German schools to offer Islam classes

BERLIN, March 13 (Xinhua) -- German government officials and Muslim groups agreed Thursday to offer Islam as a regular religion class at German schools in an effort to improve the integration of the growing Muslim population in German society.

"In not too distant future we'll offer Islamic religious lessons in German schools at locations where there are the desire and the need to so," said German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble after an integration conference in Berlin between representatives of Muslim groups and government officials.

Under the preliminary plan, Germany's federal states would supervise the Islamic religious classes available to Muslims attending German schools. The classes would be taught in German by state-approved teachers.

Schaeuble also said that it would take some time before Muslim community leaders worked out a legally binding agreement with individual federal states which are responsible for education.

Integration of Muslim residents has become an increasingly important problem for Germany where the Muslim population has increased to about three million, dominated by approximately 2.2 million Turks.

According to an Emnid survey issued earlier this week, 58 percent of Turks felt unwanted in Germany and 44 percent were opposed to marriage with Germans.