Teachers in some of Berlin’s most heavily migrant-populated schools have complained that they are seeing a large increase in bullying along religious lines, primarily from Muslim students.
Hildegard Greif-Gross, director of the Peter Petersen Elementary School in Neukölln, claimed that there are many examples of religious bullying even with younger students. Greif-Gross said that Muslim students would bully others on as little as bringing a ham sandwich for their lunch because they were taught pork is forbidden in Islam, Berliner Zeitung reports.
“Even gummy bears are not considered clean,” Greif-Gross added noting that Muslims objected to the use of gelatin which is a beef byproduct and may not have been halal slaughtered.
The teachers made their comments after the launch of a petition called the “Pro Berlin Neutrality Act” which supports existing legislation that has banned religious symbols from classrooms in the German capital.
The act has come under strain as of late after a State Labour Court sided with a female Muslim teacher who had been rejected for a position due to her Islamic headscarf.
Greif-Gross argued that if teachers were allowed to wear the headscarf then religious bullying could intensify and said that there could be a “ghettoisation” of schools across the capital along ethnic and religious lines.
Antisemitism has also risen substantially in Berlin schools with high migrant populations. Last year, Breitbart London reported on a Jewish boy who was forced to switch to a different school because of threats, harassment, and physical assaults from other students.
In certain school playgrounds across the capital, the phrase “You Jew!” has become a common insult, according to the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
The level of violence in some schools is also becoming a cause for concern. Schoeneberg Spreewald Elementary School, in which 99 per cent of the students come from migrant backgrounds, was forced to hire a security company because of a rise in violence among students and directed at staff.