26 February 2015

Germany seeks to undermine Islamic extremists with religious education

.... “We need an enlightened Islam,” Khorchide says, “so young people will understand how the religion works in a pluralistic society. It’s important to deal with this in schools, because youth will be confronted with the question, ‘Am I a Muslim? Or am I European?’"

Khorchide says the answer to that question should be yes, on both counts. “People can be European and a pious Muslim at the same time,” he says.

His training program now has 650 teachers-in-training. There are nearly a million Muslim students in German schools. And Khorchide says it will take 15 to 20 years to fully implement a comprehensive Islamic education program. [PRI's The World] Read more