The German justice system rules in favour of a school that bans Muslim pupils from praying
The court considers that visible prayers can harm school life. Other secondary schools allow them to avoid complaints.
Illustrative image / AI
The Berlin Administrative Court has upheld this Thursday, 15 October, the ban on visible Islamic prayers at the Diesterweg-Gymnasium, a public secondary school in the Mitte district of the German capital. The court has dismissed the lawsuit brought by a rights advocacy association which argued that the ban discriminated against Muslim pupils. Reports the German public broadcaster RBB24, which the court says thatThe measure is justified to protect school harmony..
The court It has ruled out that the school is obliged to provide a specific space for Islamic prayers.. Management has argued that it neither has the facilities nor the necessary staff to supervise it.
Fifteen years of trials
The conflict began in November 2007 when oneA Muslim pupil began to practise Islamic prayers during the breaks between classes., accompanied by other students. The youths knelt on their jackets in a corridor of the secondary school, performed the ritual movements and recited prayers in front of other pupils. The centre's management banned praying inside the centre., but the student took the case to court.
In 2009, the Berlin Administrative Court He initially sided with the Muslim pupil and considered that he had the right to pray during school breaks.. However, the Berlin government appealed the ruling and, in 2010, a higher court overturned it and ruled in favour of the school. The pupil continued the legal battle to the German Federal Administrative Court, which in 2011 confirmed that the school could ban prayers in order to protect school coexistence. Fifteen years later, the same school has won in the courts again, this time in a lawsuit brought by a civil rights organisation that argued the ban violated Berlin's anti-discrimination legislation.
Religious pressure and insults towards female students who did not wear the Islamic veil
The ban on Islamic prayers is part of a An atmosphere of religious tensions within the secondary school.. According to the centre's management, as explained during the court proceedings, Some Muslim students were pressuring other pupils to adopt certain religious codes of conduct.. There had also been attempts to convert students to Islam and insults directed at those who did not follow these practices, especially girls who did not wear the Islamic veil.
The director and the deputy director warned that the pressure to adapt to the demands of more religious pupils was particularly intense on less practising students and girls. The court took these precedents into account and found that serious religious conflicts existed, which justified the ban in order to protect communal life at the school. The Diesterweg Gymnasium has more than 600 pupils from 47 different countries, the majority of whom are Muslims. The director, Volker Lehmann, has defended that The school has a responsibility to educate in the values of equality..
More than twenty schools in Berlin with Islamised regulations
The lawsuit against the Diesterweg-Gymnasium is part of a campaign launched by the German association Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF), dedicated to defending fundamental rights. In 2023, the organisation reviewed the regulations of several educational institutions in Berlin and identified provisions that it considered discriminatory, such as bans on religious prayers, restrictions on dress and rules that required pupils to speak German in the playground.. According to the same association, filed complaints against more than twenty school regulations and succeeded in getting the majority of schools to amend their rules.
The Diesterweg Gymnasium, however, refused to lift the ban on prayers. In response to this refusal, in October 2025 the GFF filed a lawsuit. The organisation argued that the ban particularly disadvantaged Muslim students., who have a religious obligation to pray five times a day. He also denounced that some students were forced to seek out hidden places, such as toilets or areas behind bins, in order to perform their prayers.
The judgment of 15 October gives the school the right and allows the ban to remain in place. The Berlin education authority has welcomed the decision because it recognises the right of schools to intervene when religious practices harm school life. The ruling is not yet final and the association may attempt to appeal it to the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court.
More about Germany
A German state detects 358 Muslim child marriages and does not intend to do anything
Imam in Germany: "Every Muslim knows another who votes for the AfD"«
Germany prevents civil servant from being a civil servant due to ties with the Muslim Brotherhood
Forty-one per cent of Muslim students in Berlin want the precepts of the Qur'an taught in class.
A Muslim decapitates a statue of Saint Joseph in a church in France
A German state detects 358 Muslim child marriages and does not intend to do anything
United Airlines removes a Muslim pilot from service for justifying terrorism
ERC, PSC and Comuns oppose combating political Islam in the European Parliament.
Azerbaijan expels female students who wear the hijab.
Sharia law in the US is supported by 75% of Muslims, 41% of atheists and up to 20% of Christians.
France now has a halal cola drink without the need to sacrifice animals facing Mecca
The United Kingdom gives away a thousand hijabs in six months to immigrants arriving via the Channel
US Muslim politicians train Canadian Muslims under the slogan "From the mosque to the city hall"«
Teacher fired in Austria for denying a Muslim woman a prayer room
Canadian government normalizes Islamic prayer during workday
Lleida bans the burqa except if worn for religious reasons
Italy bans burqa and niqab but only in schools
Phrase of the Week
Image of the Week
-Don't you have cousins?