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Islamic Vision and Social Reality: The Political Culture of Sunni Muslims in Germany
Abstract
An underlying notion in the sociology of religion of Weber (1973a,b) and Troeltsch (1922) is the idea that religion is a dynamic phenomenon. Religion is not to be understood as a static and coherent system of symbols, but rather as an ongoing process of constructing a world view. The direction of the religious search is conditioned by the transcendent (formulated in myths and articulated in rituals) attempt to connect an ideal relation of individual and society with the actual experience of the other and the self in existing society. This approach implies an analysis of the religious process in terms of problems and solutions. It is in this respect that I want to analyse the political culture of Sunni Turks in Germany with particular reference to ‘fundamentalist’ groups.
... 14 J. Knight (1986) states that 80 percent of the German-Turks used to watch Turkish videos daily. 15 For further inquiry about Süleymancis, Nurcus and Kaplancis, see Schiffauer (1997). 16 Diaspora with capital 'D' implies the form of diaspora in which the community attempts to preserve its own 'distinctive' culture. ...
... In the case of Germany, there has been a proliferation of research with respect to Islamic associations (Allievi and Nielsen 2003;Amiraux 1997Amiraux , 2003Jonker 2000Jonker , 2004Schiffauer 1997Schiffauer , 2000. But, by and large, immigrant associations, specifically social-democratic and left-wing associations, have been neglected since the 1980s (Gitmez and Wilpert 1987;Ö zcan 1989). ...
The political representation of immigrant associations is central for immigrants to become political actors in Germany. I offer a comparative analysis of two Turkish immigrant associations to point to the diverse approaches in terms of immigrant incorporation and citizenship rights. By illustrating these associations' views on incorporation/assimilation, nationalism/ethnicity, secularism/Islam and their relations with the mainstream German political parties, I attempt to show that immigrants are not victims of the political decisions of the German state. On the contrary, Turkish immigrant elites become important political actors to negotiate rights and memberships in the name of this ethno-national group. In conclusion, I suggest an approach that recognises the agency of the immigrants in the socio-political discourse and also in the governing process.
The integration of Muslims has been a core issue within German socio-political debates for over 20 years. The participation of Muslim pupils in certain school subjects, most prominently in school swimming lessons, has been a core issue within those larger debates. This article demonstrates that Germans, including Muslims in Germany, dispute not merely the participation of members of a religious minority in one of dozens of school activities. Rather, all parties involved negotiate recognition, share, and power within society at large. Muslims seek to take part in determining the character of a society they have been making a home since the 1960s. Inspired—among other factors—by Global Islam movements, they challenge notions of ethnic hegemony, the public visibility of different religions, and interpretations of liberalism, including aspects of gender equality. The article illustrates how the encroaching integration of Muslims in Germany led to the demand for respect for religio-cultural difference by a minority among them; and how the struggle by Muslims to become equal members of society created resistance among those in Germany who seek to protect their inherited share of influence. The development is also illustrated by court decisions about the degree of religious difference accepted in schools. As agents of change, Muslims have forced non-Muslim Germans to answer some uneasy questions about what they want society to be like. Key words: Islam in Germany, Islam Debate, Migration and Integration, Islam and Education, Islam and Swimming, Muslim Minorities in the West, Global Islam
Over the last decade in Germany and France, one Islamic organization has emerged as potentially the most dominant in each country — respectively, the Turkish Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (Diyanet İsleri Türk İslam Birliği, DITIB) and the Association of Muslims in France (Rassemblement des musulmans de France, RMF). I argue in this chapter that the success of these two organizations has not solely been due to the political and institutional opportunity structures in the countries in which they find themselves, but in large part thanks to the support that they receive from their states of origin, Turkey and Morocco.2
In this chapter, we aim to put forward and discuss two broad arguments. First, the questions of “new Muslim pluralism”—to be described shortly—in EU countries and Turkey are analytically and politically inter- related in important ways and viewing them as such may help to better address these questions. Second, in both cases, the better way to address this new pluralism seems to be social and political inclusion rooted in the merits of secular and pluralistic democracies with well-developed checks and balances. It is not social and political exclusion rooted in the twin preconceptions that Islam is essentially different from other religions and Islamism is a monolithic and unchanging ideology. Thus, both political institutions and social and political perceptions seem to matter greatly in addressing these questions democratically.
