In the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Neuss, four pupils are said to have posed as Sharia police.
According to a report in the Rheinische Post newspaper, which cites security sources, the young people, aged between 17 and 19, publicly spoke out in favour of Sharia law and put pressure on Muslim pupils who disagreed with them.
The pupils are said to have demanded from fellow pupils and teachers that all women at school should wear headscarves. They also made further demands: Establishment of a prayer room, early closing of school on Fridays for Muslim prayer time and a general separation of the sexes at school, especially during swimming lessons.
The Rheinische Post quotes from an internal paper from the state security service, which states that Muslim pupils reported that pressure and criticism had been exerted on other Muslim pupils because they were not “good Muslims”. They had also publicly rejected democracy and advocated stoning to death.
The school management contacted the public prosecutor’s office back in December. The public prosecutor’s office was unable to establish any criminal offences in the pupils’ behaviour. One of the four pupils was briefly suspended from lessons.
“Like all schools, we take our responsibility to society as a whole seriously; democracy education is not only our mission, it is our declared intention,” said the school management. “In view of our trusting cooperation within the school community, we are in constant dialogue, negotiate our interactions and dare to talk openly about perceived contradictions and differences. We take a close look, and by placing tolerance and diversity at the centre of our coexistence on a permanent basis, we demand the corresponding basic attitude from all of us,” according to the school management.
The case has parallels with the “Sharia police” in Wuppertal ten years ago. Back then, Salafist preacher and convert Sven Lau and other men acted as “Sharia police” on the streets of the city in the Bergisch region. They wore orange-coloured signal waistcoats with corresponding lettering.
Skandal in Neuss: Muslimische Jugendliche wollen Scharia an Schule durchsetzen | NIUS.de