Students reject proposals targeting religious symbols and fasting

Students at Nyborg Gymnasium have criticised the Danish Democrats’ proposals to combat negative social control, saying bans on religious clothing, fasting and mandatory handshakes would restrict religious freedom. DR reported the reactions.

Riyaan Abdulkadir Mohamed, a third-year student at the school, wears a headscarf and said she was troubled by the party’s proposal, titled “Combat Islam”.

“My classmate is allowed to wear a cross around her neck, but I am not allowed to wear a headscarf,” she said.

Danish Democrats leader Inger Støjberg presented the proposals at a press conference on Thursday. They include banning puffer jackets, caps and headscarves at upper-secondary schools, as well as banning fasting.

All students would also have to shake hands with a member of the school management of the opposite sex on their first day.

“It is crucial because we can see that social control is currently taking place at many upper-secondary schools and other youth education institutions,” Støjberg told DR.

Mohamed said her religion and culture were part of her identity and that her headscarf was part of who she was.

“It is part of religious freedom to wear religious symbols,” she said.

Her classmate Vega Hoffensetz Fogh-Schultz said she was surprised by the proposals and objected to using handshakes as a way of monitoring students.

“Why should we suspect one another?” she said.

She said youth education should, alongside academic learning, help students meet new people and become part of a community.

Oscar Tønsberg Hoffmann, chair of the Danish Association of Upper-Secondary Students, said social control was a problem that required action, but rejected the Danish Democrats’ proposals as a solution.

“The Danish Democrats’ programme tries to solve social control with opposing social control. It is nonsensical,” he said.

Hoffmann said social control took place at the individual level and that Muslim students should not be collectively involved or required to address their religion at school.

“Muslim upper-secondary students should simply be allowed to be upper-secondary students,” he said.

The 15 proposals

The Danish Democrats’ proposals include zero tolerance for students who exercise negative social control or a dominance culture, with students to be expelled for such behaviour.

They also call for students to be expelled if they do not speak Danish during school hours, and for all students to shake hands with the principal on arrival on their first day.

Other proposals include requiring students to sign a declaration agreeing to uphold Danish values, shortening the consultation process for expulsions, and removing the obligation to help expelled students find another youth education programme.

The party also proposes mandatory parent meetings on Danish culture, equality and personal development; a dress code at youth education institutions; and a 25 percent ethnic admissions cap for students with a non-Western background.

The remaining proposals include ending special consideration for Islam at youth education institutions, banning prayer rooms and fasting, making lessons on identifying negative social control and dominance culture compulsory, and increasing state supervision in the area.