Beliefs Test versus Principle of Equality

Yasemin Karakasoglu, the first professor of "Intercultural Education" at the University of Bremen, considers a beliefs test for Muslims to be unconstitutional. Larissa Bender interviewed her

Ms Karakasoglu, you are one of the critics of the Beliefs Test versus Principle of Equality. Doesn't the German state have the right to test its new citizens to see if they agree with the basic values of the majority society?

Yasemin Karakasoglu: In principle the state has the right to do this as long as it does the same with everyone who wishes to acquire German citizenship. – in other words, when no distinctions are being made between religions, ethnic origins, and gender.

I think it violates our constitutional laws to arbitrarily define a "Muslim" as someone who comes from a country that belongs to the organization of Islamic states.

So you would accept the test if it were given to everyone?

Karakasoglu: It would then at least satisfy the principle of equality. A second question is whether it makes sense and whether it is fitting for a democracy like ours to test people with such a questionnaire, which includes some very bizarre questions. Shouldn't it be enough for us to have people swear to be loyal to our constitution? And the moment in which they stop being loyal to our constitution, they should receive the same punishments as any German would.

And if they modified the questions in the test…?

Karakasoglu: I don't think a beliefs test can do justice to the matter. I don't think it is the right way to deal with our fear of antidemocratic behavior. In our society we need to trust that people will act democratically and will uphold our constitutional laws. And we have the legal means to proceed against them if they don't.

We have tried several times to protect ourselves with beliefs tests, and it has always failed. They thought it would be possible to oust left-wing intellectuals and radicals from public life this way. Each time the desire to peer into people's heads and determine what they think and believe, fundamental democratic beliefs have been violated.

But we do seem to have a problem with Muslims. The phenomenon of honor killings and forced marriages is being discussed more and more often in the media. Shouldn't we take a closer look at Muslim migrants?

Karakasoglu: First of all I'd like to point out that honor killings are not a Muslim phenomenon. If you look at each individual case and look at the reality – and I'm not one to say it doesn't exist or to ignore reality – then you'll see that some of the incidences occur among non-Muslim minorities from Anatolia.

Which minorities are these?

Karakasoglu: Yezidic Kurds, for example, and here the practice cannot be attributed to Islam, but is the practice of a minority within a minority. Yet we should not stigmatize this minority by saying they are not Turkish Muslims, they are Yezidic Kurds.

But within these minorities there are obviously minorities which want to bring archaic cultural norms to Germany and enforce them here. The public perceives this as a reference to "Islam." And this is a mistake. And the media is too willing to accept simplistic explanations, goes searching them, and is content with statements like "This comes from the archaic culture of Islam." This is what then goes into print. We must first of all ask: Do all these incidences really only affect Muslims?

And as for forced marriages, I distinguish between arranged marriages and forced marriages. By this I mean to say that people have the right to enter into marriages arranged by a third party, usually parents, relatives, but sometimes others, as long as they consent. I will not stigmatize such a marriage as a forced marriage. This distinction is important to me. However, it is no longer made in public nowadays, because only one definition prevails.

What I find particularly troubling is that such arguments are used to justify a form of compulsion in which a young girl is presented with several partners and then set under social pressure to choose between them. This is socially unacceptable and should be fought by legal means.

I believe that the families, parents, and relatives need to undergo a process of rethinking. We can only stimulate this with information, by opening up a discourse within the migrant society. It needs to be clear that such marriages do not correspond to the realities and desires of girls living in Germany.

You conducted a study on this topic…

Karakasoglu: Yes, we interviewed 950 girls with diverse migration backgrounds. Of them 213 were Turkish. A quarter of these girls said they would enter into an arranged marriage under certain circumstances. Our question was "Would you agree to search for a partner together with your parents?" Only a quarter would agree under certain circumstances. The rest of them did not approve of arranged marriages. Parents and the migrant society must accept this reality.

On the other hand more and more books written by Turkish women who were forced to marry and have written their stories are appearing on the market. These stories have been well received by the German media. In contrast to your study. How do you explain this?

Karakasoglu: That's not quite true. The study Ursula Boos-Nünning and I conducted found much resonance in the media when we presented it to the press last year. Quite a few articles were written about the study – although not as many as have been written about the biographies of women who live or lived in forced marriages or about publications on honor killings.

This means that attention was given to the results of our study, and much was written about it. But unfortunately all this was set aside. And now these biographies are appearing on the market, and unfortunately nobody remember these studies, which could help us better estimate the degree to which forced marriages really affect the realities of a majority or a minority of women. Of course it is necessary to report about these events. The press must not keep quiet about it. But I ask the media public not to be content with simplistic explanations.

But how do you evaluate the phenomenon that all these books are now appearing and being read?

Karakasoglu: Because it is an exotic subject. The whole thing here in Germany began with Ayan Hirsi Ali's "Ich klage an" (I accuse), followed by "Die fremde Braut" (The foreign bride, von Necla Kelek, Ed.), and both opened up a discourse. And many saw in this trend a chance to be read. Of course it is also about public prestige and not least of all about making money.

They have discovered a market niche for themselves. But with their books they are reinforcing a very old image, namely that of the exotic Orient, which from our perspective is full of long outdated and unheard-of ways and forms of living. This all serves to satisfy our need for horror.

Interview: Larissa Bender

Translated from the German by Nancy Joyce

Qantara.de

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