1 - 2004

Religious diversity in Germany

German Churches Disagree on Ban

Information of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)

German Churches Disagree on Head scarf Ban for Muslim Teachers. Several German federal states Draw up Legislation against the Wearing of Head Scarves at Public Schools

There is increasing disagreement within the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) concerning the ban on the wearing of head scarves by Muslim teachers at public schools.

EKD Council Chairperson Bishop Dr Wolfgang Huber, Bishops Dr Margot Käßmann (Hanover), Dr Johannes Friedrich (Bavaria), or Dr Gerhard Maier (Wuerttemberg), are among those favouring a ban on the wearing of headscarves. They see the head scarf as an anti-democratic political symbol. The North Elbian bishops, Maria Jepsen, (Hamburg), Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter (Lübeck); and Jürgen Johannesdotter from Schaumburg-Lippe, have spoken out against a head scarf ban for Muslim teachers. The EKD brings together 24 Lutheran, Reformed and United Churches, with a combined membership of around 26.5 million people.

The head scarf issue flared up when Ms Fereshta Ludin, a teacher from Afghanistan, filed a law suit arguing that the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg had not employed her as a school teacher, because she wanted to wear her head scarf in the classroom. At the end of September 2003, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that Germany’s federal states would have to draft their own laws if they wanted to implement a ban on the wearing of headscarves.

The January 22nd speech by Johannes Rau, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, in Wolfenbüttel during the 275th birthday celebration of author Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, triggered multiple reactions. Rau warned of the dangers of not treating all religions equally, and emphatically opposed the head scarf ban that several states hope to introduce. According to Rau, the head scarf should not be viewed as a clear political symbol of Islamic fundamentalism. He pointed out that "indeed, I am afraid that banning the head scarf is the first step towards the creation of a secular state that bans religious signs and symbols from public life. This is something I do not want.”

At the Saarland parliament, the Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD) spoke out jointly in favour of a head scarf ban at public schools. The governments of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria and Lower Saxony also want to modify their respective education acts. In Hesse the CDU triggered a vigorous debate in the parliament with its intention to generally bar civil servants from wearing headscarves. If the law changes, the Berlin senate plans to apply it to all wearing of religious symbols by government employees. No legislative changes have yet been initiated in the other east German states nor in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein or Rhineland-Palatinate.


Ban Advocates See a Political Symbol

In his speech broadcast on Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, January 31st, Huber, said he did not support Rau’s stance against a head scarf ban. "Those in favour of religious freedom do not necessarily have to agree with a Muslim teacher being able to wear a head scarf. Furthermore, those who feel that teachers’ obligation to relinquish demonstrative actions should also include the relinquishment of the head scarf are not necessarily banning religion from the public arena,” Huber said.

Käßmann, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, has expressed her support for the head scarf ban, but she opposes calls to remove Christian symbols from public buildings as a consequence of such a ban. She told the Protestant news service (epd) in early January that the head scarf was not simply a religious symbol but also a political one that also visibly questioned the equality between men and women.

Friedrich, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, feels that the head scarf is not compatible with the equality between men and women as laid down in the German Constitution.

German Constitution Stipulates Respect for the Image of a Human Being

Bishop Maier, Evangelical Church in Wuerttemberg, and Dr Ulrich Fischer from the Evangelical Church in Baden jointly pointed out that Ludin (the Afghan teacher who appealed to the Supreme Court), not only had to respect the concept of a human being, on which the constitution, which includes equal rights between men and women is based, but also had to promote this image as a public school teacher. They said that "wearing the head scarf did not comply with this requirement. Moreover, there was a risk that the verdict would exert increasing pressure on Muslim girls and women who did not wish to wear the head scarf.”

Bishop Dr Friedrich Weber, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick, welcomed the move by the Lower Saxony government to prohibit Muslim teachers from wearing headscarves in schools. He said in mid-January that the head scarf could be interpreted as a political symbol to suppress women. Banning headscarves, he said, should not be seen as a sign of intolerance toward Islam, but more as an attempt to fend off bad examples. What is necessary is an intensive dialogue between Christianity and Islam to improve mutual understanding of the respective cultural characteristics of each religion.

The Roman Catholic bishops of Baden-Wuerttemberg also called for a headscarves’ ban for Muslim teachers as did the Protestant churches there. The head scarf could be understood as a "dubious political message” that is incompatible with the constitutional equality between men and women, Freiburg Archbishop Robert Zollitsch and Rottenburg-Stuttgart Bishop Gebhard Fürst jointly stated in early February.

Head scarf Ban Does Not Distinguish between Fundamentalism and Religious Identity

Nikolaus Schneider, head of the Evangelical Church of the Rhineland, backed President Rau’s stance. Schneider was quoted in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper at the end of January, saying that he was against a simple head scarf ban because it did not allow for any form of distinction between fundamentalism and basic religious identity.

With their signature of the non-partisan appeal placed under the motto of "religious diversity instead of forced emancipation,” North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church Bishops Maria Jepsen (Hamburg) and Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter (Lübeck) spoke out against a head scarf ban in public institutions. Wartenberg-Potter told epd that "respecting other people and their culture” was a fundamental Christian principle. Furthermore, religious freedom is laid down in the German constitution.

Bishop Jürgen Johannesdotter, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schaumburg-Lippe also opposes the banning of headscarves. At the end of January he told epd that "not every Muslim woman who wears a head scarf is automatically a fundamentalist.” The scarf should be viewed as a religious custom.

A Counterproductive Measure that Would Promote Secularism

In an interview with epd a few days before his inauguration February 29th, the head of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, Präses Alfred Buss warned that a head scarf ban could be counterproductive as it would help secularism to gain influence.

Hans-Joachim Meyer, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics warned of the consequences a specifically head scarf-related ban would have on the relationship between state and religion. Meyer told the German newspaper Rheinische Post at the end of January that this type of ban could foster secularism for "very diverse reasons” leading to a society in which religion is an absolutely private matter. Germany should not follow the French approach that bans all religious symbols from public places.

Regarding the head scarf debate, the general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Axel Ayyub Köhler, has warned of an increasingly anti-Muslim atmosphere. The government would clearly overstep its limits with a ban on headscarves and would disregard the obligation for tolerance. During a panel discussion in Bonn, January 21st, Köhler said mutual respect between religions with regard to different ways of living was necessary.

In France, the president of the Protestant Federation of France (FPF) Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont reiterated his strong opposition to a draft law that would forbid students from wearing "conspicuous” religious symbols at school. Speaking at the federation’s headquarters in Paris, de Clermont warned that the law would "resolve nothing” and the "haste” in introducing the measure "contradicted the desire expressed for dialogue and consultation,” Clermont was quoted saying by the Geneva-based Ecumenical News International.

The FPF membership comprises most of the Protestant churches and associations in France, including the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) member churches there – the Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine and Evangelical Lutheran Church of France. The Malagasy Protestant Church in France is an affiliate member of the federation.

In a letter to President Jacques Chirac early February, LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko had cautioned against the introduction of a law that bans the wearing of conspicuous religious signs and dress at French public schools.

Hanover, Germany/GENEVA, 11 March 2004 (LWI). Further information is available on the LWF website: www.lutheranworld.org /News /LWI/EN/1388.EN.html.