Fight Over Headscarves Heats Up

The fight over headscarves in German public schools has escalated once again. Over the weekend, German President Johannes Rau called for equal handling of all religions and compared Muslim headscarves with Christian crosses. Edmund Stoiber, the leader of the opposition CSU, the Christian Democrat’s Bavarian sister party, responded that headscarves must be seen as political symbols that do not fit in with an open democracy. The head of the Evangelical church in Germany, meanwhile, warned against a ban on headscarves, saying that the country respects Christian beliefs and must also respect those of other religions.