Does Islam belong to Germany? On the Political Situation of Islam in Germany

Abstract

This chapter addresses the question of to what extent Islam can be considered a part of the German ecclesiastical law system and of German society, from the perspective of religion policy. After a historical overview of the development of contemporary German ecclesiastical law I analyze the considerations that have led religion policy in different time periods since the German Empire. The second part discusses the current landscape of Islam, and policy toward it, in Germany. The focus herein lies on the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, the first Muslim organization in the whole of Germany to be established according to a uniform organization model. However, it holds pariah status within worldwide Islam and is considered to be heretical. We conclude that religion and integration policy are two different and separate policy fields that have to be examined both on the analytical level and within practical policy making. We agree with the hypothesis that if the Ahmadiyya was granted the status of a corporate body in public law so quickly, this was because its leadership mostly consists of German converts to Islam. Since the Salafists and several other movements belonging to the realms of Islamic extremism are also made up of German converts, we judge such a policy to be highly questionable. We conclude that most Muslim organizations in Germany and the religion policy pursued by them, are the projects of the elites in society, which neither fit with German ecclesiastical law nor include the majority of the Muslim population in the country. Nor are they accepted by the majority of the German population. In summary, we can observe that the Muslim community in Germany has grown more heterogeneous both with regard to its ethnic composition and to its legal status. Any German religion policy of the future will have to take these developments into account.