BERLIN - GermanyÂ’s most populous state, North-Rhine Westphalia, on Wednesday issued a ban on teachers in public schools wearing the Muslim headscarf. It is the eighth of the countryÂ’s 16 regional states to adopt the controversial measure. A law banning the Islamic headscarf was adopted by the regional parliament of the western state where the conservative Christian Democrats hold a majority. The Greens and the Social Democrats voted against it.
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The Central Council of Muslims in Germany said the new law was unconstitutional because it does not treat all religions as equal, banning only the headscarf and not the Christian cross or any other religious symbols.
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Germany, the home to the worldÂ’s biggest Turkish community outside Turkey, saw a heated debate about whether headscarves should be banned in schools in 2003 when such a law was proposed in France. The German constitutional court ruled at the time that it was up to each state to write its own laws on the matter. |