No Integration without Common Values

Bishop Margot Käßmann of the Lutheran church in the German state of Lower Saxony argues that young German Muslims will have an influence on the nature of European Islam. Peter Philipp spoke to her

photo: ekd — Female Bishop Margot Käßmann expects young German Muslims to define a new European Islam

The state of Lower Saxony was one of the first in Germany to provide Islamic religious education as a subject in schools. In other ways too, the state has tried hard to build bridges to the Muslims in Germany.

Bishop Margot Käßmann of the Lutheran church in Lower Saxony in Hanover wants the dialogue with Islam to be intensified. She believes that what's been done so far has already given evidence of some success.

Little knowledge of other religions

Käßmann gives one example: there have been many contacts with the various Muslim associations in the state, and they have made clear the differences between Islam and Christianity. She was at a congress on religious education and she found that the two sides knew little of each other.

"We have ideas about Islam, Muslims have ideas about Christians, and that way we soon create stereotypes," she says. "It's enormously important to meet people, and to talk about one's own life and one's own practice of religion."

But for such meetings to be successful, they must awaken the interest of both Muslims and non-Muslims.

"I think that we haven't been committed enough to finding out how Muslims live in our country," says Käßmann. "To be honest, it wasn't one of my priorities either. We just lived alongside one another, maybe we were friendly, but there never was a dialogue."

But dialogeu has become especially important today, she says, to prevent religion from being, as so often in the past, a cause of strife rather than the cause of peace. Käßmann emphasises that she doesn't want the conflict of cultures to turn into a conflict of religions. The religious communities must learn not to pour oil in the fire, she says.

Reasons for problems with dialogue

Käßmann believes that the reason for the inadequacies in the level of dialogue and the extent of mutual understanding lies, at least in part, in the fact that people in Germany have taken a long time to realise how big the Muslim minority in the country is.

Many thought that Muslims were "guest workers" who would leave Germany after a few years. But current events have also led people to see things differently. Suddenly people are talking about "crusades" and "holy war", and Käßmann notes: "It makes us feel we have to deal with these questions urgently: what is the relationship between the religions? What's going on in the other religion?"

But there are other issues which affect integration and dialogue: do Muslims suffer discrimination at work or elsewhere? It's true that sometimes discrimination is subjective, but Bishop Käßmann believes that a limit has been reached when constitutional rights are infringed.

The idea of a "Dominant German culture" is problematic

As well as lack of interest, there have also been real mistakes on both sides. For example, Käßmann considers the idea of a "dominant German culture", into which immigrants should integrate themselves, to be a dangerous concept. She says the term has become a "battle-ground." "Perhaps people have to realise that Germany has Judeo-Christian roots in its culture, and values. And then they'll understand with what they are integrating."

But Käßmann believes that a society without shared values or basic beliefs can't integrate others. Seh asks, why should a Muslim integrate into a society which seems to him hollow?

All the same, she sees many examples of successful integration, and that's often forgotten.

Bishop Käßmann observes examples from the school her children go to. So she refuses to give up hope. "I haven't given up hope that one day," she says, "we will have young German Muslims who will help to define a new European Islam."

Peter Philipp

Translation from German: Michael Lawton