German court rules school not required to provide prayer room for Muslim student

School doesn’t have to provide Muslim prayer room

BERLIN — A German court says that a Berlin high school doesn’t have to provide a 16-year-old Muslim student with a private room to pray in during school hours.

The decision Thursday by a Berlin administrative court overturned a lower court’s ruling last year that granting a private room was necessary to guarantee the student’s right to freedom of religion.

But the higher court said that one pupil’s rights could not be put before the good of the group as a whole.

It argued that in a school with students of various religious beliefs, neutrality was required to ensure a proper learning environment.