Islamic private school

IS IT ALLOWED TO ESTABLISH AN ISLAMIC PRIVATE SCHOOL?

Summarized: In principle, it is permitted to establish a private Islamic school with state approval. In practice, however, such schools are rare to be found.

The establishment of an Islamic private school is possible and protected by Article 7 (4) of the German Basic Law.¹ Everyone is not only granted the right to establish and operate a private school, but also to have their child enrolled there (state approval considering).²  

A private school is characterized by autonomously designed teaching as far as the educational goals, the ideological basis, the teaching method and teaching content are concerned.³ After all, there must be no state monopoly on schools in a free democratic constitutional state. The state must guarantee ’school pluralism‘, i.e. be open to new forms of education and educational content and should not be able to prevent them because they are different.⁴ 

In practice, however, there are hardly any private Islamic schools. The Islamische Grundschule Berlin (Islamic Primary School Berlin), founded by the sponsoring association Islam Kolleg Berlin e.V., is well known; it was not approved as a confessional school, but as a Weltanschauungsschule (worldview school).⁵ Another private school in Munich had to stop operating a few years ago after the sponsor of this school, the IGD (Islamic Community in Germany), was identified as the German headquarters of the Egyptian branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which is classified as extremist. The school authorities withdrew their permission to operate the school.⁶ 

^{1 Uhle in: Grundgesetz (BeckOK), 38. Ed. 15.08.2018, Grundgesetz, Art. 7 margin 72.} 

^{2 Thiel in: Grundgesetz-Kommentar (Sachs), 8th Ed. 2018, Art. 7 margin 61.} 

^{3 Uhle in: Grundgesetz (BeckOK), 38th Ed. 15.08.2018, Grundgesetz, Art. 7 margin 72.} 

^{4 Federal Constitutional Court, case from 14.11.1969, 1 BvL 34/64, margin 24.} 

^{5 Doerfer-Kir in: Verfassungsrechtliche Rahmenbedingungen islamischer Erziehung in Privatschulen und Koranschulen in Deutschland, page 52.}

^{6 See above, page 254.}