The Guardian’s interest in Muslim fashion continues in an article published yesterday.

I was recently contacted by a girl who was preparing a portfolio about British Muslim fashion. This was part of a project whereby girls from different Islamic schools in London took part in fashion workshops, and then had to create a portfolio in order to enter a competition and win a place at a 3-day course at the London School of Fashion! You can read more about it below. If you were one of the girls on the course, tell us more about it!

Muslim schoolgirls show that faith and fashion are not incompatible

Sarfraz Manzoor
Wednesday 21 July 2010

In a first floor classroom in the Hackney campus of the London School of Fashion a small group of young schoolgirls are wrapping clothes on to tailor’s dummies.

They are using conventional clothes in unconventional ways – turning ties into belts and baggy T-shirts into neckwear. The idea is to challenge traditional notions of normality in fashion.

The approach is a common one for aspiring designers but it feels especially appropriate for the 20 assembled schoolgirls, all of whom are British and Muslim and all of whom are in traditional Islamic dress.

Read the rest here.

Denmark: Immigrants moving their children to Danish-majority schools

Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten reports that immigrant families are moving their children away from schools which have many bilingual children and to places where Danes are in the majority.

According to the Kolding municipality, 39% of the city’s immigrant children will start the school year in a school outside their own district. This is three times as many as by Danish children and an increase from last year’s 34%.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

Ib Hansen, the city’s children and education director says he’s happy that the bilinguals are spreading themselves out voluntarily.

In contrast, in Aarhus, bilingual students who do poorly on the language test, are bused from, for example, Gellerup park to the city’s Dane-dominated wealthy areas.

In Esbjerg, Odense, Copenhagen and Aalborg immigrant parents move their children away from school witha high ratio of bilinguals.

Klaus Majgaard of the Odense municipality says that they’re probably not that different all other parents who also want their children to go to a good, mixed school.

School registration to the Tornhøj school in Aalborg, which has many bilingual students, shows that just half of the district’s potential kindergarten students chose the local school.

Several people point out that it’s the children from the resource-rich immigrant families who are spreading themselves voluntarily. This means some schools might be further marginalizes, because they’ve already lost the Danish students and now they’ll lose the children from the most well-functioning immigrant families.

Ikram Sarwar (S), deputy chairman of the integration committee in Copenhagen says that now all the parents have the resources to freely choose their school and what is best for the child’s education, and that the schools risk losing the resource-strong children.

Source: JP (Danish)

UK: Local council issues Ramadan guide for schools

via BBC:

Swimming lessons in some Staffordshire schools should stop during Ramadan to ensure Muslim pupils “do not swallow water”, a council has suggested.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has issued an 11-page Ramadan guide for schools to help pupils who may be fasting when the school year starts in September.

It said swimming was acceptable to Muslims but posed a high risk of swallowing water that may break a fast.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

Islam requires Muslims to fast from dawn until dusk for one month per year.

This year’s Ramadan is expected to begin on or around 11 August and finish 30 days afterwards.

The council guide states: “Schools with a significant number of Muslim pupils should try to avoid scheduling swimming lessons during Ramadan to remove unnecessary barriers to full participation.”

It also suggests re-scheduling sex education classes during the holy lunar month, as Muslim followers who have reached puberty are required to avoid sexual thoughts during this period.

(…)

The council said the document, produced by its Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education, was based on information from the Muslim Council of Great Britain, an umbrella organisation that claims to represent up to 500 Muslim groups in the UK.

“The overriding consideration should be that children do not feel disadvantaged in school activities because of their religious observance,” the council added.

(more)

Germany: Extensive report on immigrants

People sometimes focus on Muslim demographics in Europe. However, as this report shows, Muslims make up just a quarter (25%) of immigrants in Germany. Why the focus then? One reason is that Muslims are a very large group (either a majority or plurality) among the non-Western immigrants.

Still, Muslims make up such a small minority, why do people feel so threatened? There are several reasons, but the fact that is usually ignored in this debate is that while Muslims might make up 4-6% of the Muslim population in Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany, immigrants make up 20% of the population in those countries, and a majority or near majority in the larger cities, and this certainly affects the way the ‘locals’ see their culture and identity.

—————

How do migrants live in Germany? What jobs do they do? What sort of educational qualifications do they have? Are they active in sports clubs? And how long does it take them to find jobs? The report seeks to answer these questions by documenting the actual living conditions of Germany’s immigrant population on over 600 pages — from the cradle to pensioner’s housing.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

The paper reveals breakdowns in parenting and at schools, as well as in integration policies. For instance, migrants are not any more inclined to criminality than Germans if they have a residence permit. But the government has yet to come up with long term-rules on rights of residence. Above all it is in the field of education that the position of immigrants remains, now as it was before, appalling. The number of school dropouts has risen among immigrants, and they are almost twice as likely to be unemployed.

