The images in many schools in Europe are similar: young people in front of teachers, surrounding them, saying Islamic prayers and shouting “Allahu akbar”. In a Swiss school, a seven-year-old from Egypt shows the Hitler salute and declares that Jews must die. Shortly before that, he refused to discuss Judaism in group lessons. Girls who have put on make-up for carnival in the German Rhineland are told by boys that putting make-up is “haram” – not allowed according to Islamic religious rules. A teacher in Austria is interrupted by shouts of “Haram” when he wants to sing a Christmas carol.
At a German school, students acted as Sharia police. They are said to have spoken out in favor of strict Islamist rules and put other Muslim classmates under extreme pressure – similar to the Islamic religious police, who enforce strict rules of behavior in countries like Iran. The students are said to have demanded, among other things, that all women at school have to cover themselves and that strict gender separation should be introduced. The four young men are also said to have supported prayer rooms and torture. The students also shared their views via class chats. They are also said to have told a teacher that they reject democracy.
A girl in France who tried to take off her headscarf was called a slut. Teachers there talk about students who criticize other Muslims because they take veal sausages with them on excursions, boys refuse to play theater with girls, and teachers are insulted as “sluts” and “whores.” When the Holocaust is discussed, students shout, “the Jews deserved it.”
Recently, young Jews in particular have been bullied in schools. “Fuck Israel and Free Palestine,” young people shout to their Jewish classmates. Such cases are currently often described, in the media and even in anti-Semitism reports. Since October 7 at the latest, the question has been raised as to how widespread anti-Semitism and religious fundamentalism is in schools – and whether the right thing is being done about it. The reactions of politicians, specialist departments and educational institutions often seem helpless.
The anti-Semitism that is currently evident throughout society is not only widespread among Muslims. But, as can be seen in schools, it is reinforced by immigration from Islamic countries where hatred of Jews and Israel is a kind of state doctrine. “Anti-Semitic bullying has increased massively since October 7th. In all cases that I know of, it was done by Muslims,” said the school teacher. He is aware of 25 cases of anti-Semitic bullying in Frankfurt am Main that were so serious that those affected left school. “The perpetrators are mostly male students, around 60 percent have a Muslim background.”
Islamist tendencies are a problem that is not just related to terrorism. The murderous jihadism to which the attackers have committed themselves is rejected by more moderate Islamists. Because they place religious laws above constitutional principles and democratic values and despise open society, “moderates” like the Muslim Brotherhood are also a threat to our societies.
In schools, this focus on strict Islam is particularly evident in neighborhoods where students from Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Albania or the Maghreb form a strong minority or even majority. Teachers who work in such neighborhoods report a few ringleaders who can have a major influence on other Muslims and the entire class.
In France, educators warned about Islamist school propaganda even 20 years ago. Students would intimidate teachers and girls, insist on prayer rooms and other special requests, and reject the theory of evolution. Jewish children would have to leave public schools en masse because they would be bullied, threatened and beaten.
A few years ago, the German teacher and Green politician Kurt Edler created the term “confrontational expression of religion” to describe the behavior of some students. This refers to religiously motivated behavior that is intended to attract attention, provoke and humiliate others. For example, students ask Muslim girls to wear religious symbols, bully comrades, devalue teachers and aggressively celebrate their faith with prayers and “Haram” verdicts. In 2021, the state-funded “Association for Democracy and Diversity” came to the conclusion in a study that confrontational expressions of religion were widespread in neighborhoods like Berlin-Neukölln.
Migrants who live in the vicinity of families and mosques in which conservative or radical Islam is practiced often suffer from this. Schools in this environment, the report suggests, could provide a breeding ground for radicalization. However, research prefers to confirm “relevant victim narratives” rather than addressing the objective threat posed by Islamists. The turn to radical ideas is often explained as “discrimination” or as the majority society’s alleged hostility to Islam and Muslims. Anyone who deals critically with the issue of confrontational expression of religion, on the other hand, quickly comes under suspicion of discriminating against Muslims and of right-wing populist propaganda. This creates a blind spot in prevention work.
The phenomenon of religiously motivated dominance behavior is suppressed and anti-Semitism is downplayed. By often speaking of “anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim racism” in the same breath, politicians, activists and educators obscure a fundamental cause of contemporary Jew-hatred. Disintegration and extremist tendencies are thus promoted rather than combated. Educators recommend that school administrators take immediate action in the event of religiously motivated bullying.
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