Berlin angry at Muslim segregation demand

Berlin angry at Muslim segregation demand

BERLIN, April 30 (UPI) -- The dialogue between the German government and the country's Muslim community is heating up shortly before the second leg of an integration conference.

Maria Boehmer, Germany's envoy for integration matters and a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, has harshly criticized a demand made by the German Muslim community to separate girls and boys in the physical education classroom.

"We will not allow that a small minority of backward people wants to install (in Germany) the rules of their grandfathers," she told the Neue Osnarbruecker Zeitung newspaper.

This is hardly a successful prelude to the second installment of the German Islam Conference, which will summon government officials and representatives of the country's Muslim group Wednesday in Berlin.

Boehmer added that cultural plurality was "beautiful and enriching," but it stopped where it undermined Germany's basic rights. "Sexual equality is one of these non-negotiable basic rights," she told the newspaper.

An estimated 3.2 million Muslims live in Germany, most coming from a guest-worker background and stemming from Turkey. Last September, Germany held the first-ever official conference on Islam in an effort to better integrate the country's Muslim population.

The conference has officials from the government and Germany's main Muslim groups meet in working groups every three months to tackle integration problems. It was initiated by German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who is also the country's top anti-terror czar.