Jamesstephen

Schoolchildren Are Converting to Islam 'Out of Fear' in German Schools Something is happening in German classrooms that the authorities have been slow to name. Christian children are converting to Islam, not out of conviction, but out of fear. More and more parents are turning to counselling centres, a state security officer told the German tabloid Bild, because their children want to convert simply to avoid being outsiders at school. The pressure is not subtle. In cities like Berlin and Frankfurt, Muslim pupils now make up more than 80 per cent of the student body in some schools, the product of eight years of mass immigration from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Many of these children come from strictly observant families, and they bring their expectations with them. Girls who dress in a westernised way or mix with boys are warned by male classmates to correct their behaviour. The security officer was direct: male Muslim students can appear threatening and sometimes violent in enforcing these norms. Parallel societies, he said, are emerging within the schools themselves. A study by the Criminal Research Institute of Lower Saxony puts numbers to the ideology behind the pressure. Of the Muslim students surveyed, 67.8 per cent believe the Koran takes precedence over German law. Nearly half support Islamic theocracy as the best form of government. More than a third say they can understand violence against those who insult the Prophet. One in five believes the perceived threat to Islam from the West justifies Muslims defending themselves violently. These are not the views of a fringe. They are the views of students sitting in German classrooms today. And the response of the non-Muslim children around them is entirely rational, which is what makes it so troubling. You conform, or you become a target. Some are choosing a third option: they convert. Germany is not sleepwalking into this. It walked in with its eyes open and called it tolerance. "In cities like Berlin and Frankfurt, Muslim pupils now make up more than 80 per cent of the student body in some schools, the product of eight years of mass immigration from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan."