More than half of respondents said the rules laid down in the Quran take precedence, in their eyes
© Leber/ullstein bild via Getty Images
The majority of Muslim schoolchildren in the German state of Lower Saxony view religious rules as more important than the law, a new study has found. More than a third of respondents also indicated that they condoned acts of violence against those who insult Islam.
Germany has been the destination of choice for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Türkiye for decades. In 2015, then-chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders to several million refugees and migrants, predominantly from Muslim nations such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the influx has since diminished, people continue to arrive in Germany by the thousands.
According to estimates provided by the country’s interior ministry, there are over five million Muslims currently residing in the country, which translates to nearly 7% of the entire population.
In its report on Sunday, Bild, citing a study by the Lower Saxony Criminology Research Institute, reported that 67.8% of schoolchildren polled said that the “rules of the Quran are more important to me than the laws in Germany”; 45.8% said that Islamic theocratic rule is the best form of state government, with over half contending that it is only their religion that has answers to the “problems of our times.”
According to the study’s findings, 35.3% suggested that insults directed at Islam and its prophet are reason enough for a violent attack. More than a fifth of respondents argued that the “threat to Islam posed by the Western world” justifies a violent response on the part of Muslims.
The researchers surveyed a total of 8,539 people in Lower Saxony, including 300 Muslims. Bild pointed out that the findings thus cannot be extrapolated to the whole of Germany.
Nevertheless, Christoph de Vries from Hamburg, who represents the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the German parliament, told the media outlet that the “study shows how deep the traces are that the political Islam has already left behind in Germany.” The lawmaker attributed the troubling trend to “systematic indoctrination,” adding that “multiculti has long since failed.”
The secretary of education from the neighboring Schleswig-Holstein region, Karin Prien, also from the CDU party, warned that unless “democratic values” are better instilled into students, “social cohesion risks going into a skid.”
