For the first time, Islamic religious education has been offered as an elective course in public schools in Catalonia, an autonomous community in north-eastern Spain, during the academic year 2020-2021. Despite Catalonia being the region in Spain with more Muslim students (around 90,440), until now, they were not able to attend classes on Islam in…
As Germany’s politicians ceaselessly question Islam’s place in the country, more and more Muslims take issue with being side-lined in these public debates: it is a discussion about them rather than a conversation with them. As a response, Muslims have striven to organise themselves and to enhance their public visibility. Sociologist Aladin El-Mafaalani describes this…
The Social Science Institute of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) has published a new study titled “Islam and Muslims in Germany: The population’s view”. Just over 2000 respondents were questioned on the phone with respect to their perception of Islam’s place in German society. The study’s results can be accessed here. Although it is not…
For many decades after the arrival of Muslim ‘guest workers’ from Turkey, Morocco, and other Muslim-majority countries, German authorities were happy to outsource the provision of religious services to Imams and preachers sent by the Muslim immigrants’ countries of origin. Since the Muslim workforce would ultimately return home, it was unnecessary and even counterproductive to…
A ‘secular’ and ‘European’ Islam “We are dreaming of an Islamic reform”: this is the opening phrase of the ‘Freiburg Declaration’, a manifesto launched by a group of self-declared ‘secular Muslims’ from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.1 The leading initiator of the Declaration is Abdel-Hakim Ourghi, Head of the Islamic Theology department at Freiburg University of…
