Becoming German, but Staying Muslim

Since the September 11th attacks in New York and since March 11th in Madrid, they have been treated with distrust. This is not a vague feeling they have, it is what they have experienced. I was born and raised in Germany, but nonetheless anonymous vandals wrote the word "sleeper" on my campaign posters, for example.

Muslim citizens of this country are under general suspicion. The social climate has become rougher. Muslims of Turkish decent are rubbing their eyes in shock. Yes, the future role of Islam in Germany is unsettled. Controversies over headscarves, Islamic religious instruction, Islamic butcher rites, the construction of mosques, and much more attest to this. But these had never been sources of social unrest before.

Hasn't it occurred to anyone yet that none of the terrorists belonging to the Hamburg cell was of Turkish background, that all of them were of Arabic decent?

The peculiarities of Turkish Islam

In Turkey Sufism is dominant, a current of Islam that emphasizes this world and the here and now. Narrow-minded Saudi-Arabian Wahhabism or even the stone age Islam of the Afghani Taliban is abhorred and rejected by most Turks, whether they live in Istanbul or Kreuzberg. Atatürk and the secularism he preached are an important foundation for the understanding of Islam found along the Bosporus.

And further, the Israeli-Arab conflict on the one hand and the political and economic backwardness of Arabic leaders on the other have spurred fanaticism in large segments of the Arabic world. Many Turks are critical of Sharon's policies, but they have developed historically grounded sympathy for Israel and its people.

Germany as a home for Muslims

Something else stands out as well: None of the Islamic terrorists were really at home in Germany. They were visiting students. For these extremists, Germany was never a place of retreat or peace; for most Muslims in Germany, whether of Turkish or Arabic background, Germany is much more, it is our home. Who wages war against their own home, against the home of their own children?

We are now powerless as we suffer for the crimes committed by others. What shall we do? If long chains of demonstrators carrying lights helps, then we are prepared to do this, but with the uneasy feeling that we would be trying to distance ourselves from people with whom we were never close in the first place.

Shall I identify myself with an Egyptian or a Moroccan who killed women and children in Madrid, just because he is a Muslim like me?

Let there be no misunderstanding: There may, of course, be radical Islamists among the more than three million people of Turkish origin living here. No one can put their hand in the fire for someone else. But none of them were involved in the front line of Islamist terror acts.

Preachers of hatred: Product of failures in domestic politics

Not even Mr. Kaplan can serve as proof for the radicalization of the Turkish minority in Germany. He represents a small group in the Turkish community. He is the product of the failure of German domestic politics over the past two decades, the conflation of liberalism and ignorance – but he was never a danger akin to that of the perpetrators of September 11th.

Now he is a play thing of the politicians, used by them to conceal their own failures and let off stem. The only ones who have really been harmed by the activities of this grotesque carnival caliph and by the blindness in German politics are we who are of Turkish origin in Germany, as well as our reputations.

And the following must be said, though it is hard to take: It was politics that failed in the case of Kaplan, not the justice system. Instead of complaining about the courts, we should be proud of our constitutional state. Our laws and courts are what distinguish us from a gang of thieves. And a state that denies Mr. Kaplan justice and the rule of law today will not be able to guarantee Mr. Müller justice and the rule of law tomorrow.

Turks may become Germans, but they remain Muslims

Where do we go from here? Islam is becoming less and less a "foreign phenomenon" and more and more a German reality. Both sides must recognize this. For the representatives of the Muslim side this means showing a clear commitment to this country and its values – and this without any "ifs," "ands" or "buts."

The "German" side must also show commitment. Turks are becoming Germans, but they will remain Muslims. There is no reason to treat them better or worse on these grounds.

Allowing all kinds of religious symbols in schools in Baden-Wurttemberg and yet forbidding Muslim headscarves seems to us an act of state-prescribed discrimination, one that – thank Allah, God and our constitutional fathers and mothers – will not hold up in the courts. It is time that Islam finds itself acknowledged as a part of German reality.

Islamic theology in German universities

We need Islamic theologians who are educated at German universities on the basis of our constitutional system. I do not want Muslim children to receive Islamic instruction in obscure backrooms, but in state schools taught by religious teachers educated here.

And why not a Friday religious address in public broadcasts in German? This would be an opportunity for many Christian Germans to learn more about the beliefs of their Muslim neighbors. We must grow closer to one another before mistrust poisons our society.

Mehmet Daimagüler

The author is a member of the Federal Steering Committee of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

Translation from German: Christina M. White

This article was previously published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 23, 2004.