Oslo: Council rejects Muslim school proposal

Oslo: Council rejects Muslim school proposal

A majority in Oslo municipal council, consisting of the Labor Party (Ap), Socialist Left Party (SV), Red and Progress Party (Frp), rejected on Wednesday evening a proposal to establish a Muslim school in the capital, overturning the Municipal Executive Board.

The council considered the recommendation for the education ministry relating to the application by the School of Peace association to start a Muslim school in Oslo.

City councilor for schools and education Torger Ødegaard (Conservative Party) had given a positive answer in advance on behalf of the municipality on this issue.  But a majority in the Culture and Education Committee consisting of Sp, SV, Red and Frp reconsidered the executive board's decision in the city council, reports Nettavisen.

The Oslo municipality is therefore not yet recommending the Education Ministry to approve the school.  The ministry will make the final decision in this issue.

The applicant wants to establish a Muslim school so as to offer an alternative to parents who today send children to madrassas in Muslim countries and to prevent them from risking being "educated in a radical or extreme interpretation of the Koran and losing the feeling of belonging to Norwegian society' abroad.

The Knowledge Promotion curriculum for elementary schools will be follow, but the KRL class (Christianity, religion and lifestance) will be replaced with MRL (human rights, religion and life stance) with special emphasis on Islam.  The other change in the context of the curriculum is that the school will offer ARabic as a foreign language.  [ed: The Norwegian ministry of education replaced KRL with a 'religion, lifestance and ethics' class last year]

The goal is to have 200 students in ten class levels.

Tareq Moazzem of the School of Peace association did not want to comment on the municipal rejection Wednesday evening and says that a press release will be published if the school is approved by the education ministry.

Source: Dagbladet (Norwegian)

See also: Oslo: Proposal for Muslim elementary school

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