Germany’s New True Believers

The prize for establishing a formal organization is a big one: government support at every level. The two main churches divvy up €18.5 billion in subsidies and a government-collected "church tax," including €3.5 billion for religious instruction in the schools. (The far-smaller Jewish community gets a lesser sum.) On top of that, the government doles out an additional €45 billion to church-run hospitals, nursing homes and other social services.

But so far, the Muslim community has been unable to build a national organization that meets the government's standards. The German government considers the Turkish state-run mosques to be extensions of the Ankara bureaucracy. And the Muslim community complains that the churchlike hierarchy and transparent organizational structures the Germans would like to see are largely alien to Islam. So far, only one local Muslim organization—Berlin's Islamic Federation—has won the right to conduct religious instruction, as a result of a court order a decade ago. But to the dismay of proponents of integration, it conducts its instruction in Turkish. Worryingly, the federation, which teaches 4,500 students at 40 Berlin schools has in the past been tied to Islamist radicals by German domestic intelligence—a charge the federation denies.

Now, the government is telling Muslims it is willing to meet them halfway. While encouraging the Muslim community to set up national and regional representative bodies, it has also launched a series of pilot projects for Islamic instruction in its public schools. In the biggest such project, involving 130 grade schools in North-Rhine Westphalia, education experts consulted with local Muslim groups to devise a curriculum that most Muslim sects would accept. Teachers explain suras of the Qur'an in German, and discuss how they might live the teachings of the Qur'an in modern, diaspora times. The state-approved curriculum also requires them to learn that men and women are equal in Islam, and know the basics of Christianity and Judaism.

Teachers are now being trained at a new department for Islamic pedagogy at the University of Münster, one of four set up at German education or theology departments in recent years. Teachers in the system say these classes are a huge step toward integrating Muslims, reducing discrimination and providing an alternative to what grade-school Islam teacher Lamya Kaddor calls "the import theologians."

Change, it seems, is already happening. Kaddor, a German-born daughter of Syrian immigrants, tells the story of a visitor who recently came to her Islam class and asked the kids whether non-Muslims would go to hell—fully expecting a damning answer. Kaddor was surprised when they answered a unanimous "no." "A few years ago I'm sure they would have answered differently," she says. Still, there is no guarantee that all or even most Muslims will adhere to the script Germany, along with other European countries, seems to be writing for the integration of Islam. But if it helps students feel better about growing up Muslim in Europe, it's a big improvement already.

© 2008