Die muslimische Welt in Deutschland
Islam in Germany

Summary/Abstract: There are approximately 1.3 billion Muslims in the world. In Germany, the make up 5% of the population. 1.8 million of them have German citizenship. As for 2008, 63% of the Muslim population in Germany was of Turkish origin. The German Islam Conference, started in 2006 in Berlin, seeks to provide a national framework for dialogue between the German state and Muslims living in Germany and improve religious, social and political integration of Muslims into German society.In 1978, a request to introduce Islamic classes was submitted for the first time. In the 1980s Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia introduced ”religious instruction” for Muslim pupils (within the framework of instruction in their mother tongue, i.e. Turkish). Since 2000 the instruction is given also in the German language. In 2010 the German Council of Science and Humanities decided to establish ”Islamic centers” at German universities. Two years later, the University of Tübingen inaugurated the Center for Islamic Theology for the education of islamologists, imams and Muslim ”religious instructors”.There are no legally recognised Muslim holidays in Germany. Recently, the Secretary General of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, has called to do so. Unlike in Great Britain, there are no Muslim arbitration courts issuing pronouncements based on the Sharia law. But the Muslim call to prayer is covered by the right of the freedom of religion. In 2004-2005 there were 1.152 conversions to Islam in Germany.

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