A report that a German school rescheduled a mandatory Christmas celebration after a student complained that it was not compatible with Islam caused a stir in local media, though the school later denied that was the reason.

The controversy started with an article published by NDR, claiming that the authorities of Johanneum Luneburg School in Lower Saxony rescheduled the mandatory Christmas celebration after the complaint and made it voluntary, leaving it up to students whether or not to take part. The report was widely circulated in the German media.

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NDR also reported that school principal Friedrich Suhr said he would not force anyone to take part in the Christmas party and that the school administration referred to a paragraph in the Lower Saxony School Act, according to which religious beliefs must be taken into account in the classroom. Each school can decide for itself how strictly this recommendation is interpreted.

Suhr later confirmed the move to local media, but denied that the decision was triggered by the complaint from a Muslim student.

“There is no fundamental decision” to abolish the highly-awaited event in Luneburg,” he said, citing a reshuffle of school staff as the main reason behind the rescheduling. He also confirmed the complaint, but claimed it was made because one of the teachers “wanted to start singing Christmas carols” during one of the obligatory classes.

Last week, a school in Graested, Denmark came under fire from parents and politicians after it chose to cancel the traditional Christmas service in a bid to not exclude pupils from different religious backgrounds. The school’s principal said the decision was made because there are school children who are not Protestant. Many parents were furious. “I don’t see why our tradition has to be taken away from us, just because someone else at the school believes in something else,” Mette Brüel-Holler, a parent of two pupils, told TV2.

Some also accused the school of double standards. Last year it held a ‘Syria Week’ in which Danish children immersed themselves in Middle Eastern culture, and were given lessons by immigrants.