But other results are more encouraging, like the fact that immigrants are less likely to commit crime than previously and that they are increasingly becoming self-employed and starting their businesses.

“Germany must become a country of climbers — in all areas of society,” Böhmer said at the presentation of the report. But, she added: “We should not be satisfied yet,” concluding that there cannot be talk of equal opportunities for migrants having been achieved in Germany yet.

SPIEGEL ONLINE has outlined some of the report’s most-important results.

* Population: In 2008, Germany had 82 million inhabitants of which 15.6 million were from migrant families. That is 19 percent of the total population. Additionally, 7.3 million of these were foreigners. More than a third of all children under five years of age had a migrant background. In larger cities this was much higher. In Frankfurt, more than 65 percent of children under six come from an immigrant family. The most popular religion among immigrants is Islam, with around 4 million Muslims. Of these, 45 percent have a German passport.

* Nurseries and Kindergartens: More immigrants are sending their children to a nursury schools. Nonetheless, the average number of children with migrant backgrounds using these services nationwide is still 9 percent less than children with an ethnic German background using them. In 2008 in what were formerly the states of West Germany (excluding Berlin), 84 percent of immigrant children between the ages of three and six went to kindergarten. In 2007, it was only 73.5 percent. As for children under three with a migrant background, only around 9 percent went to a nursery school in 2008. For children whose parents were born in Germany, that figure was twice as high.

* Schools: The good news is that immigrant students are slowly catching up when it comes to school graduation. More children from migrant families are achieving higher school leaving qualifications, of an intermediate or advanced level. But 43 percent of migrants were leaving school with lower qualifications, such as a general certificate of secondary education, compared to 31 percent of those with German backgrounds. More devastating is the fact that in 2008, 13.3 percent of immigrants aged between the ages of 15 and 19 dropped out of school without graduating — a dropout rate twice as high as that of students with a caucasian German ethnic background. And the number of migrants dropping out of school has risen: In 2007, it was only 10 percent.

(more)

Source: Spiegel (English)

EU: Ethnic diversity at school has a negative effect on learning

Fifteen-year-old pupils from schools with high ethnic diversity perform worse than comparable pupils from schools with homogenous student populations. This applies not just to the immigrant children, but also to the pupils from the country in question. For the latter group, the negative effect is strongest in school systems with a hierarchy of school types, such as the Dutch and German systems. What’s more, the number and origin of the immigrant pupils also plays an important role. Having a higher proportion of pupils from Islamic countries at a given school negatively influences the performance of all pupils at that school. But in contrast, a higher share of pupils from South and East Asia has a positive effect. This is just one of Jaap Dronkers’s conclusions from his empirical research using international PISA data, which he discusses in his inaugural lecture.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

The educational performance of immigrant pupils gets a boost from having a higher proportion of such pupils at a particular school – but only when the fellow immigrant pupils come from the same region. This applies particularly to immigrant children from Islamic countries and from South and East Asia. This positive effect of ethnic homogeneity in schools might explain the attraction of Islamic schools, for example, or white or Jewish schools. Dronkers discusses such issues on Thursday 17 June in his inaugural lecture, ‘The positive but also negative effects of ethnic diversity in schools on educational performance’. With this lecture, he accepts the professorship in ‘International comparative research on educational performance and social inequality’ at Maastricht University’s Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).

“I’m a sociologist who studies education”, says Dronkers. “The core of my work revolves around the study of education and inequality. In the first instance, I’m an empiricist. I don’t find things – I calculate them. My role is to quantify people’s assumptions and suppositions about how things are. So when someone says that migrant children lag behind in education as a result of the bad environment that they come from, then I say: I’d like to calculate that. And then the outcome shows that pupils from Islamic countries perform worse than other comparable immigrant pupils. This can’t be attributed to their socioeconomic background, or the school characteristics or education system. In other words, the constant harping about the socioeconomic deficit or the characteristics of schools or education systems has no empirical basis.”

(more)

Source: Maastricht University (English), h/t NRP

France: Muslim girls flee to private school

When 17-year-old Shainez Dib announced she wanted to start wearing a hijab as a deeper expression of her religious faith, her mother advised against it, telling her daughter she was not yet mature enough. Just because she could, since she was now attending a Muslim private school, didn’t mean she should.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

“To wear a veil means you can no longer do foolish things,” said Dib, who ultimately followed her mother’s advice. “You have to adapt your behavior.”

