Islam in Germany ADAM KOWALSKI, NICK GLANVILE, ALI STEWART

‘Der Islam gehört zu Deutschland’ (Islam is part of Germany), Angela Merkel, 12th January 2015.

What do you think could have prompted Merkel to say this?

What did Merkel mean when she said this?

Rationale

To give you: A background of Germany’s Muslims.

An overview of government initiatives towards Muslims.

Use of selective examples to illustrate: The issues that Muslims face in Germany.

The difference between perception and reality.

Opposition to Islamic culture in Germany.

Presentation structure

Brief history of Islam in Germany

Guest worker recruitment and the new era of Muslim immigration (Turkey).

Muslims in Germany today

Civic integration

Femininity and Masculinity, gender and gendered practices.

Islam in public discourse.

Pegida

Brief history of Islam In Germany

Goethe had an interest in Islam and a high regard for the religion.

German Empire link to the Ottoman Empire.

German-Turkish alliance during the First World War.

Foundation of the Berlin Islamic Community in 1922.

Guest worker recruitment in the post-war years.

Turks (from 1961), Moroccans (from 1963) and Tunisians (from 1965).

3 million Muslims in Germany today.

Prayer rooms, mosques and minarets have appeared in most large cities and many small towns.

Legal issue of headscarves.

Growing fears that the ‘minority’ is coming to dominate the ‘majority’.

Guest worker recruitment

Post-war economy, demand for cheap labour.

Turkish workers (amongst others)

Treaty of 30th October 1961, travelling expenses for Turkish workers are covered by the German government.

Short-term basis.

This changed later for economic reasons, and workers were allowed to bring their families.

One million guest workers had arrived by 1964. Der Spiegel, April 1964

Turkey as a country of emigration

Traditionally known as a country of emigration.

Guest workers

Family reunification schemes in the 1980s and 1990s

Asylum (Kurds).

Not just emigration to Western Europe.

Damaging to the Turkish economy, many skilled workers left the country.

Muslims in Germany today

Largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France.

Most of Germany’s Muslims live in the West of the country. Nordrhein Westphalen

Baden-Württemberg

Different groups of Muslims, e.g. Sunnis, Alevites

Only a third of Germany’s Muslims pray daily.

Many German Muslims support: Gay marriage

Abortion

The right to die.

The stereotypes of a backward and repressive religion are inaccurate.

Die Welt, 8 January 2015

Weber, B.M (2013)

Two main practices covered in the text Violence (both domestic and familial)

Headscarves

Gender and gendered practices

Honour based Backwards = links to Islamophia

Gendered Position of women’s bodies in society

Media portrayals Violence against Muslim women is very successful in German media

Focus shift from class/national difference to religious/cultural difference

What effect could this have on audiences?

Headscarf as violence

Symbolised as inherent to domestic violence

Violence

Hijab martyr

Banning of headscarves

Clash of cultures debate

Headscarves

‘After nearly 50 years, Germany's institutions still react rather helplessly to the permanent changes that have taken place in society.’

‘Self-proclaimed representatives of Islam… despite their openly Islamistic tendencies -- have accomplished a great deal and are demanding much more.’

‘This is a distressing development for a large number of integrated Muslims, many of whom emigrated to Germany to flee precisely this type of fundamentalism.’

‘Critics of the government's approach say that it would be better to gauge concessions toward Islam to the needs and interests of these Muslims. They suggest that by bolstering the more moderate elements of Islam, it will be possible to shape a common future with their help.’

U.S. Stegemann, professor for Islamic studies at the University of Marburg.

Procedures for civic integration.

Michalowski (2014) text.

Are Muslims specifically targeted by integration measures?

45 Stunden Deustchland, a booklet used in the course given to migrants from most non-EU countries.

The French and German examples are good indicators of how three forms of institutions are seen to be threatened by Muslim immigration:

Separation of church and state

Gender equality

Individual liberties.

Implicit targeting of Muslims in these civic integration programmes.

Michalowski distinguishes between two different approaches to civic integration: Socio-cultural norms

Juridicio- political norms.

Difficulty in striking a balance between: Making citizenship meaningful for immigrants

Cultural assimilation.

Turks are less effectively integrated than other groups and are more likely to be: Poorly educated

Unemployed

Underpaid

What type of civic integration do you believe is the most beneficial?

Who has the main responsibility to integrate migrants: Government?

Migrants themselves?

