Source: NTV.DE
Two Muslim parents have failed at the Human Rights Court with complaints against the duty to attend their daughters in mixed swimming lessons. The Swiss authorities were allowed to give priority to compulsory schooling and the integration of children against the religiously justified wish of the parents after liberation, the Strasbourg judges decided in Strasbourg. (Complaint No 29086/12)
The accused had a father and a mother from Basel. They had been subjected to fines because they had refused to send their daughters together for swimming lessons with boys. The Strasbourg judges saw no violation of religious freedom in the fine. They argued that the school plays a special role in social integration, especially children of foreign origin. The plaintiffs originally came from Turkey, but they now also have Swiss citizenship.
In Germany there was a corresponding judgment already. In the basic principle, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled in 2013 that Muslim pupils could in principle be expected to participate in the common swimming lessons. A student from Frankfurt had been accused. The parents of the girl with Moroccan roots had requested the liberation of the eleven-year-old from swimming lessons. Here, too, the reason was that Muslim clothing regulations and other religious reasons prohibited participation.
The justification did not apply to the judges. Slightly dressed men can be seen everywhere in the summer, and the sight thus affects the girl only “slightly” in her freedom of belief. The state’s educational and educational mission is over.
Categories: Europe, Europe and Australia, European Union, Switzerland
West must learn to respect and tolerate those who are different. Muslim parents would never object if their daughters go for swimming with other girls. They are against mixed swimming. Similarly, they need state funded Muslim schools with Muslim teachers. They need single sex schools for girls and boys with lady teachers and male teachers.
Studies show boys do much better in single sex schools. The debate about whether girls perform better at single sex or co-ed environment is old and fierce. But there is very little conclusive research on which is better for girls, and even less on whether single-sex schools enhance a girl’s leadership potential. Despite this, there has been an upsurge in single-sex schools in the United States over the last 10 years, supporters claiming that they lead to better grades and greater confidence for girls. Some early studies suggest all-girl schools may have the edge when it comes to women taking maths and computer science, or being politically active, later in college. But just as many researchers point to parental interest and socio-economic status as a major factor in any child’s educational success.
The research on whether or not single-sex classrooms may offer girls a more enriching an environment than they currently receive in co-ed classrooms is conflicted. On the one hand, single-sex schools improve girls’ confidence. The British Educational Research Journal found that eighty percent of girls claimed to be more confident in single-sex classes, 65 percent indicating progress in math. University of Pennsylvania Professor Choi, found that in South Korea, single-sex classrooms are associated with female empowerment and better performance in school He writes, “Girls in a single-sex classroom had a sense of ownership of their class, but did not in co-ed classrooms.” On the other hand, opponents of single-sex classrooms claim that by consciously distinguishing between males and females, single-sex schools further entrench gender roles. In fact, the ACLU is suing the justice department, arguing that single-gender classes are “separate and unequal.”
Muslim children not only need halal meat or Eid Holidays but they need state funded Muslim schools with Muslim teachers as role models during their development period also. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school. Legally, the state has an obligation to respect the rights of parents to ensure that ‘education and teaching(of their children) is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.’ The schools must satisfy the spiritual, moral, social, and cultural needs of Muslim pupils. State schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers are not in a position to satisfy their needs. A good school is not just a knowledge factory or a conveyor belt for churning out exam passes – it is a community, a family. A community is held together by common values and principles.
IA
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
@iftikhara – Your opinions (as demands) are incompatible with the concept of a secular democracy.
@Robert. Then do u suggest any middle way acceptable to all sides.
@Zubair Khan – Where I live in the US (State of Michigan), if parents want their children to be educated in a faith-based environment, they send their children to private, parochial schools. Those schools are monitored by the State to ensure that the curriculum taught meets State academic requirements. Otherwise, those schools are pretty much left alone in the way the children are taught and are free to teach religious doctrine (which is prohibited in public schools).. For example, my nine year old granddaughter attends a small, academically excellent, Christian Lutheran school. Those schools are not funded by any governmental unit under the mandated concept of ‘Separation of Faith and State’. I am not certain if such a school-type is permissible in Schweiz. If not, perhaps that is an area of compromise between Muslims in Schweiz and their government. Additionally, parents here can legally ‘home school’ their children under state supervision for, again, academic requirements. That, too, is an option.