German Court Rules Muslim Student Disturbed the Peace by Praying

**Ramadhan** · 12-26-2011

http://news.yahoo.com/german-court-r...HRlc3QD;_ylv=3

German Court Rules Muslim Student Disturbed the Peace by Praying

(MUNICH) -- Yunus M., an 18-year-old Muslim high school student at Diesterweg Gymnasium in Berlin, Germany, has failed in his fight for the right to pray in the public corridors at school. The latest decision concerns this individual case only, judges at the Federal Administrative Court emphasized. But should the plaintiff, who is near graduation, opt to pursue the matter, the only further legal recourse open to him is the Federal Constitutional Court.

The question that the case raises, however, remains: should Muslim students be able to pray openly at school?
Four years ago, Yunus M. and seven friends gathered in the school corridor to bow in the direction of Mecca. The school's director forbid them to do it again, and the case went through a local court, then a court of appeal, before being heard at the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig.

According to chief justice Werner Neumann, students have a fundamental right to pray at school. He said, however, that religious freedom has its limits if it threatens to cause social friction within the school, as was the case here. The court agreed with the position of the school, whose director stated that there had been repeated religious conflicts at the school, and that at an establishment where 90% of the students were not German it was impossible for them all to claim a right to pray there publically. In addition, the director stated, Yunus M. had been offered a space where he could pray privately.

A case-by-case issue?

The case had previously resulted in contradictory court decisions. In September 2009, the Berlin Administrative Court decided in favor of Yunus M., a ruling which the Administrative Appeals Tribunal overturned six months later.
The Berlin Administrative court called in jurist Matthias Rohe, an expert on Islam, who said that the Muslim boy's stance was a "plausible opinion in the spectrum of religious freedom" and that Yunus M. was not an extremist. The Appeals Tribunal called in a colleague of Rohe's, Tilman Nagel, who stated that even the prophet Mohammed had put off praying to make community life simpler.

Yunus M.'s case underscores a basic tension: Do state institutions have to accept strict, conservative, even fundamentalist practices when other interpretations are possible?

The Leipzig court avoided this debate by stressing the individual nature of its decision. For this the court earned praise from some Christian churches. Spokespersons for the Berlin-Brandenburg Evangelical Church and the Archdiocese of Berlin said the court's decision aligned with the freedom of religion guaranteed by the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Yunus M.'s lawyer said they were waiting for the written decision before deciding whether or not to go to the Supreme Court, a move he described, nevertheless, as unlikely.

**CosmicPathos** · 12-26-2011

so ban all those homosexual people and other idiosyncratic idiots from Muslim countries because they create social friction! Ladies and Gentlemen, this is godless morality, dwindling right and left, that atheists want us to believe in.

**Ramadhan** · 12-26-2011

It is just amazing that the chief justice of the largest most democratic country in europe has this opinion:

According to chief justice Werner Neumann, students have a fundamental right to pray at school. He said, however, that religious freedom has its limits if it threatens to cause social friction within the school, as was the case here

And yet, ALL of these so called democratic countries were all criticizing Indonesia and cited Indonesia for human rights violations whenever muslims in some area in Indonesia resisted a church being built in some village whose population is 99% muslims and the presence of a church would have only created "social frictions".

What more proof of hypocrisy do people demand?
Unfortunately, so-called liberal muslims always fell for this.

**serena77** · 12-26-2011

jakazallah khair for bringing this to light. It is a shame that things like this still happen. may Allah reward and protect those students that have tried to get their situation resolved... and shame on the courts for such a ruling.
serena

**tango92** · 12-26-2011

" In addition, the director stated, Yunus M. had been offered a space where he could pray privately. "

whats wrong with this?

**Ramadhan** · 12-26-2011

Originally Posted by tango92

" In addition, the director stated, Yunus M. had been offered a space where he could pray privately. "

We are not too sure about the details of why Yunus prayed in the corridor.

There could be a lot of reasons: the offer only made after the incident, the space was not adequate and/or was far away, yunus et al did not have time to go pray in some private space etc etc.

I myself had to pray in some hallway when I was a student in Australia also because the very small space that the university provided that could be used by muslim students for shalah (a small chapel) was in another building at least 10 minutes walk from my faculty building (ie. 20 minutes return trip excluding the time for shalah itself), and I only had 15 minutes between classes.

**bintYahya** · 12-26-2011

C'mon, how does praying disturb peace? It's not like the brothers were fighting with their fists or something else...

**GuestFellow** · 12-26-2011

I would prefer to pray in a small room rather than in public. However, I see nothing wrong with people praying in public.

**جوري** · 12-26-2011

I am disturbed by homos and transsexuals wish they'd ban them to small rooms where I don't have to look at them!

**Crystal** · 12-26-2011

I don't see how it disturbs peace - although it may be strange to people it definitely wouldn't disturb peace lol. Although I can't see why the person wouldn't pray in a room or something like that although maybe he had his reasons

**Pygoscelis** · 12-26-2011

It would depend on how loud it is and if they are obstructing anybody's path I suppose. If they are quietly sitting in the corner prostrating themselves in prayer, I don't see any grounds for complaint.

**Ramadhan** · 12-26-2011

Originally Posted by Pygoscelis

It would depend on how loud it is and if they are obstructing anybody's path I suppose. If they are quietly sitting in the corner prostrating themselves in prayer, I don't see any grounds for complaint.

If they pray shalah during the day, Yunus or his friends wouldn't emit a single sound (they would recite the Qur'an very quietly that only their own ears could hear) during shalah except to say "Allahu Akbar" during transitions.
It would be foolish to think that Yunus went out of his way to pray to obstruct anyone's path.

It does seem to me those demonic germans are disturbed by people prostrating to God.
If there were a girl, dressed up half naked, kissing another girl and singing "born this way" in the hallway to "express" her belief, I'm sure those demonic germans are too happy to claim that they have freedom of belief and freedom for everyone to express their own belief.

What's so funny is that those demonic germans are trying to redefine what is meant to be a muslim:

Originally Posted by Ramadhan

Yunus M.'s case underscores a basic tension: Do state institutions have to accept strict, conservative, even fundamentalist practices when other interpretations are possible?

So performing obligatory shalah for muslims are now classified by these demons as "strict, conservative, and fundamentalist" practices?