22 March 2016 In a landmark ruling on the role of religious symbols in public schools in March 2015, the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) decided that a generalised prohibition of the hijab in schools was unconstitutional, as was any privileging of Christian or Jewish symbols. The Court asserted that neither the rights of third…
21 March 2016 The newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has published a survey in which both Germans and long-settled immigrants in Germany were asked to assess the situation of immigrants in the country. In this survey, the non-immigrant respondents painted a somewhat sceptical picture of what, according to their perception, being an immigrant in the country…
21 March 2016 The Qantara magazine provides an insight into the challenges and possibilities of interfaith dialogue in the Rollberg disctrict of Neukölln, one of Berlin’s rougher neighbourhoods. 80 per cent of the area’s population are mostly Muslim immigrants; and Neukölln has made the headlines nation-wide as a putative example of the failure to integrate…
21 March 2016 Elections in three of Germany’s 16 federal states on March 13 have given rise to a polarised political scene. In all three electoral campaigns, issues of migration took centre stage, trumping more local and regional themes. The right-wing and anti-Islam Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party made large-scale gains in all states, above…
March 11, 2016 Growing up in Algeria, Shaira had almost everything a young man could wish for. But he also had a big secret. In a land where homosexuality is still a crime and a sin, he was forced to live a secret life, hiding that he was gay from everyone — even his closest…
