Debating Salafism, Traditionalism, and Liberalism: Muslims and the State in Germany

Abstract

As in many other European countries, there is a debate in Germany about the compatibility of Islam with European values. This debate is inextricably linked to the issue of whether pluralism and multiculturalism emerge successful. Currently about four million Muslims live in Germany,1 a minority, but in the cities a rapidly growing population that is demanding political inclusion. What inclusion means is a matter being debated among both Muslims and non-Muslims. Fundamental in this regard is the question as to how the constitutional right to freedom of religion can and ought to be interpreted and implemented. Among the specific issues up for debate are questions such as whether women teachers may wear the veil, whether the circumcision of boys constitutes an infliction of bodily harm (Körperverletzung) or is to be recognized as a religious right, and whether insulting portrayals of the Prophet are covered by the constitutional right to free speech. Muslims are increasingly present in the public sphere, and the fact that they are present as explicitly religious actors stirs disquiet in those Germans who are not religious. As Jürgen Habermas has noted, the secularization of society in Western Europe has taken on a rather unique trajectory, one that is profoundly influenced by conceptions of personal and collective identity.2 In general, many Germans are rather suspicious of religion, and particularly so of Islam, since prominent representatives of the Muslim community (most notably the official representatives of Muslim civic associations whom the government consults regularly in matters of policies affecting Muslims) subscribe to rather conservative, even scripturalist, interpretations of the faith. Many Germans, among them liberal Muslims or former Muslims,3 either do not consider Islam per se, or at least not as it is interpreted by the representatives of Muslim civic associations, to be compatible with German secular democracy.