Spanish Court Orders Islamic Education in Murcia Schools, Enforcing 1992 Law

The Murcia region has a large Muslim community estimated at 100,000, of whom about 22,291 students are enrolled in public schools and do not have access to Islamic education. This injustice has been remedied by the Murcia Court of Justice, which ruled in favor of a Carthagena Spaniard who converted to Islam 12 years ago and filed a complaint last June against the Ministry of National Education for this discrimination against her children.

The complainant’s children must "be able to receive Islamic education courses, in accordance with the provisions of Law 26/1992," the judges decided. "I want my [11-year-old] son to have the same rights as the other children," said the plaintiff, in a statement to Onda Regional de Murcia, denouncing "Islamophobia," inequalities and "lack of tolerance in school because of the leaders who run it."

The judge specifies in his decision that the right to Islamic education should not only apply to the plaintiff’s children, but in all centers where, as the law stipulates, there are at least 10 parents of students who request it. The Ministry of Education can appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

According to the agreements signed in 1992 by the government of Felipe González with the religious minorities, "school authorities must guarantee Muslim students whose parents request it, the right to Islamic education in public and private educational centers." The subject will be taught by teachers appointed by the Islamic Commission of Spain, in accordance with the program published in the Official Gazette (BOE) of March 14, 2016.

According to data from the Islamic Commission, 312,498 Muslim students are enrolled in Spain, of whom 179,357 are migrants. Islamic education serves "to properly channel the right to religious freedom, avoiding extremism," says a report from the Spanish Institute of Strategic Studies under the Ministry of Defense.