An Austrian parent has complained after his daughter was given an altered version of a popular children’s hymn in which the word ‘God’ was replaced with the word ‘Allah’.
The woman told local media she was shocked when her daughter came home with the text to learn from the school in the Upper Austrian town of Wels.
The original song “Gottes Liebe ist so wunderbar” which means “God’s love is so wonderful” is an extremely popular song for young children in Christian Austria. However, the teacher had decided to rewrite the text, replacing the word God with the word Allah.
The teacher justified the action by saying that the majority of children in the class of 10-year-olds were Muslims, and therefore she had changed the text by hand and replaced the word God with the word Allah.
But the parent of the girl as well as other Christian parents were not happy about the decision, and complained to the school inspector.
The annoyed father of the girl was quoted as saying: “It isn’t just about the use of the word Allah. You just can’t go about rewriting text like this.”
School inspector Karin Lang said that she had requested an interview with the teacher and the school headmaster, and said that the teacher had only wanted to give the Muslim version to the Muslim schoolchildren. She said that one of the children must have accidentally been given the wrong music sheet.”
Headmistress Ulrike Fellinger added: “I did not realise that the teacher was planning this. Songs like this in future have no place outside of the religious class.”
A year ago an Egyptian man who moved into a house in Grossenzersdorf in Lower Austria had chopped down a crucifix that had been in his neighbour’s garden for 60 years because he found it offensive.
The Muslim had only just moved into the house when he announced that he did not like the crucifix, and told his neighbour that it had to go.