Germany: Imam recites Qur’an’s opening prayer, often understood as condemning Jews and Christians, at primary school

This sounds like a neutral prayer to which anyone can ascribe, but it isn’t. The final two verses of the Fatiha, the first sura of the Qur’an, ask Allah: “Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom you have favored, not of those who have earned your anger, or of those who have gone astray.” The traditional Islamic understanding of this is that the “straight path” is Islam — cf. Islamic apologist John Esposito’s book Islam: The Straight Path. The path of those who have earned Allah’s anger are the Jews, and those who have gone astray are the Christians.

The classic Qur’anic commentator Ibn Kathir explains that “the two paths He described here are both misguided,” and that those “two paths are the paths of the Christians and Jews, a fact that the believer should beware of so that he avoids them. The path of the believers is knowledge of the truth and abiding by it. In comparison, the Jews abandoned practicing the religion, while the Christians lost the true knowledge. This is why ‘anger’ descended upon the Jews, while being described as ‘led astray’ is more appropriate of the Christians.”

Ibn Kathir’s understanding of this passage is not a lone “extremist” interpretation. In fact, most Muslim commentators believe that the Jews are those who have earned Allah’s wrath and the Christians are those who have gone astray. This is the view of Tabari, Zamakhshari, the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, the Tafsir Ibn Abbas, and Ibn Arabi, as well as Ibn Kathir. One contrasting, but not majority view, is that of Nisaburi, who says that “those who have incurred Allah’s wrath are the people of negligence, and those who have gone astray are the people of immoderation.”

Wahhabis drew criticism a few years back for adding “such as the Jews” and “such as the Christians” into parenthetical glosses on this passage in Qur’ans printed in Saudi Arabia. Some Western commentators imagined that the Saudis originated this interpretation, and indeed the whole idea of Qur’anic hostility toward Jews and Christians. Muslims all over the world learn as a matter of course that the central prayer of their faith anathematizes Jews and Christians.

But unfortunately, this interpretation is venerable and mainstream in Islamic theology. The printing of the interpretation in parenthetical glosses into a translation would be unlikely to affect Muslim attitudes, since the Arabic text is always and everywhere normative in any case, and since so many mainstream commentaries contain the idea that the Jews and Christians are being criticized here. Seventeen times a day, by the pious.

Also, the idea in Islam that Jews have earned Allah’s anger and Christians have gone astray doesn’t depend on this passage alone. The Jews have earned Allah’s anger by rejecting Muhammad (2:87-90), and the Christians have gone astray by holding to the divinity of Christ (5:72).

The Hadith, the traditions of the words and deeds of Muhammad and the early Muslims, also contains material linking Jews to Allah’s anger and Christians to his curse, which resulting from their straying from the true path. (The Jews are accursed also, according to Qur’an 2:89, and both are accursed according to 9:30). One hadith recounts that an early Muslim, Zaid bin Amr bin Nufail, in his travels met with Jewish and Christian scholars. The Jewish scholar told him, “You will not embrace our religion unless you receive your share of Allah’s Anger,” and the Christian said, “You will not embrace our religion unless you get a share of Allah’s Curse.” Zaid, needless to say, became a Muslim.

In light of these and similar passages, it shouldn’t be surprising that many Muslim commentators have understood the Fatiha to be encapsulating these views. And now German schoolchildren are being indoctrinated into this point of view.

“DITIB imam sings Koran verses at school enrollment ceremony,” translated from “DITIB-Imam singt Koran-Verse bei Einschulungsfeier,” Apollo News, August 29, 2024 (thanks to Medforth):

During the school enrollment ceremony at a primary school in Stadtallendorf, Hesse, an imam recited the first sura of the Koran, “Al-Fatiha,” to the students. Apollo News research shows that this imam belongs to the local DITIB mosque.

“In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, the Gracious, the Merciful, the Ruler on the Day of Judgment. You alone we worship, and you alone we ask for help. Lead us on the straight path,” it says. Students listened to the imam as he sang the introduction to the Koran.

Following this public ceremony, there was a celebration for the Muslim students in the local DITIB mosque, as can be seen from Instagram posts from the community. The Nordschule did not initially respond to an Apollo News request.

A legal dispute has broken out in Hesse over Islamic religious education, in which the mosque association DITIB (Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institution for Religion) is trying to secure its influence on teaching in schools. DITIB, an organization that is subordinate to the Turkish religious authority and thus closely linked to Erdogan’s government, wants to ensure that Hessian students only attend their confessional religious education classes and that the state-organized, knowledge-oriented Islamic education classes are ended.

The background to this conflict goes back to 2013, when Hesse ended its cooperation with DITIB. This decision was made due to constitutional concerns arising from the organization’s close ties to the Turkish government. In 2019, the Hessian state government responded to this situation by introducing its own, secularized version of Islamic religious education. This class was intended to be politically neutral and was established as an alternative to the classes offered by DITIB.

DITIB did not accept this decision and went to court. In 2022, the Hessian Administrative Court ruled that the state of Hesse was not entitled to stop DITIB’s religious education classes, even though an expert opinion suggested possible political influence by Turkey. However, the court ruled that cooperation could only be revoked if concrete political instrumentalization of DITIB Hesse could be proven.

Currently, around 2,200 students attend state Islamic classes at 20 primary schools and five secondary schools. These classes are voluntary and initially limited to the 2025/2026 school year. In comparison, the confessional religious education that DITIB offers in cooperation with the state attracts around 1,700 students.