The German people?

Islam in public discourse

High-profile negative news stories of Islamist extremism.

Effect on the public perception of Muslims as a whole.

‘Often no proper differentiation is made by the German public between issues of Islamic terrorism, Islamism, and the general phenomenon of immigrant crime. This, as well as the general negative attitude towards Muslims, seems to be foremost due to negative political and media discussions.’

‘Islam in Germany’, Euro Islam

Association of Islam with: Crime

Terrorism

The oppression of women

Honour killings

Backwardness

Intolerance.

Homogenous group

Focus on honour killings, forced marriage, mosque constructions and banning the veil.

The veil has been, like in other European countries, subject to debate in the media.

It is not banned in Germany, because it is claimed that this would be unconstitutional.

Bavarian court ruling in 2014.

Pegida ‘Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes‘

Dresden-based popular protest against the ‘Islamification’ of Germany and Europe.

Weekly demonstrations in Dresden, which have spread across Germany.

Counter-protests usually outnumber the Pegida protests.

Lutz Bachmann

Wir sind nicht "politisch korrekt"...!

JEDER Mensch, gleich welcher Nationalität oder Religion ist uns willkommen !!!

Wir wollen einfach KEINE GEWALT auf unseren Straßen wie z.B. in Hamburg oder Celle !!!

Unsere Städte, Dörfer und Gemeinden sind KEINE Orte zum Austragen von Stellvertreter- oder Glaubenskriegen!!! 

Wir akzeptieren KEINE HETZE von irgendwelchen Salafisten gegen "Ungläubige" oder Andersgläubige... 

Wir akzeptieren in Europa keinerlei "Tätigkeiten" von IS, PKK, al Kaida oder wie sie alle heißen!

Die Trennung von Staat und Kirche war und ist ein Erfolg in Europa.

Der "Vater der Türken", Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, führte die Türkei, nach der Trennung von Staat und Religion, mit Erfolg in die Moderne und hat damit bewiesen, dass dazu auch ein muslimisch geprägtes Land in der Lage ist!

Extracts from the Pegida Facebook page

How would you describe the ‘typical’ Pegida protester?

Why do think Pegida has emerged and what future do you think it has?

Pegida protest, 12th January 2015

Middle-aged male from the east of Germany.

Wider frustration with European integration, immigration and out-of-touch government.

The AfD as another example of this in Germany.

Was the guest worker programme a good thing for Germany?

Is Islam compatible with Western culture?

Is Islam ‘part of’ Germany?

Bibliography (Part 1) Betz, M. and Eichinger, R., ‘Was Deutsche wirklich über Integration und Islam denken’, 10

October 2010 <http://www.bild.de/politik/2010/was-die-deutschen-wirklich-ueber-islam-und-integration-denken-14249472.bild.html> [Accessed 7 March 2015]

‘Dürfen wir vorstellen: Deutschlands Muslime’, die Zeit, 29 January 2015 <http://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/2015-01/islam-muslime-in-Deutschland> [Accessed 7 March 2015]

Huggler, J., ‘Germany's 'Islamisation' marches: how the pro- and anti-Pegida rallies measured up’, The Telegraph, 13 January 2015 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11342953/Germanys-Islamisation-marches-how-the-pro-and-anti-Pegida-rallies-measured-up.html> [Accessed 9 March 2015]

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Michalowski, I., ‚Legitimizing Host Country Institutions: A Comparitive Analysis of the Content of Civic Education Courses in France and Germany‘, in European States and Their Muslim Citizens: The Impact of Institutions on Perceptions and Boundaries, ed. By J.R. Bowen et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp.164-188.

Bibliography (Part 2) Peters, F., ‚Ablehnung des Islam in Deutschland wächst‘, Die Welt, 8 January 2015

<http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article136137605/Ablehnung-des-Islam-in-Deutschland-waechst.html> [Accessed 9 March 2015]

Stegemann, U.S., ‘Allah and the Occident: How Islam Came to Germany’, Spiegel, 16 June 2008 <http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/allah-and-the-occident-how-islam-came-to-germany-a-559927.html> [Accessed 7 March 2015]

‘Turkish guest workers transformed German society’, Deutsche Welle, 30 October 2011 <http://www.dw.de/turkish-guest-workers-transformed-german-society/a-15489210> [Accessed 7 March 2015]

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Weber, B.M., Violence and gender in the "new Europe”: Islam in German culture (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013)

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