Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts

Islam in Germany

on Saturday, August 17, 2013

Germany has the biggest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. Between 3.0 to 3.5 million Muslims live in Germany, and 80% of them don’t have German citizenship; 608,000 are German citizens. About 100,000 of which are German citizens who converted to Islam. Recent facts show a proceeding expand in their numbers.

Around 70% of the Muslim population is of Turkish origin. Turkish migration to Germany started in the 1960s due to lack of workers in the country. While these workers were expected to leave Germany after their work was finished; however, almost 50% of them stayed in Germany. At the start, the immigrants were dominatingly men; however, they were in the end accompanied by their wives and families. Muslims settled around many modern zones some of which are Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Essen, and Munich. A few Muslims live on the domain of the previous German Democratic Republic.

The second biggest Muslim populace is of Bosnian and Herzegovinian (around 167,081), accompanied by Iran (81,495), Morocco (79,794), and Afghanistan (65,830), Lebanon (46,812), Pakistan (35,081), Syria (29,476), Tunisia (24,533), Algeria (16,974), Indonesia (12,660) and Jordan (10,448). Palestinian outcasts frequently entered Germany from third nations; however, their numbers are evaluated to be near 60,000. The German Afghan population, which has lessened fundamentally since the defeat to Taliban, is the biggest in Europe. Compared to different nations of Western Europe, Germany additionally has the most astounding number of Kurds around its settler population. The German Arab population is roughly 290,000 (in 2002).

Around 10% of the Muslims in Germany are in dynamic religious groups, though 30% stick to fasting and religious holidays.

There are no less than 2,500 Muslim places of worship in Germany, with 140 mosques with arches and minarets. The methodology of building mosques is normally challenged by the German people and the government.

No general ban exists concerning the wearing of the headscarf, in spite of the fact that there is a progressing verbal confrontation concerning instructors wearing the headscarf. In 2003, the Federal Constitutional Court managed against the Land Baden-Württemberg in its initiative to restrict a Muslim instructor from wearing the headscarf.

Halal butcher was tested lawfully for numerous years. In 2002, on the other hand, the Federal Constitutional Court decided that Muslims have the right of exception from animal protection legislation in admiration of their religious beliefs. Still the clashes continued over the butcher issue. Since the 1960s, alleged ‘ethnic organizations’ have been set up to fulfill the developing interest for services and goods, from Muslim work force.

Workers’ religious foundations are not enrolled in the German job data. Hence, estimations are built principally in light of national origin. Unemployment rates are constantly twice as high for non-Germans, with Turkish nationals having all the earmarks of being in the most exceedingly terrible scenario.

Young people have little choices left and are involved generally in unskilled and semiskilled jobs, for example the mining, material, and auto commercial ventures and in business, workmanship, and different sorts of independently employed occupations. They are hugely underrepresented in the field of open service. Young Muslim ladies, who have even fewer choices than do Muslim men, work chiefly as hair dressers, dental assistants, or medicinal secretaries.

Muslims normally confront their managers’ prejudice towards their religious obligations, for example the Friday prayers and the everyday prayers, and canteens which don’t serve halal food, since no legitimate regulations exist concerning these matters. Parts of certain Muslim conglomerations which, despite the fact that legitimate, have been authoritatively named “Islamist” are barred from a few fields of occupation, for example civil service jobs, in the field of security. In these fields, a Regelanfrage (customary provision) at the Verfassungsschutz is obligatory. Muslim ladies mostly face more challenges related to finding jobs due to ban on hijab.

There are an expected 700,000 Muslim German students as of now in schools and higher education. However, official detail just implies outside students. German practice is to give denominational religious guideline in schools. Guideline is to be furnished by religious neighborhoods under government supervision. By law, any group with a sufficient number of scholars may join in the system. In different elected states, religious direction has been offered to youngsters of the Islamic community on a voluntary basis. Nevertheless, it is to a great degree troublesome for Muslims to create religious guideline because of local governments neglecting to distinguish Islam as a religious group, as there is no common institution.

Expecting that scholars who are not included in state-regulated religious courses may be laid open to radicalism in unsupervised Quran classes, there are some motivation to the authorities for starting Islamic religious educations at government funded schools. Generally, there is an absence of Muslim educators with the required language skills, would have been wise to instruct Islamic religious courses in Germany.

Two German Muslims Vural Öger and Cem Özdemir served in the 2004-2009 European Parliament. In spite of the fact that a few lawmakers with social Muslims might be discovered around the political upper class, not many foreigners who recognize themselves as Muslims and relate to Islamic investment are available in national politics today.

Till today, Muslims have no right to collect fund for the Islamic centers. Relations between authorities and Muslim organizations are impacted by the German Internal Intelligence Service (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz). Muslim conglomerations are watched by the German Internal Intelligence which call them Islamist and leave them defamed.



