The project
 
Only in open encounter and active discussion can young people of different religions learn better to recognize what is their own and what is not their own and thus to learn how to eliminate prejudices and to resolve conflicts without violence.

The activities
 


 
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Becoming experts for one's own religion
 
Before entering into conversation with those of other religions, students must become acquainted with their own religion and must learn how to explain their religion to others. For this reason, together with their teacher, a group of Muslim students in 8th Grade Ethics class prepared a curriculum unit devoted to Islam. In doing so, they took on the role of experts, preparing learning materials and organizing a visit to a mosque.

In Ethics class, the expert group presented their own religion, Islam. That went down well with the other students in class. From this experience was born the idea of the project: the expert group wanted to inform other students about Islam. In the spirit of a “global ethic”, they wanted to make contact with those of other religions and to enter into dialogue with them.

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Preparing the learning materials
 
Early on, the expert group realized self-critically that they had trouble communicating their information directly, only with words. For this reason, they proceeded to develop materials for individual learning to serve as teaching aids, e.g. puzzles, question-and-answer games, fill-in-the blank texts etc. These materials were put together over the course of a semester, in part outside the classroom, in part in conjunction with other subjects (Technology, Informatics, Mathematics, German) in the corresponding classes.

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Experts informing about Islam
 
With the agreement of the respective religion teachers, the Muslim experts visited the Catholic and the Protestant religion classes and presented Islam with the aid of the materials they had developed. In learning units consisting of two to four classroom hours, two Muslim experts would "instruct" four other students at a time in a particular aspect of Islam. Then the four students would switch "teachers", moving on to the next group of two experts for instruction in the next aspect, and so on, until all the aspects had been covered. Questions and problems were worked out in part in small working groups, in part in the common final discussion group. In this way, the dialogue between the religions promoted by the Global Ethic Project really took place in the school. At the end of the project, the Muslim experts invited their Christian students to visit a mosque together.

Conclusion
 
At the end of the project, the Muslim experts invited their Christian students to visit a mosque together.
 


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