Instead, Dib continued wearing a headscarf, since she no longer had to remove it at her school’s entrance like her friends still attending public school, where covering one’s head as a religious symbol is against the law. A nationwide ban in 2004 outlawed all such symbols in the public sphere.

“If I am to amuse myself wearing it on weekends and not during the week, it becomes a game and that’s not good,” said Dib, who is looking forward to turning 18 in November so she can don a full veil — provided she is ready.

Dib spent more than a year on a waiting list before she could transfer for her second year of high school to Reussite, one of the first Muslim private schools in France.

Several associations and activities are grouped under the umbrella of Reussite, which translates into “success.” The school first opened in 2001 in the drab and densely populated suburb of Aubervilliers, just northeast of Paris. The district is usually associated more with the rioting that erupted there in 2005 than with achievement.

Back then, the school had a handful of middle school students, but today 138 pupils in junior and senior high school (the equivalent to American grades 6-12) study there. Many girls come specifically because of problems they’ve had in public schools related to the veil ban, said Belkhier Okachi, the school’s treasurer.

The school has become a victim of its own success and regularly turns away students in order to keep class sizes small — the average is 24 — so students can benefit from individual attention from teachers.

“This is supposed to be the worst district, the district that can’t do anything, the darkest district that has ever existed,” said Patrice Waridel, the school’s director since 2003. “That’s false. There are extraordinary young people here.”

Recognized by the state, the school follows the same national curriculum as its public school counterparts, Waridel said, with some notable differences. Students are required to take Arabic language classes as well as one hour of religion per week. Although the midday prayer is not a requirement, most students participate in the 15-minute exercise.

The school’s enrollment is almost equally split between girls and boys, although it enrolls slightly more girls because they have a harder time in public schools, Waridel said. In addition to allowing girls to wear veils, the school makes other accommodations for their religion, for example allowing girls who are menstruating (a period during which they are considered impure) to go discreetly to a private room during the midday prayer. Male and female students attend the same classes but sit separately. They eat in separate lunchrooms but are grouped together for some recreational activities.

(more)

Source: Global Post (English)

Stockholm: Why we rioted

The riots and fires in Rinkeby had just one purpose: to entice the police to the area.

“We want revenge. We are at war with the police,” says Badr, 25, one of the 50 youth who participated in the riots Tuesday night.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

When the sun rose early Wednesday, some parts of Rinkeby looked like a battlefield. Rinkeby Academy had been completely destroyed in a fire, burned down wrecked cars stood on the streets and the police station had been attacked.

The unrest in Rinkeby started already Monday evening, when the graduating classes at Rinkeby school had a school ball. A gang of youth gathered outside the school.

“A dog barked and a policeman became nervous and shot in the air, though there were small children nearby,” says Badr.

Diana Sundin, spokesperson for the western suburbs police, says that the police man acted properly.

“He was surrounded by maybe 40 people and shot a warning shot. It’s normal procedure”.

On Tuesday rumors started going around about revenge. Many young people saw what was happening and preferred staying home. At 11:35pm, the alarm went off regarding a fire at Rinkeby Academy. The fire brigade drove into Rinkeby, but didn’t dare start putting out the fire for two hours due to stone throwing.

“The fire brigade and ambulance personnel have nothing to fear in Rinkeby. It’s the police we’re at war with. We are soldiers, and the police are our enemy,” says Badr.

Rinkeby residents walked about in shock and despair regarding the night’s events.

“I don’t understand why they did this to our school. Their own siblings might go here in a few years,” says Abir Fairoud, who graduated among journalists, police and the fire brigade.

At lunchtime, Education Minister Jan Björklund and Integration Minister Nyamko Sabuni came to Rinkeby school.

“We are here to show the residents of Rinkeby our support. Rinkeby Academy will be rebuilt. We’ll never give up,” says Nyamko Sabuni.

The County Police Commissioner, Carin Götblad, said in a press release that they will intervene powerfully to prevent riots.

Uniformed police will patrol Rinkeby daily until Monday.

Source: Metro (PDF, Swedish)

See more here: Stockholm: “It is raining stones”

Helsinki: More than 40 immigrant languages taught in school

“Salaam!” the pupils shout.

“Hale shoma chetor hast?” asks teacher Zahra Houshangi. It means, “How are you?”

It is the time for a lesson in Persian at the Central Espoo School. The pupils take out their books and start to work on their grammar exercises.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

The five pupils of different ages each work according to their skill levels.

