Islam in Germany

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The Islam is in Germany , the religion with the after Christianity most believers. It established itself in Germany mainly through immigration from the Middle East , the Balkans and North Africa since the second half of the 20th century. The Sunni branch forms the majority, but the non- Sunni share ( Alevis , Bektashi and Shiites ) in Germany is above the world average.

According to projections by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees from 2021, between 5.3 and 5.6 million Muslims live in Germany. Their share in the total population is between 6.4 percent and 6.7 percent. Compared to the last extrapolation in 2015, the number of members of the Muslim religion in Germany has increased by around 900,000 people. As of 2020, 47 percent of Muslims in Germany had German citizenship . Muslims of Turkish descent in Germany form the largest group of origin with 2.5 million people (45 percent of all Muslims in Germany).

The Şehitlik Mosque is located in the
Turkish Cemetery in Berlin, which was built in 1866

history

The wooden mosque in the half-moon camp in Wünsdorf (provisional); Postcard from 1916

17th and 18th centuries

In the course of the early modern period , the first points of contact within Germany with Islam arose; the theologian Abraham Hinckelmann had the Koran printed in Arabic in Hamburg in 1694 . This edition of the Koran was the second printed edition of this book after the one from Venice of approx. 1537/38 (in the Islamic world, printing with Arabic letters was forbidden until the 19th century). According to the German journalist Muhammad Salim Abdullah , with the decree of Potsdam 1731 for Muslim infantrymen, which he received as a gift, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I had a hall as a prayer room at the Long Stable (built in 1734 as a riding and parade house) in Potsdam use, mainly the Langer Stall was used as a Greek Orthodox church for the Russians in the Lange Kerls regiment; In 1739 the first Islamic church was founded on German soil. The Catholic theologian Thomas Lemmen contradicts this : According to a contemporary source, those Muslims only stayed there temporarily. In the second half of the 18th century, hundreds of Muslim-Tatar families lived within the Prussian borders. In the 1790s, around 2,000 Tatars served as lancers under the Prussian king. In 1798 the Ottoman envoy Ali Aziz Efendi died , after which the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. a site is available for his burial. Another change of site followed. This new site formed the cornerstone of the Turkish cemetery on Columbiadamm in Berlin-Neukölln , which was built in 1866 and is still in use today .

Several buildings in Germany were built in the style of a mosque, but never had the function of a place of prayer, including the building erected in 1792/93 in the palace garden of Schwetzingen , the steam engine house for Sanssouci in Potsdam and the tobacco mosque ( Yenidze ) in Dresden . All three structures have a dome and minarets .

February 1931: Interior view of Germany's oldest surviving mosque, the Wilmersdorfer Mosque or Ahmadiyya Mosque in Berlin

Until 1947

At the instigation of the intelligence agency for the Orient , the half-moon camp was built in Wünsdorf near Zossen near Berlin since the beginning of the First World War , in which up to 30,000 mostly Muslim prisoners of war were interned. On July 13, 1915, a mosque was inaugurated for the Muslim prisoners of war held in this camp during the First World War . It is the first mosque on German soil that was also used as a place of prayer by Muslims. The mosque was financed and commissioned by the German Empire . This mosque was built from wood within five weeks, mainly for propaganda purposes. After the end of the war there was no longer any interest in the mosque. Due to dilapidation, the wooden mosque was closed in 1924 and demolished in 1925/26. Only the "Mosche Street" and some soldiers' graves still remind of them.

In 1922, Sadr ud-Din , sent by the Ahmadiyya movement from what is now India , reached Berlin as one of the first missionaries in Germany and founded the first mosque association based on the model of the Woking Muslim Mission in England with converts from 41 nations . In 1924, the Islamic Ahmadiyya religious community built a stone mosque on Brienner Strasse in Berlin-Wilmersdorf and opened it on March 23, 1928. The Wilmersdorfer Mosque , formerly also known as the Berlin Mosque, is now the oldest surviving mosque in Germany. The mosque was open to the citizens of Berlin for the first time. Many well-known German personalities attended events in this, including Albert Einstein , Martin Buber , Martin Niemöller , Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse . Imam Sadr ud-Din wrote the first German translation of the Koran published by Muslims in 1939 in collaboration with converts . During the Nazi era, the mosque was used for propaganda appearances with Mohammed Amin al-Husseini , also known as the "Grand Mufti of Jerusalem".

Since the 1950s

Only in the 1950s did the Muslims reorganize themselves. Ahmadiyya missionaries re-formed the Ahmadiyya congregations. The oldest mosques in Hamburg and Frankfurt were built. In terms of numbers, there were only very small mosque communities. At the same time, merchants from other Muslim countries reached Germany and founded mosque communities. Muslims of the Islamic Shiite religious community of the Twelve Shiites built the Imam Ali Mosque in Hamburg in 1960 as the fifth oldest mosque in Germany . It is also a listed building.

The main reason for the increase in Islam in Germany in the following years is the immigration of foreign workers, due to recruitment agreements with Muslim states and the subsequent permanent residence with family reunification, which was established by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1961 ( Agreement with Turkey , Yugoslavia , with Tunisia and Morocco through the recruitment of guest workers) until 1973. The stay in Germany was originally intended to be limited in time, but until the 1960s, Muslims increasingly intended to return to their home country.

German mosques
Since the turn of the millennium, more representative mosques have been built nationwide; here the Nasir mosque of the Ahmadiyya in the small town of Isselburg in the Münsterland (opened in 2007)
The Kocatepe Mosque in Ingolstadt, opened in 2008, is the largest mosque in Bavaria
Another building by the Ahmadiyya: the Nuur-ud-Din mosque in Darmstadt, opened in 2003
The Fatih Mosque in Bremen, the first of its kind in the Hanseatic city, opened in 1999
The Ahmadiyya Sami Mosque in Hanover, opened in 2008
The Mevlana Mosque in Ravensburg (opened in 2008) is named after the Sufi mystic Rumi named
The Selimiye Mosque in Lünen, also opened in 2008
The Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Mosque in Berlin-Kreuzberg was up in 2008 by the originating from Lebanon organization al-Habash built and is named after the conqueror Omar ibn al-Khattab named
The Aachen Bilal Mosque , built from 1964 to 1966, is one of the oldest mosques in Germany

In the 1980s and 1990s, many Muslims came from other countries, some of which were refugees or asylum seekers. Such groups included, for example, the Iranians who fled to the Federal Republic in the course of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 , or the Afghans who sought refuge in West Germany as a result of the civil war or the Soviet-Afghan war . The Ahmadiyya supporters also reached Germany because of bloody persecution in Pakistan. The Lebanese, Bosnians and Kosovar Albanians also emigrated to war in their homeland. As the return of many Muslims took a back seat, a religious infrastructure gradually emerged. The first mosque associations were founded in the 1970s, and more representative mosques were built from the 1990s onwards.

