Germany’s major Islamic associations are in the midst of an upheaval – a development exemplified by the DİTİB organisation. A subsidiary of the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), DİTİB is the largest of a bewildering array of Islamic associations operating in Germany, running 950 of the country’s roughly 2,600 mosques.1 The organisation has, however,…
Public broadcasters’ political talk shows are a staple of the German television landscape, routinely racking up top spots in TV ratings. Yet although there are a large number of competing programmes on offer, these shows have been criticised for being monothematic. As journalist Dunja Ramadan wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, programming abides by the principle:…
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…
German policy-makers are debating the introduction of a so-called ‘mosque tax’, to be paid by German Muslims and collected by the German state in order to fund the provision of Islamic religious services. The ostensible model for such a levy is the ‘church tax’ (Kirchensteuer) already in existence: depending on their Land of residence, members…
In 1961, the West German government signed a ‘recruitment agreement’ (Anwerbeabkommen) with its Turkish counterpart, paving the way for the migration of Turkish workers to the booming Federal Republic. Today, the vast majority of the three million men and women of Turkish heritage living in Germany can trace at least parts of their family history…
