Excerpt:
Just one day before taking her post, Lower Saxony's new Social Minister Aygül Özkan has apologised to her fellow Christian Democrats for starting a heated political debate by suggesting that crucifixes don't belong in German public schools.
In an interview over the weekend the 38-year-old – who will be the country's first Muslim state minister – said that public schools should be neutral places without religious symbols, including both crucifixes and Islamic headscarves.
The statements from the conservative Christian Democrat (CDU) member to Focus magazine sparked outrage within her own party.