October 14 marked the first muezzin call from the central mosque of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), which stands in Germany’s fourth largest city, Cologne. The city is home to approximately 120,000 Muslims, accounting for 11% of the city’s population. The DITIB mosque is one of 45. The event was met with mixed…
Just like the population at large, the German Bundeswehr has undergone a remarkable trajectory of religious pluralisation in recent years. As of 2012, over 48,000 Catholics and over 63,000 Protestants served in the armed forces. This would mean that just over half of Germany’s 180,000 soldiers identified as Christian; a figure that maps quite closely onto…
In 2018, German sociologist Aladin El-Mafaalani scored a somewhat surprising best-seller: his book Das Integrationsparadox (‘The Integration Paradox’) shot into the top ten of German book sales, providing a counterweight to gloomy and populist pamphlets on immigrants’ failure to ‘integrate’ and of Germany’s impending ‘Islamisation’ otherwise dominating the commanding heights of the book market. Successes…
In recent weeks, Mesut Özil’s resignation from Germany’s national football team and the ensuing debate on racism, spearheaded by the #MeTwo hashtag, have galvanised public attention in Germany. Mainstreaming of the far-right This comes as many Muslim and/or anti-racist civil society organisations see themselves at a crossroads. The rise of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany…
The state government of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), the most populous of Germany’s 16 federal states, is contemplating following the Austrian lead and banning girls under the age of 14 from wearing a hijab. The proponents of this prohibition have been vague on where it is supposed to apply. Some have spoken of a potential ban…