In 2006, the first German Islam Conference took place in Berlin , which was convened to establish a dialogue between the German state and Muslims in the Federal Republic.

“Islam is part of Germany and part of Europe, it is part of our present and it is part of our future. Muslims are welcome in Germany. They should develop their talents and they should help our country advance. "

- Wolfgang Schäuble : from the government declaration on the German Islam Conference, September 28, 2006

In 2013, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (AMJ) in Hesse was the first Islamic association to receive corporate status in Germany and is therefore legally equal to the two largest churches with the largest number of members (the Roman Catholic Church in Germany and the Evangelical Church in Germany ).

As a result of the European refugee crisis that occurred around 2015 , Muslims of Syrian origin became the second largest group of origin (13.3%) of Muslims in Germany by 2019 at the latest.

Number and spatial distribution of Muslims living in Germany

number of

Muslims in Germany

Population
share in%
Status (year)
3,800,000 - 4,300,000 4.6-5.2 2008
4,400,000 - 4,700,000 5.4-5.7 2015
5,300,000 - 5,600,000 6.4-6.7 2020

Since many Islamic communities do not keep membership lists or levy membership fees, no exact figures exist. The majority of Muslims are not registered as members of Muslim associations and do not visit the mosque regularly, so that an exact count is difficult. In 2005, according to the Federal Statistical Office, 9.2% of the newborns in Germany had Muslim parents and an additional 0.9% had the mother recorded as Muslim. The father, however, was noted in the voluntary information with “no religious affiliation” or “other religious affiliation” (e.g. Roman Catholic, Protestant, etc.).

Official statistics were produced in the course of the 2011 census . Only 1.9% of those questioned said they were Muslim. In contrast, Andreas Zick estimated the percentage of Muslims in Germany's total population at around 7% in 2012, which would be around 5.6 million people. This also includes people who converted to Islam . There is no consensus on whether Muslims who do not practice their religion should be counted among the non-denominational or should be regarded as so-called cultural Muslims .

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees prepared an extrapolation for 2015 on behalf of the German Islam Conference . According to this, between 4.4 and 4.7 million Muslims were living in Germany at the end of 2015. This corresponds to around 5.4 to 5.7 percent of the total population. Of these, 1.2 million (around 27 percent) have immigrated since 2014.

In 2008 around 1.8 million Muslims were German citizens. At the same time, around 63% of the Muslims living in Germany had a Turkish migration background, which can be attributed to the recruitment of migrant workers , then called guest workers , from Turkey in the 1960s and 1970s. Other Muslims are mainly immigrants from Albania , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Kosovo , Iraq , Iran , Morocco , Afghanistan , Lebanon , Pakistan , Syria and Tunisia or German converts .

According to the 2009 BAMF study “Muslim Life in Germany”, 98.4 percent of Muslims in Germany lived in the old federal states (including Berlin). For the western German states, the proportion of Muslim migrants in the population was between around 3 percent in Schleswig-Holstein and 7.5 percent in North Rhine-Westphalia. Only 1.6 percent of Muslims in the Federal Republic lived in the new federal states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. As far as the districts and urban districts are concerned, based on the census figures for people with a migration background for 2011, the highest proportions of Muslim migrants in Offenbach am Main , Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen were found. There are considerable differences here between the focus of Muslim immigration in the Rhine-Ruhr region, the Rhine-Main region and the Württemberg core area on the one hand, and regions particularly in the east and north-east of the republic. In 2009 it was estimated that a majority of 55% of Muslims in Germany are foreign nationals and only 45% of Muslims in Germany are German nationals .

In 2015, the number of Muslims in Germany was estimated at around 4.4 to 4.7 million people, which corresponds to 5.4 to 5.7% of the population. However, the information from 2015 varies greatly from 1.9% ( 2011 census : voluntary information) to 7%.

German and non-German Muslims

in 2020

number Relative
share in%
Status (year)
Total (averaged) 5,450,000 2020
 including Germans

(including Germans with dual citizenship )

2,190,900 40.2 2020
 including foreigners 3,259,100 59.8 2020

Currents

Distribution (approximate) of the various Islamic religious communities in Germany:

Denomination number Share among Muslims

in DE in% (as of 2020)

Status (year)
Sunnis 71.7 2020
Alevis 9.5 2020
Twelve Shiites 4.4 2020
Alawites 70,000 2010
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community 1.3 2020
Sufis 10,000 2015
Ismailis 1,900 2005
Zaidites 800 2007
Ibadites 270 2013
Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement 60 2001
Specific denomination unknown 11.6 2020
total 2001-2020

In 2008, 74.1% of the Muslims living in Germany were Sunnis ; the Alevis accounted for 12.7%, the Shia Twelve 7.1%, the Ahmadiyya 1.7%, the Ibadis 0.3% and the Sufis 0.1%. The remaining 4 percent were made up of other Muslim currents such as the Zaidites , Ismailis or the Alawis .

Ahmadiyya

Part of the 100 mosque plan: The Khadija mosque of the Ahmadiyya community, built in 2008 in Berlin-Heinersdorf, was the first Islamic church in the area of ​​the former GDR

The Ahmadiyya , an Islamic denomination originally from India , which, however, is viewed by many other Muslims as un-Islamic, has around 30,000 members in Germany, who are spread over 220 communities. The two subgroups Ahmadiyya-Muslim-Community (AMJ) and Lahore-Ahmadiyya-Movement for the Spread of Islam (AAIIL, German for Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ischat-i-Islam Lahore) appeared in missionary work around the same time in Germany. On August 9, 1955, the AMJ founded the Ahmadiyya Movement in the Federal Republic of Germany in Hamburg , and in 1969 the association's headquarters were relocated to Frankfurt am Main . In 1989 the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community proclaimed the 100 Mosques Plan , according to which 100 mosques should be built for the Ahmadiyya in Germany. In April 2013, the state of Hesse recognized the AMJ as a corporation under public law , followed in May 2014 by the state of Hamburg and conferring the status of the AMJ in Hamburg as well; it is thus the first Islamic community in Germany to be granted the status of a corporation.

