classroom. Since the decision, the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg, where Ludin first brought her case, has passed just such a law.

The state government in Berlin has proposed a law banning all religious symbols, including the Jewish Kippa and Christian crucifix, from jobs in the public sector. A majority of Germany’s 16 states are expected to pass similar laws.

Banned in France, encouraged in England

In the debate taking place across Germany, politicians and Muslim leaders have begun to ask some very serious questions about the place their religion and identity holds in a Europe rooted in Christianity and Judaism, but with a growing and powerful Muslim population.

“You have a new generation of Muslims …reasonably educated, fluent in the cultures and languages they live in … demanding a sort of legitimization. They want it without having to become assimilated,” said Shireen Hunter, the head of the Islam Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., and editor of “Islam, Europe’s Second Religion.”

In March, the French parliament approved legislation that banned head scarves and other religious symbols from state schools beginning in September. In Great Britain and Sweden, a more open attitude prevails. Teachers and even female Muslim police officers are allowed to wear their head scarves.

Germany’s relationship to its 3.2 million Muslims is decidedly more fragile.

Touchy issues of integration such as Muslim dress and the ritual slaughter of sheep in accordance with Islamic law have been brought before courts in recent years. Earlier this summer, the constitutional court ruled that a department store could not fire a Muslim woman because she wanted to wear her head scarf during work.

A cloth menace?

The legal conflicts are symptoms of the neglect of both the German government and the Turkish community in addressing the issue of integration, say historians. By the time integration became a topic, the sons and grandsons of the Turkish guest workers that arrived in the 1960s had already carved out little Ankaras and Istanbuls in Germany’s major cities. The hijab has long been part of the German streetscape.

“We live in a free, modern society, where everyone has their own self-awareness,” says Ali Kizilkaya, head of the powerful and controversial Islam Council, Germany’s largest Muslim group. “Are we so weak that a square foot of cloth can make us feel threatened?”

Opponents argue that it is not the head scarf, but the fact that
Ludin wants to wear it in the public school classroom in a country with a strong secular tradition. Eight years ago, the constitutional court ruled that crucifixes would have to be removed from classrooms in Bavaria if just one student objected. The fact that Muslims want what many see as more freedom to express their religion than German Christians makes parliamentarian Wolfgang Bosbach angry.

Rebuilding Afghanistan and Setting an Example for Iraq

Fischer's first stop in Afghanistan on Tuesday was the northern city of Kunduz, home to a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) of about 300 German troops. There are about a dozen such PRT's spread out in several cities around the country to provide security and help oversee reconstruction projects.

In Kunduz, the Germans are responsible for training local police officers. At each major intersection, there's a uniformed officer trying, often in vain, to regulate traffic. Still, there's optimism that things are starting to improve. At the city's bazaar, residents can get most of what they need. Electricity is being imported from neighboring Tajikistan, with varying regularity. But there's one area the residents have firmly under control -- they've organized at least 30 football clubs.

"We have the trust of the Afghan people right now," Fischer said, adding that this trust be put to use to enhance reconstruction in the country. He praised the German troops for doing a great job, and said the combination of civil and military personnel was proving to be effective. "I think we should continue down this path."

Role model for Iraq

The foreign minister reminded troops in Kunduz of the importance of the decision to extend NATO's mission in Afghanistan beyond the area around the capital, Kabul. Expanding security operations is seen as vital to the success of landmark presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for September.

Fischer also said the progress made in Afghanistan should serve as a role model in Iraq, where the reconstruction process is being stalled by fighting between coalition troops and Iraqi insurgents. "It's never too late to learn from our mistakes. It'll perhaps be more difficult, because time is being wasted, but it's never too late to learn," he said, adding that it's hardly a coincidence that the UN's former commissioner for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, is now the commissioner for Iraq.

Renewed committment

Fischer's trip comes just three weeks after an international donor conference for Afghanistan was held in Berlin, which garnered $8.2 billion in new pledges for reconstruction.

"The effort Germany put in for the success of Berlin is something that our people will remember forever," said Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who met with Fischer later in the day in Kabul.

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