Elif Kayi, Z Word’s European press reviewer, reports on recent debates over Muslim integration in Germany.

In late 2006, Wolfgang Schauble, the German interior minister, set up a body called the “Islam Conference” with the aim of encouraging dialogue between the state and the representatives of Germany’s Muslim communities. This was followed up, last year, with the creation of the Muslim Coordinating Committee, composed of the four biggest Islamic federations in Germany. Thus did Germany address a major policy question which has cropped up in other western European countries: how to find a bona-fide Muslim interlocutor?

There are 3.3 million Muslims in Germany, mostly of Turkish origin. And there is a growing realization that one committee cannot speak in the name of all Muslims. Indeed, as with similar bodies in the UK and France, the German Committee is heavily weighted to conservatives. As Ezhar Cezairli, a leading secular Muslim from Hessen and a participant in the Islam Conference, pointed out: “One interlocutor cannot be found, Islam is too diverse. We do not have a fixed organizational form and a clear hierarchy like the Christians. The Muslim Coordinating Committee represents at most 15 or 20 percent of Muslims here - and above all the conservatives.”

Cezairli’s comments reflect the concerns of other secular, liberal and independent German Muslims, many of whom do not feel represented by the big Islamic federations. For example, the Islamrat, the largest of the four federations, counts among its members the Islamist Milli Görüs organization, known for its links to Necmettin Erbakan, the founder of Turkish Islamism. One consequence of this disillusionment with the leadership is that it has spilled over into Schauble’s Islam Conference.

Shortly before this year’s Conference, Walid Nakschbandi, an author and TV producer, announced that he would not participate because he feared his contribution would be drowned by conservative voices. The sociologist Necla Kelek, who achieved renown in Germany after the publication of her book about forced marriages , “The Imported Bride”, openly attacked the leaders of the federations: “You…have shown us that it is not possible to make a state with you; or not one that corresponds to our conceptions of democracy and secularism. For too long we have allowed you and your federations to decide the nature of Muslim life in Germany.”

In the run-up to this years Islam Conference, the author Ralph Giordano, writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, reignited the controversy over Muslim integration in Germany. Giordano complained that it is not possible to criticize Islam without being accused of racism. Addressing Schauble, he said: “It scares me that you show so much understanding.” Controversially, Giordano added that it was the legacy of the Nazi era which sensitized him to the threat posed by radical Islam.

But Giordano’s statements were contested elsewhere in the German press. In the newspaper Tagesspiegel, journalist Martin Gehlen reviewed the results of a study carried out by the Gallup Institute in 35 Muslim countries over the last six years. According to Gehlen, there is no basis for the growing perception in Germany that Islam “is associated with fundamentalism, violence and the oppression of women.” In the same article, Heiner Bielefeldt, Director of the German Institute for Human Rights, cautioned against identifying Islam with so-called “honor killings”, violence or enforced marriages.

The need for more public education about Islam was an important factor behind Schauble’s announcement, at the Conference, that a curriculum about Islam would be introduced in state schools. This was welcomed by Bekir Alboga, spokesman for the Muslim Coordinating Committee, as a measure that would strengthen the identity of Muslim children.

In Tageszeitung, Philipp Gessler argued in support of Schauble, asserting that state control of what is taught would lessen the danger that “extremists reinterpret Islam as a generally undemocratic, intolerant and violent religion.” In the same article, Gessler was countered by Natalie Tenberg, who said that the curriculum was the product of conservative Christian agenda which would be strengthened in turn.

Other participants in the Islam Conference were critical of the idea of framing lessons about Islam within the context of religious studies. Writing in Die Zeit, Kenan Kolat, President of the Turkish Community of Germany, said that lessons about Islam which were more cultural and less religious would show greater respect for the diversity of Muslims in Germany.