The German Islam Conference: Institutionalized Dialogue with Muslims

Abstract

This chapter discusses the institutionalized dialogue with Muslim representatives in the ‘German Islam Conference’ (Deutsche Islam Konferenz, DIK). I give an overview of the state-church relationship which has yet to grant recognition to Islamic communities. The chapter explores the discursive framing of two themes discussed during the conference, social integration and legal recognition. I highlight the salience of civic universal, civic republican and multicultural arguments and discuss their implications for the articulation of social justice claims. I illustrate how the rationale of ‘conditionality’, which assumes that individual and collective rights to political, cultural and economic participation are conditional upon further efforts on the part of the minority, helps to sustain cultural status hierarchies, legitimates restricted access to political representation and is used to justify patterns of economic marginalization.