"Compromises? Count Us Out!"

The Central Council of Muslims in Germany, an umbrella organization, presented an Islamic Charter to the public in February 2002. It met with an immense and mainly positive response, especially from German media. Nonetheless, some critics of the Charter fittingly object to it for its representation of a pragmatic acknowledgment of the present reality, at best. The radical Muslims' response to the Charter has been concealed from the vast majority of society. Even today, the Central Council is confronted with negativity in the Islamic discussion because of alleged concessions to the non-Islamic environment.

Apart from the accusation that an organization with a relatively insignificant number of members is presumptuous in representing Muslims, their comments, in particular, on democracy, integration and religious freedom have been branded as a betrayal of Islam. A "Group of Muslims" accused the Central Council of "populist propaganda, opportunism and pragmatism" in their "Appeal to Muslims and People Seeking the Truth" in June 2002. The Charter is supposedly a "concession that bears the consequences of the secularization of religion." "Those in power will not be satisfied with such concessions and will demand more until Muslims will no longer even recognize themselves," they warn. "Islam is incompatible with democracy, other ideologies and religions," is a further statement in the paper. The Enlightenment has led "humans, who are intellectually restricted and easily influenced by nature, to see themselves as qualified and justified to be the normative measure and, thus, be able to decide for themselves what is right or wrong, bad or good, commendable or worthy of punishment". This point of view is not compatible with the Koran. The authors also dismiss the integration of Muslims in their explanation that "Muslims are not part of the culture here, nor any other society," but instead, "represent their own and the only Umma (community)." The Central Council's Charter, in their view, is the relinquishment of the "sovereignty and ruling rights of Allah", to which no Muslim has a right. That is why it is not permissible to "make compromises for the Kufr system (system of infidels)."

Only a minority of Muslims advocate such rigidity in their standpoints. The basis, however, is the idea shared by the majority of Muslims that Islam must be the measure for their actions as whole. The German convert, Ahmad von Denffer, publisher of the German-language quarterly Al-Islam, says that people accept secular democracy as a fact, however, do not necessarily acknowledge it as acceptable. "To the contrary: This understanding spurs on Muslims to make an effort to transform this society into an Islamic one." The interesting part of this is that Denffer and his newspaper Al-Islam are associated with the Islamic Center Munich, one of the most important registered associations of the Islamic Community in Germany (IGD). The IGD - according to Verfassungsschutz (the German Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution) the local umbrella organization of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers - is, in turn, one of the two central supporting associations in the Central Council of Muslims, the publisher of the Charter.

Denffer's appeal to propagate Islam, which also could be understood as missionarism, is the core of protest amongst numerous, internationally active Islamic organizations. Their primary focus is Muslims. Their first concern is strengthening Muslims in their faith. This does not strongly involve the spiritual aspects of religion: It mainly refers to the social, political and economic elements of the aspired Islamic societal system established in the Koran. The conveyance of Antisemitic world views is also included in the declared religious ideological entity. Furthermore, American capitalism and globalization are strongly criticized.

By Claudia Dantschke

Source: Jungle World 52/2002, 18 Dec 2002

Translation: Helen Groumas