CAIRO – The head of the Protestant Church in Germany has called for Islam to be taught in state schools across the country as a way to make young Muslims impervious to the “temptation of fundamentalists”.

“Young Muslim pupils should get the chance to critically analyze their religion’s traditions,” Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, chairman of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), told German newspaper “Heilbronner Stimme,” Deutsch Welle reported.

The bishop added that such lessons could be the best way to make young people immune to fundamentalist ideas.

Bedford-Strohm called for “nationwide lessons in Islam,” adding that pupils could learn about Islam on the basis of the German constitution.

“Tolerance, freedom of religion and conscience should be valid for all religions. These rules can be taught in the best way, if religion is seen as part of the state’s educational mission,” he said.

He added that Islamic organizations could shoulder the responsibility for such lessons, the same way churches did for schools.

Most German schools offer classes in both Catholicism and Protestantism and some also provide students instruction in Judaism and Islam.

Six out of 18 German states, including North-Rhine Westphalia, Bavaria, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg, currently offer lessons in Islam.

The Islamic religion classes are similar to the Catholic and Protestant religion classes students generally get.

Germany has about four million Muslims, about five percent of the total population.