Islamic group takes over Nursery school

From the Copenhagen Post. No singing, no dancing and don't even think about SANTA CLAUS hats! They want their kids "to grow up Muslim and so they don't run around and behave like apes."

Members of the fundamental Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir with children at the Salam day care centre in Copenhagen have taken control of its operations by obtaining a majority on its parental committee, according to Berlingkse Tidende newspaper.

In February the group took over after the school's two female administrators quit in protest of the difficulties Hizb ut-Tahrir parents were creating for the centre's operations. The Islamic group was refusing to allow the school's 25 Muslim children to participate in singing and dancing and required both an Islamic dress code and boys and girls to be segregated.

It was revealed that after a Christmas trip to Copenhagen Zoo, during which the children were given Santa Claus hats to wear, the committee members required the hats to either be thrown out or cut into pieces, claiming they forced Christian traditions onto the children. The group has allegedly been operating the school according to traditional Islamic law since the two administrators quit.

Since that time, the formerly private-run centre has no longer been receiving state funding and is now being administered by the City of Copenhagen. The city is still trying to find new leadership for the school and has sent letters to the children's parents informing them that they must either allow the city to run the centre or it will be closed.

More detail here at Islam in Europe.

The case exploded in December, 2006. In a call for help to the municipality, the kindergarten's personnel said that Hizb ut-Tahrir was taking over the administration. They came up with twenty parent's signatures to have new elections.

On election day at the end of January they Hizb ut-Tahrir criticized the new rules, saying that children were taught equality and a democratic spirit.

A pedagogic consultant from Frie Børnehaver, an association for private kindergartens, was present at the elections meeting. She had never experienced anything similar and she asked for a meeting with the municipality.

Four new parents were chosen to the administration, with completely different attitudes to raising kids than the existing administration. The consultant had the impression that there were no other candidates because the older members were threatened to stay away. She wrote that the voting was completely unpleasant. A new member of the administration said that his children will not be raised to have understanding for democracy.