Schools adapt to Ramadan – this is nothing new
How many public educational institutions give special consideration to Muslim students? The question is raised in Denmark after it became known at a secondary school adapted to the annual school party for Ramadan.
A few days ago, the newspaper Berlingske revealed that the annual and traditional party at Nørre Gymnasium in Copenhagen was adapted to Ramadan. This led to non-Muslims, both parents and students, having to wait for hours for the food, as it could not be served until the sun had set. The case is discussed by us here.
Well have Berlingske followed up, where they have, among other things, asked the Ministry of Children and Education about how many public educational institutions take special religious considerations into account for Muslim students. But the department cannot answer that, because it obviously has no overview of that.
Pragmatic solution
The newspaper also finds Viby Gymnasium in Aarhus adapted for this year’s school party to the Ramadan rules. The school’s principal, Lone Sandholt Jacobsen, tells the newspaper:
– That Muslim students approached me before the party because they were worried that some of their friends wouldn’t come because of Ramadan. Therefore, we chose to wait to eat until 20:30 (at sunset, ed.), as the Muslims broke their fast at this time that day. Then as many people as possible could participate. It was a pragmatic solution to a concrete problem.
When the journalist wants to know if you are not giving in to religious bias and social control among the Muslim students by meeting their demands, the answer from the principal is that for her it is not a question of principle, but a pragmatic solution. – If, on the other hand, the sun hadn’t set before 9:30 p.m., then it wouldn’t have been possible, she adds.
Yes, maybe that, maybe. It was the one with the little finger and the whole hand.
Parallel society supervision
In 2018, the Social Democrats and the bourgeois parties decided that there should be special supervision of schools that excelled with many students with an immigrant background (also referred to as skewed student distribution) and major problems with social control, violence and conflicts. This was introduced at the same time as the government made a plan for a new student intermediate distribution, all to avoid developing a culture and behavior that falls into the category of parallel society. The schools thus had to ensure that one did not follow the parallel societies’ own rules, norms and values.
Viby Gymnasium is one of the higher education schools that has had parallel community supervision. The school was chosen for such an inspection because there were problems with the teaching environment, the school itself estimated that around 10 percent of the students had behavioral problems that “deviate from Danish norms and values” and the school experienced the problem with social control.
Islamization
Principal Sandholdt Jacobsen tells Berlingske that she has had several meetings with the department in connection with the inspection, but has she told about the adaptation to Ramadan at this year’s school party?
The answer probably just shows the tip of the iceberg of the challenges we face above with Islam:
– No, I don’t have that. And I believe that it is not relevant either, because it was not included in the inspection. By adopting the chosen solution, I actually believe that we avoid a division into “them us” and a division into “them us” and thus counteract parallel societal trends, says the principal and points out that she also knows of other schools that adapt to Ramadan.
Therefore, according to her, this is a non-issue, and in any case no news item.
This shows that Islamization is going on too fully, not least from misunderstood goodness. Because when the so-called «pragmatic solutions» are resolved from the principles, we have understood little or nothing.
Berlingske would also like to know how Minister for Children and Education Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil (S) and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) stand on such special religious considerations, but neither of them will be available for an interview.