The Constitutional Court said Muslim teachers in state schools could no longer face a blanket ban on the headscarf, effectively revising its 2003 decision that left the door open to it being barred

Berlin — Germany’s top court said on Friday that Muslim teachers can wear the headscarf in class as long as it doesn’t disrupt school activities, in a ruling likely to revive emotional debate.

A Muslim teacher in a German court. — AFP file 

The Constitutional Court said Muslim teachers in state schools could no longer face a blanket ban on the headscarf, effectively revising its 2003 decision that left the door open to it being barred.

Judges at the Karlsruhe-based court in southwest Germany said a ban could only be justified if the wearing of the headscarf led to a “sufficiently concrete danger” of disruption in the school, or of “state neutrality”.

The ruling is likely to relaunch a longstanding debate in a country with around four million Muslims amid recent divisive protests against the supposed “Islamisation” of Europe.

Since 2003 several of Germany’s 16 regional states, which are responsible for education, have banned teachers wearing the headscarf following the top court’s initial ruling.

The Constitutional Court had said it was up to each state to write its own laws on the issue. But in their decision published on Friday following a complaint by two Muslim women, the judges ruled that an outright ban fell foul of the basic right to religious freedom in Germany.

Source: AFP