Will Muezzin Call for Prayer in Cologne?

Cologne’s non affiliated mayor, Henriette Reker, made headlines across Germany in October 2021 for granting Muslim congregations permission to call for the midday Friday prayer. The initiative is currently limited to two years. This is not the first agreement of this kind:  In the Fatih Mosque in Düren, also in North Rhine-Westphalia, the muezzin has been calling to…

Share Button
Read More

Anti-terror march highlights activism as well as divisions among German Muslims

Initially, reactions on the part of German Muslim leaders to the attacks in Manchester and London had been muted, with a sense of the routinized and somewhat hapless repetition of well-worn formulas of shock and condemnation prevailing. Fighting against complacency This limited response has not gone unnoticed, with many criticising Islamic associations and Muslim representatives for…

Share Button
Read More

Journey through an Islamic Germany: A book seeks to give diverse Muslims a voice

Providing a counterpoint to the black-and-white narrative Karen Krüger, journalist at culture desk of the conservative weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, has released a new book in which she embarks on a journey through what she terms an ‘Islamic Germany’, portraying diverse Muslim Germans in their daily lives. Krüger’s self-professed goal is to show the diversity of the…

Share Button
Read More

Amidst political controversy, German DITIB association vows greater emancipation from Turkish state

  DITIB: a pawn of the Turkish government? Recent weeks and months have witnessed growing pressure on Germany’s largest Islamic association, DITIB. As a subsidiary of the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), DITIB has been charged with being a pawn of the Turkish government and with seeking to render German Turks loyal to President…

Share Button
Read More

German Islamic associations and their mosques between political demands and institutional deadlock

The role for mosques after recent attacks The German government’s Commissioner for Migration, Aydan Özoğuz (SPD), has called on the country’s mosques to be more proactive in preventing radicalisation among young Muslims. Mosques could make an important contribution to signalling the presence of extremist, or so Özoğuz argued.1 Her intervention comes after Germany has been shaken…

Share Button
Read More