6 August 2010
In his new book, Rauf Ceylan reports on the daily lives of imams in
Germany. According to the professor for religious studies, imams are the
key to a new Islam. At first glance, it seems that there is no other
topic as well-trodden as this one — imams in Germany. Even those with
absolutely no interest in the subject have already been exposed to
countless reports on “preachers of hate,” while the media, with its
fondness for repetition, has portrayed imams as an obstacle to
integration, although within their communities, they are regarded as
role models.
There is nothing particularly new about the subject of Rauf Ceylan’s
latest book (“Die Prediger des Islam”, i.e. “The Preachers of Islam”),
except, however, his approach. Rauf Ceylan is the first to have gone to
the trouble of simply searching out for himself those people about who
so much has been spoken.
