disobeying Allah and never observing his commands (5:13); disputing and quarreling (2:247); hiding the truth and misleading people (3:78); staging rebellion against the prophets and rejecting their guidance (2:55); being hypocritical (2:14, 2:44); giving preference to their own interests over the teachings of Muhammad (2:87); wishing evil for people and trying to mislead them (2:109); feeling pain when others are happy or fortunate (3:120); being arrogant about their being Allah’s beloved people (5:18); devouring people’s wealth by subterfuge (4:161);

Beatings and abuse from Muslim classmates have been cited by the parents of a Jewish teenager as the reason they removed him from a leading Berlin school. The 14-year-old was born in London to a British mother and a German father. According to a report in the Sunday Times, the student was kicked and punched by students of Middle Eastern and Turkish origin so many times he was left fearing for his life. One of the attackers is alleged to have threatened to shoot him with a mock gun he believed was real.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany described the bullying allegations at the Friedenauer Gemeinschaftsschule in Berlin as “anti-Semitism of the ugliest form.” The Times reports Ferdinand and his parents — Gemma, an entrepreneur from London, and Wenzel, a human rights organiser — chose a multicultural environment for their son’s schooling. Until recently the family had hosted a Syrian refugee in their Berlin home. “I loved the fact that the school was multicultural . . . the kids and teachers were so cool,” Ferdinand said.

Yet within a week of enrolling last November, at a school where almost three-quarters of the pupils are from immigrant families, Ferdinand’s troubles began after he let slip that he was Jewish. “First my Turkish friend Emre said he could no longer hang out with me because I was Jewish,” Ferdinand said. “Then other pupils started saying stereotypical things about how Jews only want money and hate Muslims.”

Daily beatings by a gang of pupils, all of immigrant origin, soon followed. These were accompanied by racial insults. “This boy, Jassin, whose parents are Palestinian, asked me if I’m from Israel,” Ferdinand said. “I’ve never been to Israel. He said Palestine will burn Israel and his friends said Turkey will burn Israel. He kept kicking me.

“One day he came up to me from behind and he punched me in the back. I became dizzy . . . I had a bruise for a week or two. Every time something bad happened, I told myself I could manage it, but it only got worse.” The experience of Ferdinand is not an isolated incident in the Berlin school system.
Aaron Eckstaedt, principal of the Moses Mendelssohn Jewish High School in Berlin, told the Jewish Chronicle that six to 10 Jewish parents apply to switch their children to his school every year.