To prevent radicalization: Thurgau wants to introduce Islamic lessons in schools

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If Muslim children in Switzerland want to take religious lessons, they usually have to go to the mosque. Only ten Swiss schools offer Islamic classes. Such education in primary school would certainly have advantages, as shown by a study by the universities of Lucerne and Freiburg. The school is a neutral place. Children from different Muslim backgrounds are taught together. This promotes mutual understanding – and at the same time allows a certain degree of quality control.

The Canton of Thurgau now wants to move forward. The schools in Kreuzlingen, where Islamic lessons have been offered for fourteen years, provide an example. More than 20 percent of the students in Kreuzlingen are Muslim. Now the offer must be expanded to the entire canton, reports Radio SRF.

Lessons must fit into the curriculum

Because there was no curriculum for Islamic religious education in Switzerland, religious teacher Rehan Neziri relies on a curriculum from Germany. It is important that everyone knows “what is taught here, what methods are used and whether they are currently pedagogically appropriate or not.”

The new curriculum for Islamic religious education is based on a curriculum from Baden-Württemberg and has been adapted to curriculum 21 and the curriculum of the Thurgau primary school. “It would be difficult if the curriculum for Islamic religious education had a different basic ideology than the curriculum of the regional church and the curriculum of the primary school in Thurgau,” Daniel Ritter from the religious education department of the Catholic Church of Thurgau is quoted as saying. proverb. He worked on the new curriculum. It is important that the curricula connect with each other.

The federal police also has an interest in it

And the federal government also plays a role in this. The curriculum project for Islamic religious education in Thurgau receives financial support from Bern, in particular from the federal police station Fedpol. The Federal Police awards funding in the context of the National Action Plan against Radicalization and Extremism.

The Thurgau curriculum project applied for the funding because Islamic religious education can prevent extremism. This is also evident from the above-mentioned research from the universities of Lucerne and Freiburg.

Switzerland must have an interest in “that the Islam practiced here is a kind of European Islam,” says Ritter. “An Islam that works with our values ​​and can deal with this reality.” (dba)

Source:Blick