The children of Islamic faiths now form the largest religious group in Viennese primary and secondary schools, showed the Data of the City Administration for Last School Year. Thus, the discussion of integration, common values and the role of schools in a multicultural society, reports the DER Standard.
According to the office of the Vienna City General for Education of Bettina Emmerling, in schools attended by about 112,600 children – from primary and secondary to half-free and schools for children with special needs – 41.2 percent of students declare themselves as Muslims. It is an increase compared to the year before it was 39.4 percent, transmitted Index.
Christians now together make up 34.5 percent of students, of which 17.5 percent of Roman Catholics and 14.5 percent of Orthodox. Nearly 23 percent of children have no religious affiliation, and minority groups include Buddhists (0.2 percent), Jews (0.1 percent) and other faiths (0.9 percent).
Emmerling welcomed the religious and cultural diversity of Vienna, emphasizing that the city encourages dialogue between communities. But it also warned the results of the research showing that young Muslims in Vienna on average “more religious” and “more prone to express discriminatory views.”
“In Vienna, no one should base his lifestyle on the fundamentalistic interpretation of religious texts that is hostile to women, minorities, state or democracy,” Emmerling told the Austrian APA agency, the DER Standard.