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Germany bans Salafi groups for advocating sharia law

on Wednesday, March 13, 2013

German far right campaigns for the suppression of IslamGermany on Wednesday banned three ultra-conservative Salafist Muslim groups which the Interior Ministry said wanted to overturn democracy and install a system based on sharia, or Islamic law.

The ban, which took effect in the western states of Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia in the early morning, is the latest step taken by German authorities who have increased surveillance of Salafists who espouse a radical version of Islam.

The ministry said it has banned the organisations "DawaFFM" and "Islamische Audios", as well as "An-Nussrah", which is part of the "Millatu Ibrahim" group that was outlawed in June. Some 20 people were searched and assets belonging to the organisations were seized, said the ministry.

"Salafism, as represented in the associations that were banned today, is incompatible with our free democratic order," Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said in a statement. "(The groups) aim to change our society in an aggressive, belligerent way so that democracy would be replaced by a Salafist system, and the rule of law replaced by Sharia law."

Germany is home to roughly 4,000 Salafists. They make up only a tiny proportion of the total Muslim population of about 4 million.

Friedrich said the step was part of efforts by Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right government to promote a tolerant and respectful relationship with the large number of peaceful Muslims in Germany.

Last year a series of violent clashes between police and Salafists, sometimes goaded by far-right anti-Islam protesters, near the western cities of Cologne and Bonn raised fears about growing militancy among an underclass of Muslim youths.

Reuters, 13 March 2013

So, as things stand, it's quite legal to belligerently advocate a state based on the suppression of Islam, as the above-mentioned far-right protestors do, but advocate a state based on sharia law and you're banned. What was that someone said about a two-tier system?



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Right-wing extremism and Islamophobia in Germany

on Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Aiman Mazyek, chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, warns against the trivialisation of anti-Islamic tendencies and right-wing extremist violence, both of which are increasingly posing a threat to social peace in Germany.

Qantara.de, 23 January 2013



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New York Muslim trapped in Germany because of no-fly list

on Thursday, October 18, 2012

A Queens man has been trapped in Europe for the last 17 days, says a civil rights group, because his name is allegedly on the no-fly list.

Samir Suljovic, 26, first tried to fly back home to New York from Vienna, Austria, on October 1. Airline agents told the New Yorker that he could not board a return flight at the request of his own government.

On Wednesday, the New York Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) issued a statement that demands that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) allow Suljovic to return home from his current location, Germany.

Muneer Awad, executive director of the CAIR-NY, said he has no way to know whether this is a case of mistaken identity because he claims authorities have been unresponsive.

"This is not a unique case for American Muslims who have been traveling abroad," Awad told the Daily News. "He has no criminal record, he has never been charged with anything criminal. A Muslim happened to be traveling abroad and it raised a red flag for no other reason than that he is Muslim."

Suljovic tried to contact the DHS and CBP liaison at JFK International Airport but has not received a response, says the rights group. He was advised to ask for help from the Germany's U.S. embassy. But instead of support he was allegedly interrogated and his cell phone was searched without his consent.

"I cannot sleep, eat, and sometimes I feel like I can't breath [sic], knowing my son is homeless in a strange land and our government has done nothing to help us," Suljovic's mother was quoted by CAIR-NY as saying.

"This is an abuse of power by our federal agencies," said Awad. "Our government cannot ban American citizens from returning home without due process of law."

CAIR-NY sent a letter with its demands to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, New York members of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Embassy in Munich, Germany.

"The denial of Mr. Suljovic's right to return home without due process of law constitutes a grave violation of his civil rights and liberties," the letter reads. "Instead of protecting this young U.S. citizen while he traveled abroad, the government has effectively stranded him in an unfamiliar country without shelter or protection."

Suljovic, born and raised in Oakland Gardens, Queens, was attending Queensboro Community College, according to CAIR-NY's statement. He initially traveled to Europe to visit family and friends in Montenegro.

"He has never done anything wrong," his mother said. "He choses [sic] to be a good Muslim. That's not a crime in America."

New York Daily News, 17 October 2012



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Merkel: Islam is part of Germany

on Thursday, September 27, 2012

Angela Merkel has said Islam has become a part of Germany and is urging her fellow citizens to show tolerance for Muslims.

The Chancellor told members of her conservative Christian Democratic party that the great majority of Muslims in Germany had distanced themselves from the recent violence during protests against an anti-Islam video that ridiculed the Prophet Muhammad.

Ms Merkel said Germans "should be open about it (Islam) and say, 'Yes, it's part of us'." She added that Christians should perhaps start thinking and talking more about their own religion again, "rather than having fear of Islam".

Germany is home to an estimated four million Muslims.

Ms Merkel's comment follow former president Christian Wulff's remarks who surprised many in 2010 by saying that "Islam now also belongs to Germany".

Associated Press, 27 September 2012



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