Two Danish political parties want to ban prayer in Danish schools. In Norway, schools should also stop this practice, according to central Progressive Party (FrP) representatives.
– Publicly funded educational institutions should not be tasked with creating Shrines or engage in other religious activities, says the Progressive Party’s spokesman Mazyar Keshvari. .
– it is not necessary nor desirable that educational institutions should spend time, money and resources on religious facilities according to Parliamentary representative and newly elected leader for the Oslo branch of the Progressive Party, Mazyar Keshvari.
Recently the debate over prayer in public schools flared up in Denmark, in the aftermath of the newspaper Jyllands-Posten’s revealed that material from the controversial Muslim organization Hizb ut-Tahrir is found in a prayer room in a professions college in Copenhagen. Non-Muslim students have additionally been forced out of the prayer room at the same school.
Social control
The Danish People’s Party has advocated banning such rooms from Danish schools. This week the Labour Party adhered to this policy, writes Jyllands-Posten.
– The Danger with prayer rooms is that they may lead to social control, where some Muslim students, for example, will force others to practice Islam at school, says Social Democrat Mattias Tesfaye to Jyllands-Posten.
No separate rooms
Keshvari emphasizes that FrP are strong supporters of religious freedom and that there is no lack of organizations, rooms and congregations where everyone, including students, can ¬freely perform religious rites, ceremonies and general religion-related activities.
Source: Vårt land / Norway Today
