Following in the footsteps of England and Sweden, the Norwegian government implemented compulsory non-confessional religious education subject (RE) in public schools in 1997. This caused heated debates. And led by parents organized in Human Etisk Forbund, HEF (The Norwegian Humanist Association), the issue was brought to court, specifically highlighting that limited exemption rights and Christian bias violated fundamental parental rights and the freedom of belief. While unsuccessful in the legal system in Norway, the case culminated with a verdict against the state of Norway in the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg in June 2007.

Muslims and Catholics represent the two largest religious minority communities in Norway.  Muslim communities, gathered under the umbrella organization Islamic Council Norway, supported the human right based indictment in Strasbourg. Catholics, although sharing some of the concerns, brought up other perspectives, particularly emphasizing confessional RE as a means of moral and spiritual development. The neutral alternative, the implemented RE founded on a Lutheran secular bias, causes confusion and relativism. Today, close to 30 years after the implementation and 20 years after Strasbourg, what is the Catholic and Muslim RE experiences? Answers to this question will deepen our understanding of the RE experience in Norway, and bring important perspectives to contemporary debates.

The findings will be analyzed in relation to two current dominant research discourses in religious didactics. 1. The underlying biases in RE, referred to as Christian, Lutheran, and secular bias, and 2. The matter of 'lived religion', on how to integrate the perspective of everyday religious practices and students' own experiences in an objective RE subject.

The paper reports from a qualitative study on Catholic and Muslim RE experiences, which is part of a large reseach project involving 11 researchers across four institutions in Norway: Non-formal faith education, the public school, and religious minorities in Norway (FAITHED). The data is derived from interviews with Muslim and Catholic youth, parents, teachers, and leaders, all involved in faith-based education in four different parts of Norway: one of each from the west coast and the eastern region, and two of each in the greater Oslo region (urban). The interviews lasted between 30 to 60 minutes, all following semi-structured interview guides specifically prepared to bring out the RE experiences of youth, teachers, parents, and leaders, respectively. The interviews were transcribed and digitally coded applying the one code, ‘KRLE-faget’ (The RE subject), from the FAITHEDs codebook. This resulted in 224 transcribed pages. These pages were then closely read before they were manually coded to extract ‘views on KRLE’ and ’experiences with KRLE’. The explorative and inductive approach led to the emergence some overall and principal views on RE, as well as personal experiences revealing both the potential and the challenges of compulsory non-confessional RE in diverse societies.

The findings suggest a general positive assessment of compulsory non-confessional RE, that there is, with a few exceptions, no turning back and no better alternative. Across the material we find that the subject is important, that it contributes to encounters with and learning about cultural and religious diversity. Despite this, Muslims report on a continuing Christian bias, although, a less negative attitude towards Islam compared to the early 2000's. Catholics report on a more specific Lutheran bias, but recently a more powerful secular bias, also referred to as a Lutheran secular normativity. Interstingly, to overcome the main challenges, both parts call for more in-depth learning about everyday religious life and practice.

Ammerman, N. T. (2021). Studying lived religion: Contexts and practices. Studying Lived Religion, New York University Press. Andreassen, B.-O. (2013). Religion education in Norway: Tension or harmony between human rights and Christian cultural heritage? Temenos-Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion, 49(2), 137-164. Barnes, L. P. (2022). Religion and worldviews: The triumph of the secular in religious education. Taylor & Francis. Berglund, J. (2013). Swedish religion education: Objective but marinated in Lutheran Protestantism? Temenos-Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion, 49(2), 165-184. Biesta, G., & Hannam, P. (2020). Religion and education: The forgotten dimensions of religious education? Brill. Coll, R., & Davis, R. (2007). Faith schools and state education: Church-state relations and the development of the 5-14 religious education program in Scotland. Journal of Catholic Education, 11(1), 67-82. Furseth, I., Repstad, P., & Furseth, I. (2023). Innføring i religionssosiologi [Introduction to the sociology of religion] (2. utgave. ed.). Universitetsforlaget. Jackson, R. (2014). Signposts: Policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious world views in intercultural education. Council of Europe. Jarmer, S. T. (2022). 50 years of criticizing Religion: a historical overview of Norwegian Religious Education. Religions, 13(9), 781. Kleive, H. V. (2017). Belonging and Discomfort: Young Hindu Religiosity in Rural Norway. Nordic Journal of Religion and Society, 30(1), 43-65 Leirvik, O. B. (2005). Christianity and Islam in Norway: politics of religion and interfaith dialogue. Canadian Diversity, 4(3), 7-10. Moulin, D. (2015). Doubts about Religious Education in public schooling. International Journal of Christianity & Education, 19(2), 135-148. Nicolaisen, T. (2009). Hindu children's attitudes to identity constructs and diversity : a challenge for norwegian religious education. In Religious Diversity and Education. Nordic Perspectives (pp. 181-195). Waxmann Verlag. Sakaranaho, T., & Rissanen, I. (2021). Islamic religious education in Finland. In Islamic Religious Education in Europe (pp. 112-127). Routledge. Schreiner, P. (2013). Religious education in the European context. HERJ Hungarian Educational Research Journal, 3(4), 4-14. Skeie, G. (2017). Where is Norwegian religious education research heading? A discussion based on two dissertations. Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education(1), 27-48. von der Lippe, M. (2009). Scenes from a classroom: video analysis of classroom interaction in religious education in Norway. In Dialogue and conflict on religion (pp. 174-193). Waxmann. Weisse, W. (2010). REDCo: A European Research Project on Religion in Education. Religion & Education, 37(3), 187-202. Østberg, S. (1998). Pakistani children in Oslo: Islamic nurture in a secular context [Warwick]: University of Warwick.