Zusammenfassung Die Integration von Bildungsaufsteigern mit türkischem Migrationshintergrund wird nicht durch die Assimiliation an deutsche
bei gleichzeitiger Aufgabe kultureller Orientierungen der Herkunft begleitet. Bildungsaufstieg motiviert die individuell-strategische Integration deutscher und türkischer Identitätsmerkmale, weil neue diversity managment-Konzepte internationaler Organisationen Berufschancen eröffnen.
Auch Prozesse sozial-emotionaler Integration verlaufen “selektiv”, weil die Sozialisation in deutschen Bildungsinstanzen zu emotionaler Distanz von ethnischen Herkunftsgemeinschaften
führt, während der soziale Anschluss an Gemeinschaften “Deutscher” nur unvollständig gelingt. Diese starken Individualisierungsanforderungen
führen zu Fragen kulturell-authentischer Integration, die jenseits sozialer Klasse und ethnischer Gemeinschaft in einer neuen Immigrantenkultur beantwortet werden. Solche öffentlichen
Diskurse motivieren Distanzen zu deutschen und türkischen Lebenswelten zugunsten kommunikativer Integration und Bindung an Verfahren. Bildungsaufsteiger lehnen essenzialistische Zuschreibungen ab, konstruieren hingegen im Prozess
projektiver Integration hybride Identitäten, posttraditionale Gemeinschaften und aktive Vertrauensbeziehungen.
This article compares the four largest Turkish Islamic organisations – Diyanet, Milli Görüş, the Süleymanlı and the Gülen communities – in Germany in order to facilitate a clearer understanding of the role of Islamic organisations in Muslim immigrant integration. In Germany, where integration policies fall between the multiculturalist and assimilationist paradigms, Turkish Muslims constitute the largest ethnic community originating in Muslim majority countries. This study argues that it is not helpful to group all Islamic organisations together because they each have different fields of activity upon which they concentrate their resources. Each Islamic organisation should be analysed separately as this permits the categorisation of the activities and characteristics of Islamic organisations into those that promote or hinder integration.
Ethnic and national dimensions: the majority of Muslims in Britain are from the Indian sub- continent, divided as Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi. In France they are predominantly Maghrebian, and in Germany Turks. These ethnic compositions are determined by historical factors of colonialism and migration. Until the 1980's these communities were defined, and defined themselves, in ethnic terms. The overall designation in Britain, for instance, was 'Asian.' For leftist local authorities in the 1970's and 80's in Britain they were all honorary 'blacks' (even the Chinese!) as part of the common oppressed of the Third World, and many were pragmatic about this designation, which entailed financial benefits and facilities. The derogatory racist label for all Asians was 'Pakis.' Islam did not figure in this vocabulary of identities. Was it, perhaps, the rise of Islam as a prominent and powerful signifier on the world stage in the 1980's, which drew its adherents and opponents alike to seek it as a marker of identity? The episode which marked this transformation more than any other was that of the Rushdie affair in 1989, which galvanized Muslim opinion in the West around common advocacy and action, as well as linking it to the foremost symbol of this world resurgence of Islam, in the form of the death sentence pronounced by Ayatollah Khomeini on the errant author. Since then Islam has come to the forth as an identity marker and a basis for advocacy, association and action. It has not, however,
Sufism, the name given to Islamic mysticism, has been the subject of many studies, but the orders through which the organizational aspect of the Sufi spirit was expressed has been neglected. The Sufi Orders in Islam is one of the earliest modern examinations of the historical development of Sufism and is considered a classic work in numerous sources of Islamic studies today. Here, author J. Spencer Trimingham offers a clear and detailed account of the formation and development of the Sufi schools and orders (tariqahs) from the second century of Islam until modern times. Trimingham focuses on the practical disciplines behind the mystical aspects of Sufism which initially attracted a Western audience. He shows how Sufism developed and changed, traces its relationship to the unfolding and spread of mystical ideas, and describes in sharp detail its rituals and ceremonial practices. Finally, he assesses the influence of these Sufi orders upon Islamic society in general. John O. Voll has added a new introduction to this classic text and provides readers with an updated list of further reading. The Sufi Orders in Islam will appeal not only to those already familiar with Triminghams groundbreaking research, but also to the growing reading public of Islamic studies and mysticism.
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