Alevis

The Turks in Germany , who mostly come from the eastern inner provinces of Turkey, partly belong to the Alevi religious community . This direction, spread from Central Asia to Asia Minor (Anatolia), like the Ahmadiyya, is understood by many to be non-Islamic, the Alevis see themselves partly as a movement within the Shia , partly as an “independent religious community from the Islamic cultural area”, like the Alevi Greens -Politician Ali Ertan Toprak put it. The reason for the relatively high percentage of Alevis in Germany among Muslims originating from Turkey is that many immigrants came from Alevi regions in Turkey; In addition, there was an increased wave of immigration as asylum seekers in the 1980s, as many Alevis were oppositionists before the military coup in 1980 . In 1986 the Alevi Congregation Germany (Turkish: Almanya Alevi Birlikleri Federasyonu , AABF) was founded as an umbrella organization for the Alevi congregations, of which 111 now exist. The aforementioned Toprak, who was the general secretary of the AABF, emphasized the secular orientation of the Alevite faith; The Sharia does not apply to the Alevis, nor is the five times daily prayer relevant. In addition, Alevis do not visit mosques; they offer their prayers in a Cem house , which is also where general ward meetings are held. The religious leader of a community is also not an imam, but a Dede .

Ibadites

The majority of the Ibadites living in Germany originally come from Oman . The Ibadis, however, represent only a relatively small minority (around 270 followers) of the Muslims living in Germany.

Shiites

In Germany, the Shiites are the third largest Islamic religious community after the Sunnis and the Alevis . The Shiites are divided into the Twelve Shiites, Seven Shiites and Five Shiites.

Twelve Shiites

Imam Ali Mosque in Hamburg

The vast majority of Shiites in Germany belong to the religious community of the Twelve Shiites (around 225,500 followers). Most of the Twelve Shiites living in Germany come from Iran , who increasingly immigrated in the course of the Islamic Revolution and the First Gulf War in the 1980s; other countries of origin are Azerbaijan , Iraq , Afghanistan and Lebanon . The Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) with the associated Imam Ali mosque is at the center of Twelve Shi'aism in Germany . The head of the IZH is currently Ayatollah Reza Ramezani ; the IZH reports directly to the “ leader and supreme legal scholar” of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Seven Shiites (Ismailis)

The Ismailis represent a religious minority (around 1,900 followers) of the Muslims living in Germany. Most of the members of this religious community who live in Germany come primarily from Pakistan , India , Afghanistan and Syria .

Five Shiites (Zaidites)

There are relatively few Zaidis in Germany . Most of the Zaidis living in Germany are originally from Yemen. The best-known representative of this religious community in Germany was Sven Kalisch (formerly Muhammad Sven Kalisch), who temporarily held the first chair for the training of Islamic religion teachers in Germany.

Alawites

Most of the Alawites living in Germany (an estimated 70,000 followers) originally come from Turkey , Lebanon , Syria and Jordan .

Sufism

Sheikh Esref Efendi, spiritual leader and head of the Rabbaniyya Sufi Center

The first Sufi communities and Sufi orders in Germany were founded in the 1920s, but mostly only in the 1970s. The Sufi order, to which most of the Sufis living in Germany belong, is the Naqschbandi order , which works according to the teachings of Sheikh Nazim al-Haqqani .

Sufi organizations currently active are, for example, the Sufi Center Rabbaniyya in Cologne and Eigeltingen (Lake Constance), the Haqqani Trust - Association for New German Muslims in Mönchengladbach and the Tarriqa-as-safinah around Sheikh Bashir Ahmad Dultz .

Sunnis

The Sunnis are the largest Islamic denomination worldwide, but their proportion in Germany is slightly lower than the global average. Sunnis do not represent a uniform community in Germany, as German Sunnis differ in their religious doctrine depending on the mosque they visit.

Law schools

Almost all Sunnis can be divided into 4 different schools of theology: Mosques are therefore often visited and financed by Muslims from one nation, so that Sunni mosque associations can also be divided according to these schools of law:

  • Hanefiten : Turkish Muslims organized in the Ditib or the more radical Milli Görüsch, but also Albanian and Bosnian mosque associations
  • Hanbalites : Imams from Saudi Arabia, including Wahhabis and Salafists
  • Malikites : Northwest African Muslims. Many Moroccan mosque associations follow this school of law
  • Shafiʿites : Kurds and Muslims from Southeast Asia

Salafists

Pierre Vogel at a rally in Koblenz in 2011; in the foreground counter-demonstrators

The followers of radical-puritanical Salafism , which is financed by the oil-rich Gulf states, represent a relatively small minority within the Sunni community, but they are particularly popular among younger Sunnis living in Germany, which is due, among other things, to a strong Internet presence. Converts like Pierre Vogel play an important role here because, unlike many non-Alafist imams, a large number of whom are only sent to Germany for a few years, they know German culture and speak German fluently.

Organizations

Logo of DİTİB , one of the largest Muslim organizations in Germany
The DITIB Merkez Mosque ("Central Mosque"), which was built in Duisburg in 2008, is one of the largest mosques in Germany

There are many Islamic associations and clubs in Germany. Only the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (AMJ) is recognized as a corporation under public law in Germany and is on an equal footing with the Christian churches.

One of the Sunni organizations with the largest number of members, especially because of the large number of Turkish immigrants, is the DITIB , the Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion eV (Turkish: Diyanet İşleri Türk İslam Birliği ). It reports to the Turkish State Presidium for Religious Affairs and, with almost 350 independent mosque communities, has probably the greatest influence. Together with other umbrella organizations such as the Islam Council for the Federal Republic of Germany (IRD), the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) and the Association of Islamic Cultural Centers (VIKZ), she founded the Coordination Council of Muslims in Germany at the German Islam Conference in 2007 . Overall, around 20% of the Sunnis living in Germany are members of religious associations or communities. In 2010 the Liberal-Islamic Association was founded ; the first chairman was Lamya Kaddor . Among other things, she advocates same-sex marriage (as of 2011) and rejects a religious obligation to wear the headscarf .

Individual organizations that are members of one of the named associations include:

In addition, there is a German-speaking Muslim group (DMK) in many cities , for example in Berlin , Hanover , Braunschweig , Karlsruhe , Stuttgart and Darmstadt .

Islam in the education system

Islam lessons as a subject lesson

In 1978 an application for Islamic religious instruction was submitted for the first time in Germany. In the 1980s, the federal states of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia introduced “religious instruction” for Muslim pupils on a large scale, but only as part of the native language teaching in Turkish (the curricula in Bavaria were provided by the Turkish Ministry of Education). Both countries have been offering "Islamic instruction" in German since the early 2000s.

