Seehofer at the Islam conference: money for integration work

Less foreign influence, but support for "Islam rooted in our society": Minister of the Interior, Mr. Seehofer, launched a program of integration of Muslim communities.

"Islam does not belong to Germany": with this sentence, the Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, from the beginning of his mandate last year, has prompted many critics. Eleven years earlier, former Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had stated the exact opposite: in his policy statement for the first German Conference on Islam (DIK) in 2006, it was the turn of Seehofer to open the fourth meeting.

He did not repeat his sentence in the "Bild Zeitung", but was inspired by another, evoking the Christian and Jewish character of Germany, emphasizing the rights and duties of Muslim citizens. "Muslims belong to Germany," he said. There could be "no reasonable doubt" about it.

Integration Support Program

There are many examples of harmonious coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims, but also "strangeness and conflict," said Seehofer. Muslims and non-Muslims face the challenge of "harmonizing" Islamic customs with German culture. In the future, the federal government wishes to specifically promote projects that support the "daily life" of Muslims in German society and the meeting with non-Muslims. How much money will be available for the program "Mosques for Integration – Open, Cooperate, Network," he said.

Limit the influence of the outside

For him, the central question of the conference on Islam in this election period is how to promote Islam in Germany, "which is rooted in our society," said Seehofer. He reiterated his intention to replace foreign influences on German mosques with their own structures, including the practical training of imams. It is up to the Muslim communities to organize this.

In the long term, imams should no longer come from abroad, said the president of the Central Council of Muslims, Aiman ​​Mazyek, before the conference. On the podium of the conference, Seehofer asked him to take concrete action during the next year.

There are now several hundreds of German-born Muslim theology students who could no longer work as imams after graduation, said the State Secretary in charge of the Conference on Human Rights. 39, Islam at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Markus Kerber. The reason is the lack of subsequent practical training.

Ditib's review

The influence of Islamic badociations on the Islamic conference determined the debate before the start of the meeting. Green politician Cem Özdemir has described as "too lenient" the previous policy of German parties within badociations. Özdemir told the newspaper "Die Welt" that all the parties of the federation and the federated states had "completely overestimated" the will of the Islamic badociations to reform themselves. This concerns in particular the Ditib mosque badociation.

in the ARD television Özdemir added that currently Muslim umbrella organizations do not fulfill the requirement of recognition of religious communities under German law. "The door is open to them, but they have to change – to separate from their country of origin, to confess clearly our constitution, to pluralism".

Critics accuse Ditib of becoming the spokesman for Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Ditib is the German arm of the Turkish Religious Affairs Office attached to the President's seat. It has about 950 mosques out of a total of 2600 in Germany. Their imams are Turkish officials.

Mosque fee for more independence?

To gain greater independence from Islamic badociations vis-à-vis abroad, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Integration of North Rhine-Westphalia, Serap Güler, suggested to RBB Radio Info a mosque fee. However, the road ahead was still long. At the same time, Muslim communities should fund their own contributions or donations, as is already the case in the construction of most mosques in Germany.

Federal integration commissioner Annette Widmann-Mauz has objected to tagesschau.de Clearly: "Anyone who wishes to be part of Germany as a mosque organization can not stay in Ankara, which is why not only the emancipation of the alien is necessary, but also a restructuring of the representation of Muslims in Germany. "

Seehofer wants a wider composition of the conference

Seehofer had invited Muslims more than his predecessors to the conference on Islam. 240 participants were registered at the event. Seehofer said that under his leadership, the Islamic Conference had a broader, more diversified and more flexible scope in its working methods. In his own words, he wants to give up fixed committees, but in various formats, he has to discuss everyday practical issues concerning Muslims in Germany.