The Minister for Migration, Refugees and Integration Maria Böhmer has issued her annual report migrants living in Germany. The “Eighth Report on the Situation of Foreigners in Germany” gives an account for people originating from all countries in the world, but also features a small section on Muslims in particular. The report claims that the…
In an article for Qantara.de, Hilal Sezgin addresses the peculiar and questionable composition of the German Islam Conference. First, she criticizes the invention of “secular Muslim” that are so welcome at the Conference: either they are in favor of separating church and state, which applies to roughly all German Muslims, or they are not religious,…
This article discusses the difficult task of Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière of choosing Muslim representatives for the upcoming Islam conference. While it is true that the Islamic Associations are not representative of all German Muslims, the author argues, the latter also fail to exercise their right to form religious associations. If those who…
Liberal German Muslims have announced their plans to found a new association to voice the concerns of those who do not feel represented by the current largely conservative associations. Lamya Kaddor, a feminist and strong critic of Islam, but a “liberal believing Muslim” herself, is one of the spokespersons of the initiative, which aims to…
The overwhelming majority of German Muslims do not define themselves purely in terms of their religion. Yet this plays only a negligible role in the continuing rowdy and polemical debate on Islam that has gone out for its latest spin on Germany’s op-ed pages in recent weeks. Author Michael Kiefer calls for “de-Islamicising” the debate…