According to the curricula, however, in many places Islamic classes are not religious classes according to the denominational understanding, but only informative material classes. Problems with the implementation of Islamic religious instruction are among others. the difficult dialogue with the Islamic associations as well as a lack of teaching materials and a lack of (German-speaking) qualified staff (see section "Islamic theology").

The Islamic Federation Berlin (IFB), which has been teaching religion at 31 primary schools in Berlin since 2001, was accused by the Islamic scholar Irka Mohr that the focus of the teaching there was on the proclamation of Islam and practicing the practice of faith; thus the IFB would miss the state educational goal of the "maturity" of the student.

Islamic religious instruction as a school subject

In 2013, the federal state of Hesse was the first federal state to introduce denominational Islamic religious instruction in cooperation with the religious communities and in accordance with the Basic Law. For this purpose, teachers were trained in elementary schools. The DITIB and the Ahmadiyya Islam community were selected as partners for teaching at primary schools in the state .

Lower Saxony was the first federal state to want to introduce Islamic religious instruction as a regular subject in 2012, but was overtaken by Hesse; before that, the subject had started there from 2003 as a pilot project.

theology

Friday pulpit ( minbar ) in the Yavuz Sultan Selim mosque in Mannheim

At the beginning of 2010, the Science Council decided to set up “Islamic Centers” at German universities. At that time, two or three locations were initially planned at which denomination-oriented Islamic research or training for imams would take place. In the same year the University of Osnabrück offered imams further training courses in which the Muslim clergy deal with the German language, regional studies and pedagogical basics; the University of Osnabrück was the first German university to offer such an offer.

At the universities of Tübingen and Münster / Osnabrück (in a cooperation model), courses in Islamic theology were offered for the first time from the 2010/2011 winter semester, which are funded by the federal government .

In the 2011/2012 winter semester, the Center for Islamic Theology at the University of Tübingen started its work, which was inaugurated on January 16, 2012 and which is intended to train imams and Islamic religion teachers in addition to Islamic scholars. The Federal Ministry of Education is funding a total of four centers with around 20 million euros. The first director of the Tübingen center is the Israeli Koran scholar Omar Hamdan .

The imams trained there are to replace the imams brought from Turkey and Arab countries who often do not speak German and are not familiar with the living conditions of Muslims in Germany. However, one problem has so far been the financing and acceptance of the mosque communities: Since Muslims do not pay church tax or an equivalent fee, the communities cannot afford salary payments or it can be assumed that many imams will continue to be sent from abroad.

Around 2010 the Ahmadiyya community founded the first imam school in Germany. In 2012 an Islamic school was built in Riedstadt. For the first time, German students are being trained as Islamic clergy in Germany. The institute is financed by donations. After completing their training, graduates should also work as imams in the communities.

Religious Practice

In a representative study on Muslims in Germany carried out in 2020, 82 percent of the Muslims surveyed stated that they were strong or rather religious. About 70 percent of all Muslims in Germany adhere to the drinks and food regulations of Islam. According to the study, 39 percent pray daily.

Mosques

Anti-mosque demonstration of as unconstitutional classified citizens' movement Pro Köln (2008)

Of the roughly four million Muslims living in Germany, 600,000 to 700,000 are regular mosque visitors.

In Germany there are 159 mosques with domes and minarets (as of 2011). The majority of them are built by the Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion (indirectly belonging to the Turkish state) or by other Turkish Sunnis, over 40 belong to the Ahmadiyya , more than 12 belong to other Sunni groups ( Arabs , North Africans ). As of 2006 there was at least one Shiite mosque built in Germany . Many Muslim groups have not erected any representative buildings and perform the prayers in backyard mosques , the exact number is not known as there is no register or directory for mosques in Germany. The homepage moscheesuche.de, operated by a private person, listed a total of 2284 mosques in February 2017. Mosques from different directions, which the operator describes as infidels or rejecters, such as Shiites and Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat , are missing there. In addition, the list there is not up to date. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees estimated the number at 2342 mosques or prayer rooms in 2012. For several years now, CDU politicians have been calling for a mosque register to be introduced. However, a register would be constitutionally problematic, as there is no such register for other religions.

Typical backyard mosque. Several thousand such backyard rooms are used as a mosque

The construction of mosques met with repeated protests from parts of the population. Citizens' initiatives were formed in Berlin , Dortmund and Aachen that were directed against the construction of an Islamic house of worship in their localities. Architectural concerns are often raised by opponents. In Mönchengladbach and Cologne-Ehrenfeld , for example, the height of the minarets was a stumbling block. In the protests, however, xenophobic tones were just as often heard, such as the protests against the Khadijah mosque in Berlin-Heinersdorf . There was already massive resistance against its establishment in 2008 by the Ahmadiyya with the collection of signatures, and a separate association was founded to oppose the establishment. In the course of the construction of the DITIB Central Mosque in Cologne , the citizens' initiative Pro Köln stood out in particular ; they also collected signatures, organized vigils and protest marches and organized a so-called “anti-Islamization congress”. In individual cases, churches were converted into mosques, such as the Kapernaum Church .

Burials

For devout Muslims, burial is the only possible form of burial. In the case of an Islamic burial , several rules must be observed. The cremation is forbidden in Islam. Since the funeral right thing in Germany country is, the different burial laws in the various states.

In March 2014, the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg passed the amendment of the Funeral Act with the votes of all parliamentary groups . Thereafter there is no longer any obligation to coffin in this federal state. As a result, burials according to Islamic rites are also possible. The requirement of an earliest burial time - 48 hours after death - was also dropped.

Bavaria is one of the last federal states to adhere to the obligation to coffin. In addition to Bavaria, only the two other federal states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt have so far forbidden coffin-free burials according to Islamic regulations. In November 2015, the CSU blocked (despite an unusually clear expert hearing) the abolition of the obligation to coffin at funerals - even if religious reasons are asserted. A corresponding request by the Greens , who wanted to accommodate the Muslims living in Bavaria, was rejected by the CSU majority in the parliament's interior committee. In a hearing of the Interior Committee, not only representatives of the Muslims spoke out in favor of the abolition of the obligation to coffin, but also the Catholic and Protestant Churches and representatives of the local associations . The State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) also had no concerns.

In Saxony-Anhalt , after a year of debate in 2015 , the CDU and SPD rejected any changes to the funeral law in the state. The Greens and Die Linke had drafted and submitted appropriate bills.

graveyards

In October 2014, a new law came into force in the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia , according to which the construction and operation of cemeteries can be transferred to non-profit religious communities or religious associations by means of a loan , if they can ensure permanent operation. This means that Muslims can also set up Islamic cemeteries in Germany . In addition, the new law has reduced the deadline for the earliest possible burial to 24 hours. With this change in the law, the state government wanted to offer children born here from immigrant families the opportunity to have their parents buried locally and according to Muslim customs.

The first Muslim cemetery in Germany was to be built in Wuppertal in 2018. It is a Protestant site. In 2009 the evangelical church donated 20,000 m² to the Jewish community, another 20,000 m² are now to be sold to the Wuppertal Muslims. The cemetery was not in operation until 2020 and donations are being collected for it.

public holidays

There are no legal Islamic holidays in Germany ; However, it is regulated that Muslim students do not have to come to school on their public holidays such as the Sugar Festival or the Festival of Sacrifice - Muslim holidays are also entered in the teachers' calendars. The chairman of the Central Council of Muslims, Aiman ​​Mazyek , also calls for Islamic holidays to be officially included as “German holidays” - but this should not mean to make them generally school and work-free days . In 2009, however, the chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany (TGD) Kenan Kolat considered this to be desirable: On important Muslim days, all children should have time off. As early as 2004, the Green politician Hans-Christian Ströbele initiated a debate in the Bundestag about a Muslim holiday. There, however, the proposal met with strong rejection. The concrete demand for at least one free Islamic day, also for non-Muslim children, met with criticism from the Central Council of Muslims; the Central Council of Jews, on the other hand, found the proposal to be welcomed and in the course of it also proposed a Jewish public holiday.

Sharia

Some religious regulations contained in the Sharia can also be implemented in Germany, provided that they contradict neither the German Basic Law nor public policy

For example, slaughtering , i.e. bleeding animals during slaughter , is permitted; however, German law prescribes anesthesia. For example, unequal treatment of the sexes and religions ( dhimmi and harbī ) as well as corporal punishment and death penalty for theft and adultery are contrary to the constitution .

Unlike in Great Britain , for example, there are no Islamic arbitration tribunals in Germany that speak law according to Sharia law. According to legal experts, German judges will pass judgments in accordance with Islamic law even without their own arbitration tribunals - for example in family and inheritance law. If, for example, a Muslim got married polygamously abroad , then this marriage also applies in Germany. This is possible because, since 1900, foreign law may be applied to private legal relationships (contracts, family questions, questions of inheritance law); in this way, Islamic law, just like French law ( Code civil ), can come into play.

Muezzin calls

Five times on the day of the
Adhān , the call to prayer , sounds from the minarets of the Centrum Mosque in Rendsburg

Traditionally, a muezzin calls the Muslims in the area down from a minaret to prayer ( adhān ) five times a day . In Germany, this practice is handled differently from place to place. In 1995 two Muslim communities applied for permission from the Duisburg city ​​administration to announce the call to prayer once a week with a loudspeaker system . The motion sparked a nationwide discussion, and in particular the Evangelical Church Congregation Duisburg-Laar rejected the public call to prayer, arguing theologically. However, calls to prayer were already allowed in other cities in North Rhine-Westphalia at the time: After a successful lawsuit in 1985, the Düren Fatih Mosque was the first in the Federal Republic where a muezzin could call for prayer. This may be done there five times a day; in Siegen three times a day, in Bochum once a day and in Bergkamen once a week. In Dortmund , Hamm and Oldenburg , too , applications for calls to prayer by mosque associations were approved without protest from local residents. In 2009, citizens of the town of Rendsburg in Schleswig-Holstein resisted the plans of the local mosque to install loudspeakers on its two minarets. Finally, in 2010, the application in the town hall was approved, the calls to prayer may sound five times a day between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. After Schleswig and Neumünster, Rendsburg was the third town in Schleswig-Holstein in which this was allowed.

In principle, Islamic calls to prayer in Germany are protected by religious freedom. However, they can be prohibited under the Federal Immission Control Act if the volume is too high for the neighborhood or for road traffic.

Halāl foods

Halāl certificate on a sausage package

In Germany, various food manufacturers offer products that are halāl, i.e. that are considered Islamic. This means that the animals whose substances are contained in such a product must have been slaughtered; in addition, these products must not contain pork. The German-Dutch company Mekkafood, for example, has specialized in the production of halāl-certified food. Other manufacturers have added these to their range, for example Wiesenhof , Dr. Oetker , Müller , Nestlé Germany , Westfleisch , Nordmilch or the supermarket chains Aldi , Edeka and Rewe . These products are marked or certified with a "Halāl symbol", and the European Halal Certification Institute (EHZ), which is based in the Centrum Mosque in Hamburg , is responsible for certification .

Banking

In 2015, the financial supervisory authority of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (abbreviation: BaFin) granted an Islamic bank a license as a universal bank for the first time . The Kuveyt Türk Bank AG , its business according to the rules of Islamic finance to run plans to open branches in Berlin, Cologne and Frankfurt.

Conversion to Islam

There is no regularly collected information about the number of people converting to Islam in Germany. A study sponsored by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and carried out by the Islam Archive in Soest in the mid-2000s apparently showed that there were 1,152 converts in 2004/05, and between August 2005 and July 2006 the number finally quadrupled to around 4,000 - that high as it has not been since 1920: In the years before the attacks of September 11, 2001 , according to the Islam Archive, there were only 250 to 300. However, in the opinion of some Muslims and Islamic scholars, these figures are not representative and not valid ; According to their own statements, representatives of DITIB and Milli Görüş did not work with the Islam Archive. The head of the archive, Muhammad Salim Abdullah, on the other hand, spoke of a “full survey among all Islamic associations and selected mosques”. However, former employees of the Islam Archive also doubt the informative value of the study.

According to the religious educator Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, the reasons for a conversion are complex: While in the past it was mostly women who adopted the faith who married a Muslim, now more and more people are converting “of their own free will”. These are both Christians who began to doubt their denomination and people who want to stand out from the crowd by being “different”.

Converted Germans were viewed quite critically, among other things, as some of them tend to adopt radical views, i.e. they tend towards Islamism . According to an analysis by the Federal Criminal Police Office in 2010, German police authorities classified eleven converts as "threats" and 26 as "relevant persons". You are under suspicion of planning Islamist-motivated terrorist attacks .

According to the anthropologist Esra Özyürek, German converts play an important bridging role: They are mediators between Muslim migrants and non-Muslim Germans. Through their work in their Muslim communities, they are a gain for integration , so they give German lessons there and question patriarchal structures. Very few converts would become radical.

Muslims in politics

Cem Özdemir , first Muslim chairman of a party represented in the German Bundestag

In the 1990s there were the first members of the Bundestag with a Muslim background; Among the first among them were Ekin Deligöz , Memet Kiliç , Cem Özdemir ( Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ), Lale Akgün , Hakkı Keskin , Aydan Özoğuz ( SPD ), Sevim Dağdelen , Hüseyin Kenan Aydın ( Die Linke ) and Serkan Tören (FDP) .

In November 2008, Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen elected the Turkish-born politician Cem Özdemir as their party leader. He is the first Muslim in Germany in such a position. In 2008, Özdemir described himself in an interview conducted in English as a “ secular Muslim ” (original English text: “secular Muslim”).

In April 2010, the then Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff (CDU), appointed Aygül Özkan for the first time as a Muslim woman as minister in a state ministry , namely the ministry for social affairs, women, family, health and integration . The German-Turkish Forum has also existed within the CDU since 1997 . The current chairman is Bülent Arslan . In North Rhine-Westphalia , Zülfiye Kaykin (SPD) was State Secretary for Integration from 2010 to 2013.

From 2011 to 2016, Bilkay Öney was State Minister for Integration in the Kretschmann I cabinet in Baden-Württemberg . In Berlin, Turkey-born Dilek Kolat (SPD) has been a member of the Berlin Senate in various functions since December 2011 . From 2014 to 2016 she was also the mayor's deputy to the governing mayor. The avowed Muslim Raed Saleh has been chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the House of Representatives since 2011 . Since 2019, Belit Onay ( Greens ) has been the Lord Mayor of a state capital ( Hanover ) for the first time as a "liberal Muslim" (self-denominated ).

Parties

Islamic Party of Germany

On November 19, 1998, the Islamic Party of Germany (IPD) was founded in Munich. After some time, the Federal Returning Officer could no longer establish contact with the board of the IPD, which is why it was removed from his collection of documents on July 26, 2002. Since there has not yet been a resolution to dissolve, the party still exists formally today.

Alliance for Innovation and Justice

The Bonn Alliance for Peace & Fairness (BFF) was founded on June 30, 2009 in Bonn. In March 2010, the electoral association merged with the two other initiatives Alternative Citizens 'Initiative Cologne (ABI Cologne) and Citizens' Initiative Gelsenkirchen in Cologne to form the Alliance for Innovation and Justice (BIG) party. It is a party founded by Muslims and intends to campaign in particular for the interests of Muslims and their social integration in Germany.

The German BIG politician Hülya Dogan was the first woman wearing a headscarf to sit on a German city council from 2009. Spiegel Online wrote: “Perhaps the clearest statement from the alliance is the headgear worn by Hülya Dogan. 'I'm not only on the city council as Hülya Dogan, but also on behalf of all women with headscarves,' says the new politician. 'That was a conscious decision, and we knew that it was also a burden.' ”The politician was attacked at the time and openly abused on the Internet.

Muslim Democratic Union

The Islamic party Muslim Democratic Union (MDU) , founded in 2010, joined the Alliance for Innovation and Justice (BIG) party in March 2014 .

Liberal Islam

Liberal Islam is promoted in Germany by individuals such as B. Mouhanad Khorchide , Lamya Kaddor or Bassam Tibi , but also represented by a number of organizations such. For example: Liberal-Islamic Federation LIB, Muslim Forum Germany MFD, Association of Democratic-European Muslims VDEM, the Center for Islamic Research and Promotion of Women, or the Ibn Ruschd Prize .

Islamism and Crime

A characteristic of Islamism is the prioritization of Sharia over national law, which in Germany is particularly clear in the catalog of fundamental rights anchored in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany , which is considered incompatible with the Islamist legal conception and is therefore not recognized by Islamists. If legal cases need to be clarified, Islamic legal scholars are consulted in Islamic parallel societies in Germany , which is a parallel justice system in Germany .

According to a report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in 2011, around one percent of the Muslims living in Germany have become Islamist, i. H. Affiliated to Islamic political organizations with radical views. This corresponds to around 34,720 people who were followers of Islamist groups in 2008. Germany was primarily seen as a resting place for potential Islamic terrorists; For example, the alleged perpetrators of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 ( Mohammed Atta , Marwan al-Shehhi - " Hamburg cell ") lived in Germany for some time. Islamist correspondents were in the past, the 2005 Prohibited Multicultural House in Neu-Ulm and the neighboring city of Ulm -based Islamic Information Center (IIZ), the dissolved of 2007.

German jihadists , i.e. militant Islamists, often sought connection to internationally active groups such as the Islamic Jihad Union (the Sauerland group, which existed until 2007, was a cell of the IDU) or travel abroad to participate directly in conflicts, such as the German Taliban Mujahedeen in Afghanistan / Pakistan.

German converts are increasingly among the radicalized Muslims (one speaks of so-called “ homegrown terrorism ”). The people ideologized by radical Islamism often recruit themselves via the Internet, as the case of the Kosovar Arid Uka shows, who shot two US soldiers at Frankfurt Airport in March 2011 to prevent them from entering Afghanistan.

2011 was Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich , the initiative Security Partnership - Together with Muslims for Security initiated in order to counteract radicalization of individual young German Muslims. The Radicalization Advice Center is part of this initiative .

Another specialty is the often Islamic milieu of the clan crime that exists in Germany , the characteristic of which is that criminals who are related to each other commit crimes together.

See also: Salafism in Germany , Islamist terrorism in Germany

Islamophobia

The murder of the Egyptian Marwa El-Sherbini in Dresden in 2009 was seen by some Muslims as a blatant expression of general Islamophobia in Germany; during subsequent protests, Muslims drew attention to discrimination against them. Her murderer, an unemployed Russian German , insulted her as an Islamist and stabbed her to death at a later trial in the courtroom.

Since the 2000s, there have been increasing numbers of arson attacks on mosques in Germany. Affected were a mosque in Wolfenbüttel (2002), the Fatih mosque in Sinsheim (2004), an Ahmadiyya mosque in Usingen (2004), the Fatih mosque in Stadtallendorf (2009), and in Berlin in the second half of 2010 alone al-Nur Mosque as well as the Sehitlik Mosque four times, in January 2011 there the rarely used Wilmersdorf mosque of the Lahore Ahmadiyya; there was one attempted attack in Korbach (2010). An attack is also suspected in a fire in the Berlin Mevlana Mosque in 2014, in the same year there were also arson attacks on two mosques in Bielefeld . The attacks were often motivated by right-wing extremists . So far there has only been damage to property.

A survey from 2005 as part of the long-term project "Group-related misanthropy" (GMF) showed that 24% of the German population are of the opinion that Muslims should be prohibited from immigrating to Germany, 34% feel that Muslims feel like strangers in their own country .

Small parties such as the Pro Germany Citizens' Movement, founded in Cologne in 2005, and the Freedom Party, founded in Berlin in 2010, and blogs such as Politically Incorrect are categorized by the media and political scientists as an indication of a manifest hostility towards Islam in parts of the German population.

Islam criticism

Numerous German authors, including those with a Muslim background and belief, take a critical stance on Islam . Necla Kelek turns against the oppression of women in Muslim society and the Muslim gender image. Seyran Ateş held a similar opinion , who fought against forced marriages and so-called honor killings , which became known in the Muslim milieu in Germany. Ateş withdrew from the public eye in 2009 after several death threats. The former member of the Bundestag Lale Akgün criticizes the "ominous Islamization of too many areas of life in which religion has no place". At the same time, the major Islamic associations represent exclusively conservative positions - their actors are "often stuck in the Middle Ages in their thinking". The Egyptian political scientist Hamed Abdel-Samad calls for an “Islam Light” and opposes the practice of Sharia law , gender segregation and proselytizing. Abdel-Samad also received death threats for his theses and was temporarily under police protection.

The German author Henryk M. Broder warned against a policy of appeasement towards radical Islam. The women's rights activist Alice Schwarzer described the Muslim headscarf as the “flag of the Islamist crusaders”, saying that it was not a religious but a political symbol. The former Berlin Senator for Finance and author Thilo Sarrazin blames the culture of Islam for the allegedly poor integration of Turkish and Arab immigrants into German society. The publicist Udo Ulfkotte polemicized in his books about the Islamization of Europe through what he saw as a threatening “ Eurabia ” and in 2007 he founded the anti-Islamic citizens' movement Pax Europa .

In 2007, the Central Council of Ex-Muslims was founded in Germany to criticize the lack of freedom of religion and expression in the Islamic legal system and to draw attention to the secular humanism of former Muslim apostates .

Abdel-Hakim Ourghi observes that the religion that he mediates in the Muslim communities and that he describes as “not sustainable” isolates the members from their western reality. Many Friday prayers ended with a supplication for victory over those of different faiths. Ourghi would like sermons to be held in German.

Controversy

Recognition and equality with other faith communities

On the affiliation of Islam to Germany, Federal President Wulff said:

“There is no doubt that Christianity belongs to Germany. There is no doubt that Judaism belongs to Germany. This is our Christian-Jewish story. But Islam now also belongs to Germany. Almost 200 years ago, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe expressed it in his West-Eastern Divan : 'Those who know themselves and others will also recognize here: Orient and Occident can no longer be separated.' "

- Christian Wulff : Speech on the 20th anniversary of German unification on October 3, 2010

The reaction to the Wulff speech was as follows:

"Islam is not part of our tradition and identity in Germany and therefore does not belong to Germany."

- Volker Kauder : from the Passauer Neue Presse on April 19, 2012

"I would have simply said that the Muslims who live here belong to Germany."

- Joachim Gauck : Interview with Die Zeit on May 31, 2012 regarding Wulff's opinion that Islam now also belongs to Germany.

“Former Federal President Christian Wulff said: Islam belongs to Germany. And that's how it is. I agree with that. "

- Angela Merkel : from Spiegel Online from January 12, 2015

“I do not share this view. Muslims are welcome in Germany and can practice their religion. But that does not mean that Islam belongs to Saxony. "

- Stanislaw Tillich : from Welt Online from January 25, 2015

In May 2015, the SPD- affiliated Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung criticized the fact that the largest minority in Germany was still being disadvantaged . A study published by her on the legal recognition of Islam in Germany describes the steps Germany must take on the way to equality for Islam. The editor Dietmar Molthagen wrote in the report entitled “The legal recognition of Islam in Germany” that it was “indisputable that Islamic communities are currently not on an equal footing with Christian or Jewish communities”. Molthagen, historian of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and project manager in the field of “Religion and Politics”, said: “In this respect there is a need for action in order to fulfill the principle of equal treatment of the religiously neutral state”. The following points can be derived from the study in order to “enable equality with the Christian churches and the Jewish community”. Accordingly, Germany should:

Headscarf debate

The wearing of a headscarf or veiling by Muslim women in public repeatedly triggered discussions. Many Germans perceive the religiously motivated covering of their hair as strange and delimiting, but above all as a symbol of the oppression of women. Especially women wearing headscarves in educational institutions and public offices are a controversial topic. In many federal states of Germany, teachers (including those of other religions) are prohibited from wearing headscarves with a religious background.

End of January 2015 was the Federal Constitutional Court a blanket ban on headscarves in public schools by a decision of principle rather than with the fundamental right to belief and religious freedom compatible so that with changes in the law in addition to the Education Act for North Rhine-Westphalia in the education legislation is expected to further provinces. A ban is only justified if wearing it poses a “sufficiently concrete risk” for school peace or state neutrality. However, an abstract danger is not enough.

Well over two thirds (70 percent) of Muslim girls and women in Germany do not wear a headscarf, according to a representative study from 2020. According to the study, whether Muslim women in Germany wear a headscarf depends heavily on age. It is less than one percent of the girls of kindergarten or elementary school age (up to 10 years of age). With the onset of puberty, the proportion increases to 11.5 percent. Between the ages of 16 and 25, 26 percent of Muslim women wear a headscarf. 40% of all Muslim women between the ages of 26 and 65 wear a headscarf. Of those over 65, 62 percent wear a headscarf.

anti-Semitism

Since the beginning of the second Intifada in autumn 2000, it became clear that anti-Semitic stereotypes and propaganda are virulent among immigrants of Arab origin, North African and Turkish migrants. These are directed against Israel in an anti-Zionist variant in particular , but also against Jews per se. Against the background of the 9/11 attacks and the war on terror , these anti-Zionist motives have been combined with anti-American ones . In Germany, it is above all parts of the Turkish-Muslim male youth who have shown solidarity in the sense of fraternization between the Muslims and the Palestinians who are perceived exclusively as victims. An example of the danger of radicalization is the anti-Semitic film Zahra's Blue Eyes shown at the book fair of the Turkish Islamist organization Millî Görüş . Another example is the film Valley of the Wolves, which was met with great enthusiasm, especially among young people of Turkish origin in Germany . Anti-Semitic writings such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , The International Jew and works by Harun Yahya were also freely available at the book fair . Further distribution media are radio and the Internet.

According to a study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior in 2007, Muslim young people have an above-average tendency towards anti-Semitic prejudices. Turkish and Arab television stations also play a role here, whose programs can also be received by satellite in Germany and which spread anti-Semitic resentment. In the past, Metin Kaplan'sCaliphate State ” (2001), the pan-Islamic Hizb ut-Tahrir (2003) and the publishing house of the Turkish newspaper Anadolu'da Vakit in 2006 were banned in Germany, among other things because of anti-Jewish agitation. However, the Turkish and Palestinian communities in Berlin warned against playing up such incidents and instead diverting attention from the real problem of right-wing extremism. According to Stephan Kramer , General Secretary of the Central Council of Jews, the propensity for violence in the Muslim camp is comparable to that in the right-wing extremist camp.

Relatives marriage

In Islamic culture, marriages between blood relatives are common, especially between cousins; The priority here is to marry the daughter of the father's uncle. This custom is often maintained by migrants from Muslim countries living in Germany. According to a study by the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) from 2010, around every fourth woman of Turkish origin in Germany is married to a biological relative.

Circumcision of boys

The religiously motivated circumcision of the penis foreskin ( tahāra ) of men is part of the Islamic tradition and is traditionally performed by the Sünnetçi . Circumcision (medical term: circumcision ) is increasingly being carried out by doctors; it certainly implies risks (details here ).

A judgment at the District Court of Cologne on May 7, 2012 sees the circumcision of the penis foreskin of a minor boy a criminal assault , even if the consent of the parents is religiously motivated. The Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) criticized this judgment as a blatant and inadmissible interference with the religious communities' right to self-determination and parental rights ; Some representatives of Jewish organizations also expressed themselves in this way. The German Ethics Council met on the subject in 2012; He recommended establishing legal standards for the circumcision of underage boys for religious or ideological reasons, with minimum requirements (e.g. comprehensive information and consent of custodians, qualified pain treatment, professional implementation of the intervention); He also recommended recognizing a development-dependent veto right of the affected boy. On December 12, 2012, the Bundestag passed a law that the circumcision of boys is generally permitted. In September 2012, representatives of Deutsche Kinderhilfe , the professional association of paediatricians and Terre des Femmes appealed to the federal government and the Bundestag not to allow ritual circumcision of boys by law and called for a two-year moratorium and the establishment of a round table to discuss the subject of circumcision in Germany in a scientifically sound manner The professional association of paediatricians reiterated its rejection of circumcision for religious reasons. At the same time, the demand for a moratorium was submitted in a petition to the Bundestag.

Shafts

While that's shafts not been allowed in Germany, but exemptions are possible for religious reasons. Members of religious communities can take advantage of this, provided that their religion makes it mandatory for them to eat meat only if the animal has been killed by a throat cut without anesthesia and has bled completely. This is exactly what Muslim and Jewish dietary regulations provide . The meat obtained in this way is called " halal " (permissible, permitted) by Muslims and " kosher " (suitable, pure) by Jews .

Animal welfare organizations are critical of slaughtering without anesthesia and are calling for a ban. On the occasion of the Islamic Festival of Sacrifice in 2011, the animal rights organization PETA Germany eV wished all Muslims peaceful and blessed holidays. At the same time she explained: “Against the background that the ritual dietary laws are originally in the tradition of animal welfare , we ask all Muslims to consider an animal-friendly diet. Feast of the sacrifice does not mean eating meat. A festival based on purely plant-based food is recommended to all animal lovers. ”PETA is not only against the religious slaughter of animals by Muslims and Jews, but also fights resolutely against any kind of killing of animals. She is of the opinion: "There is no ethically correct consumption of meat and a vegan diet makes the debate about the correct method of stunning and killing sentient animals superfluous."

Demoscopic surveys on the perception of Muslims in Germany

Over the years, various surveys on the subject of "Islam and Muslims in Germany" have been carried out, which give an unclear picture, some contradict each other and are therefore controversial.

According to a survey by the Forsa Institute , 35% of respondents in 2004 agreed with the statement: “Islam is something that scares you.” In 2006, 38% agreed with the statement and in 2018 28% agreed.

According to a survey carried out by the opinion research institute INSA on behalf of Bild-Zeitung in May 2016 , 46% of Germans are afraid of the Islamization of Germany, while 39% are not afraid of it. The fact that the Muslims living here "belong" is in favor of 49% of those surveyed, while 21.2% reject it.

According to a representative survey by Infratest dimap from May 2016, Islam does not belong to Germany for 60% of German citizens, while 34% feel the opposite. According to this survey, skepticism towards Islam has increased significantly in recent years. A representative survey by the Forsa Institute from March 2018, however, came to a different conclusion: According to the survey, 47% of Germans state that Islam belongs to Germany, which 46% say no.

In the media

broadcast

Since April 20, 2007, Südwestrundfunk (SWR) has had the Islamic word , which can be heard and read on the Internet, and since July 6, the ZDF broadcast Forum on Friday on the Internet and on ZDFinfo (Fridays at 8:00 a.m.) ). These Internet offers are in fact not broadcasts of preaching like their Christian counterparts: The Federal German State Broadcasting Treaty allows such religious communities only recognized in Germany.

Deutschlandfunk started the series Koran declared on March 6, 2015 . Every Friday at 9:55 am, a speaker recites a verse from the Koran and then interpreted it by a recognized scholar of Islam. The new program wants to make a contribution to clarification in the increasingly intense discussion in the public and in the media about Islam.

Islamic newspaper

The Islamische Zeitung was launched in 1995 in Weimar by the convert Andreas Abu Bakr Rieger . It is assigned to the Murabitun movement and sees itself as an independent Muslim medium aimed at both Muslims and non-Muslims. According to its own information, it has a circulation of 6,000 to 8,000 pieces (as of 2008).

See also

The prayer room of the Selimiye Mosque in Lünen is decorated with calligraphy
Portal: Islam / Germany  - Articles on Islam in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

literature

Web links

Commons : Islam in Germany  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
 Wikinews: Islam in Germany  - in the news

Individual evidence

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