Reformed Christian, Islamic schools' lessons contrary to values like equality, tolerance
Several Reformed Christian and Islamic schools are giving lessons that clash with democratic values like equality and tolerance, Nieuwsuur reported after examining mainstream, strictly Christian and Islamic education. Schools are required to teach children about democratic values and to live them in practice, but Article 23 of the Constitution also gives schools the freedom to juxtapose these values with religious messaging. At these orthodox schools, this is leading to “mixed messages” that children struggle to understand, experts told the program.
At both Christian and Islamic schools, students learn that they can decide for themselves how to live their lives, but also that they must obey god. They also learn the theory of evolution, but also that the religion considers this incorrect and that the world is actually only around 6,000 years old.
Reformed Christian schools teach about equality, but also that men are “the head” of the household and that women must be “submissive” to them, and that women should exercise restraint in leadership roles.
An Islamic religious textbook emphasizes respect and the prohibition against insulting other religions. However, it also contains passanges that could be considered anti-Semitic. For example, it discusses historical texts that link the “people of Israel” to “the Jews” of that time. The “Jews in the time of Jesus” loved “money and possessions,” one passage reads. The “people of Israel” would earn “a lot of money” by “lending money to poor people and asking for more in return.” Thus, “the rich became richer and the poor poorer.”
Several Islamic school boards told Nieuwsuur that they do not use the section containing the aforementioned passages. Other schools state that they always provide context in class and stress the democratic core values of the rule of law. The Islamic Schools Board did not comment on the content of the texts, but did say that the method is being revised and the controversial passages will be removed.
Children at both types of religious schools also learn about “non-discrimination,” but a significant number of Reformed Christian and Islamic schools reject homosexual relationships. In several Reformed Christian schoolyards, boys and girls are allowed to hold hands, but two boys aren’t. An Islamic religious textbook states that Muslims are forbidden to marry someone of the same gender because it can lead to “social disruption” and “(serious) illnesses.”
Gay teachers in same-sex relationships are not allowed to work at Reformed Christian schools. And entering into such a relationship would lead to their dismissal, an administrator at one Reformed school said.
Reformed schools also adhere to the 16th-century Dutch Confession of Faith, which states that the government must “exclude and eradicate false religions.” Primary school textbooks refer to Catholic Mass as “accursed idolatry,” and several Reformed school administrators told Nieusuur that they consider Islam a “false religion.”
Nieuwsuuur launched this investigation early this year following a bill to expand the Education Inspectorate’s oversight to also include weekend schools. Politicians want to be able to intervene in these private schools, which are not funded by the government, if there are suspicions that they’re inciting discrimination. “When freedoms clash, we must stand up for children,” VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz said.
The Nieuwsuur investigation looked at mainstream education, where intervention is already possible. The Ministry of Education told Nieuwsuur that it is “inevitable” that fundamental rights clash here, and that democracy also means that children learn to deal with this.
Experts called that viewpoint “naive.” According to renowned theologian Abdullahi An-Na’im, religious messages will always dominate in religious schools. There is no level playing field between religious messages and democratic values at such schools, he said. “Religion has a psychological and emotional advantage in raising children,” An-Na’im said. “With deep roots in communities where the state has no reach.”