Sisters Mursal, 15, Sarah, 12, and Muhadisa Alimy, 10, moved to Finland from Afghanistan ten years ago. They have studied Persian from the first grade. They learned to read and write the language in Finland, thanks to language lessons at their school.

“It is important to speak your own language with your family”, Mursal says.

“Right. When you know Persian, you can understand what they’re saying on TV”, shouts little sister Muhadisa.

Education in the home languages of immigrant pupils is available in about 40 different languages in the Helsinki region. Two hours a week are dedicated to the purpose.

The tight economic situation has reduced the variety of languages on offer, says Sari Korkalainen, a teaching consultant for the City of Helsinki.

“We have had to reduce the number of teaching groups, and new ones cannot be offered”, Korkalainen says.

Often the home language classes are not offered at the school where the pupils have most of their classes, and they have to travel, sometimes to a neighbouring municipality, to avail themselves of them. The home language lessons are held in the afternoons after other lessons.

(more)

Source: HS (English)

Oslo: Little girls in hijab

Starting from age 5 or 6, more and more little Norwegian girls are being sent to school with a hijab.

The Muslim headgear which covers the hair, is becoming a more common sight in elementary schools in Oslo, also in the 5-10 age group.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

Traditionally the tight, religious garment is worn in several countries to cover a women’s head and hair from the teenage years.

But now it’s steadily little girls aged five or six who come to school in Norway with a hijab – in fact earlier than what’s common in the parent’s homeland.

This is documented in a survey VG conducted in elementary schools in Oslo. The principals of 45 of the schools in Oslo said that hijab is worn in primary school. In total, 58 of the elementary school in the capital answered VG’s survey.

“We have student who wear the hijab in all seven grades, though it’s a bit more common among the older girls than the youngest,” the principal at Tøyen school, Tor Helgesen, told VG.

“As a Norwegian father I don’t think it’s good. Hijab is a mark of different treatment of the sexes and puts women in an inferior position. The garment seems to me to hamper natural interaction and play between the little children,” says lawyer Øivind Østberg.

In a letter to the children’s Ombudsman he asked the ombudsman to get involved, because parents put the hijab on girls as young as five in his daughter’s former kindergarten in Oslo.

The wearing of the Muslim headgear was a heavily debated issue this spring, after Education Minister Kristin Halvorsen questioned in February whether schoolgirls really cover themselves with the religious garment voluntarily.

The VG survey confirms for the first time that the wearing of the hijab is widespread down to the lowest grades. The survey shows also that the wearing of the hijab increased in the past five years.

27 of the principals specified from which grade the students wear the hijab, and of those 18 answered that it includes the three lowest grades. Ten answersed that students wear the hijab to school already from first grade, when they are six.

“The youngest to wear the hijab by us goes to first grade. In the youngest classes there are more girls who wear the hijab now then several years ago, says Gry Sjødin Neander, principal of the Rødtvedt school.

“Several nationalities wear the hijab more than others, mainly Somalis, Iraqis and Moroccans.”

“Do you have the impression that it’s the decision of the girls themselves or their parents that they’ll go with a hijab to school?”

“We assume it’s the parents who make this decision. It’s difficult for a six year old to make such a differentiation themselves,” says Sjødin Neander.

VG asked several principals if we can speak with the youngest students, their parents and teachers about wearing the hijab, but this was denied. The debate about waering the hijab is not very popular among the school administratrs.

“I don’t understand why there’s such a debate about this headgear. As a school we respond to it being allowed and register that some students have the hijab as part of their dress-code. Beyond that it’s not an issue for us,” says Tor Helgesen of the Tøyen school.

“The most important thing is that they learn to read and write, not what they have on their head. As a garment, hijab doesn’t limit integration,” says Leif Arne Eggen of the Mortensrud school.

At just two of the 45 school where little girls wear hijab, did the principals say that it’s been a subject of internal discussion at the school.

Source: VG (Norwegian)

See also:

* Norway: Debate on headscarf in school continues

* Norway: Education minister against hijab in elementary school

Belgium: Parents against halal food for their children

Several parents of children in the Kleine Kunstenaar kindergarten in Houthalen (Belgium) started a petition since their children are being forced to eat halal on a school trip.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

“Muslims can only consume halal meat due to their faith, but that doesn’t mean our children have to eat it,” they say. The parents are asking for an alternative burger for their children, but the school says that’s ‘practically impossible’.

“Leaving our children home is also not an option, because we won’t be refunded the cost of the outing.” Several dozen parents have meanwhile signed the petition.

Source: GvA (Dutch)