It is the biggest EU Islamic community, after the French one. We are talking about the Muslims living in Germany. As well as the other Muslims in the world, they are now celebrating the holy month of Ramadan, going from August 1st to August 31st. In Berlin, Piranha Culture has organised a cultural festival called “Nights of Ramadan”.
During one of the debates, we have interviewed at the Pergamon Museum Riem Spielhaus, researcher at the Centre for European Islamic Thought and Professor of Islamic Studies at the Humboldt-Universität of Berlin and at the University of Copenhagen. We have discussed with her the situation of Muslims in Germany.
“First of all, it is very difficult to say exactly how many Muslims live in Germany”, Professor Spielhaus says. “The most reliable study has been recently carried out by the Federal Department for Immigration and, according to the data collected, in Germany there would be around four million Muslims. However, it is important to make a clear distinction between the problems – and the consequent approaches – related to immigration and integration issues and those related to religion. For instance, a survey revealed that only 40% of Iranian immigrants perceive themselves as Muslims. At the same time, mosques are attended by young people having no migration past”.
Do you believe that there is a difference between the new generations of people born and brought up in Berlin, Munich or Hamburg and their parents arrived in Germany some decades ago?
“Undoubtedly immigrants’ children and grand-children have a new mentality”, Professor Spielhaus says. “For them origins are not so fundamental. ‘We do not care where our parents come from. Past and cultural background are not important, we have to built a new identity.’ That is what these youths think. And this means being German. A good example of what I am saying is the initiative called Deutsch Plus, which aims at promoting Germany as a plural nation whose citizens are all German, although they do not have the same origins and religion”.
Your new book Wer ist hier Muslim (Who is Muslim?) deals with the issue of the “German-Muslim” identity: a Gemeinsam, a community with specific features.
“I can state with certainty that the ‘German-Muslim’ identity exists. Many Muslims are surprised that a number of politicians and journalists – sometimes – do not believe that it is possible to be German with another religion. But so it is. In public debates people often use words such as ‘we’ and ‘you’ underlining the fact that there is a certain polarity between being German and being Muslim. As for this point, Navid Kermanu (German writer and journalist with Iranian origins, Ed.) has written that when a political leader says ‘we’ there always remains a sense of exclusion. But how can we deny the existence of German Muslims?”
What measures has the federal Government adopted?
“Since 2006 the federal Government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel has undertaken long terms projects related to immigration and religious issues such as the Integrationsgipfel and the Deutshe Islamkonferenz. But the most important role should be played by Länder, which should adopt specific laws. In Berlin, for instance, since 2005 the Islamforum has been organised. This event gives imams, ministers (Berlin is a city state, Ed.) and representatives of Muslim associations the opportunity to meet and discuss. Moreover, last year a law allowing Muslims to bury people according to their tradition was approved,” Riem Spielhaus finally says, “and this represents an extremely important step towards full integration”.
On the inside: