AMSTERDAM, 16/12/03 - A commission set up by Amsterdam city council has rejected doubts that the Islamic primary school As Siddieq acts in conflict with Dutch laws, values or standards. Stronger still, the council is advised to actively help Muslim schools in offering separate education for girls and boys.

Education Minister Maria van der Hoeven's Education Inspectorate said at the end of last year that the school, with 500 pupils, formed a "risk to integration. " Mayor Cohen thereupon set up the commission, which concluded yesterday that As Siddieq does not set itself against non-Muslims and there is no question of an anti-Western attitude, anti-Semitism or opposition to the principles of Dutch democracy.

Although "the transfer of knowledge on other habits and customs and other values and standards systems is susceptible to improvement" and there is "no unambiguity in the religious lessons," the school does not hamper integration. The same goes for the facts that girls and boys are separated at the school from the age of 8, women teachers are required to wear a veil and posters hang in classrooms with Islamic depictions and calligraphy with Arab texts.

Two board members of the school are also on the board of the radical El Tawheed Mosque in Amsterdam, but this has no influence whatever on the functioning of the school, the commission continues. It nonetheless advises reconsidering the relationship with the mosque. "The reputation of the school is too vulnerable to possible negatively-judged comments and behavior by religious leaders in society at large. "

The most remarkable conclusion of the commission states that "for the council and the Education Inspectorate, a role is reserved for the development of Islamic education. " Thus, Amsterdam "should make efforts to facilitate separate swimming lessons" for boys and girls. On top of this, it is important that non-Islamic schools point out to their pupils that they live in a multicultural society, according to the report.

The board of the As Siddieg school said in a reaction yesterday it would not consider ending its relations with Al Tahweed. "Contacts with the mosque will just remain the same," according to board member F. Zaari. Amsterdam Alderman Rob Oudkerk said in a reaction to the commission's report that "I expect the Al Siddieq to visit a Jewish school tomorrow", but the school's management could not promise this either.