Belgium: Islamic religion classes coming to a Catholic school near you?
Catholic schools in Belgium would like to offer Islamic religion classes "to support interreligious dialogue". At a congress on the next 10 years in Catholic education, held in Louvain-la-Neuve, southeast of Brussels, on October 20, 2012, Etienne Michel, head of the general secretariat for Catholic teaching in Belgium, wondered publicly, "when the majority of students at a Catholic school are Moslem, is it fair notto offer them a chance to take a class on their own religion?”
The online edition of weekly paper Le Vif L’Express reported that Mr. Michel said he thought it “important to avoid relegating religion to the private sphere if we want real ‘inter-convictional' dialogue in schools. An attitude of rejection does not help solve the risks associated with fundamentalism.”
Currently, only one Catholic school, at Cheratte (province of Liège), has obtained an exemption to offer Islamic religion classes—for over ten years such classes have been banned from the Catholic school system, although not from public schools.
(Sources: kipa-apic.ch – Le Vif L’Express – DICI no. 265, 23/11/12)
You can also read :
Belgium: Muslim teaching develops
