DAR AL HARB - GERMAN: A PARRALLEL MOSLEM SOCIETY FORMING IN GERMANY

A Parallel Muslim Universe
By Andrea Brandt and Cordula Meyer
Germany's Muslim population is becoming more religious and more conservative. Islamic associations are fostering the trend, particularly through their work with the young -- accelerating the drift towards a parallel Muslim society.

It's the silence that visitors notice first. No children's laughter, no chatter, no pop music. A Protestant minister familiar with the noise level in children's homes describes the atmosphere as "very spooky." This Friday, at the end of Ramadan, it is especially hushed in the green house on Hochfeldstrasse in Duisburg, a city near Düsseldorf. Quietly, the boys remove their jackets from the cloakroom's numbered hooks - many are heading home for the holiday. The blankets are meticulously folded in the dormitories. Toys and posters are nowhere to be seen.

Run by the Association of Islamic Cultural Centers, known by its German acronym VIKZ, the home houses 38 Muslim adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19. They attend state schools in the morning, but otherwise live and learn in the green house. They get help with their homework between 3 and 6 in the afternoon and eat supper at 7. The rest of the day, according to the timetable, they are free to do what they want. Their parents contribute 150 euros a month; the rest is financed by donations.

The residents are not typical of children raised in institutional settings who often come from dysfunctional backgrounds. Most of these boarders are growing up in intact family units. Officially they are here first and foremost to improve their performance at school. "The VIKZ homes improve their educational prospects," says the organization's legal counsel, Ersoy Sam, "and hence their prospects of leading successful lives in Germany."

Nonetheless, German academics and youth experts have warned that this type of group is widening the gulf between Muslims and the rest of society.

Significant increase in fundamentalism

Surveys in the country have charted a significant increase in fundamentalist attitudes, particularly among younger Muslims. The experiences of Ekin Deligöz, a member of the German parliament representing the Green Party, underscore the potential dangers. Having called on Muslim women to remove their headscarves, Deligöz faced death threats and now receives police protection.

Disturbing as this trend may be, it cannot be pinned exclusively on Muslim groups. Under the guise of religious tolerance, German society stood blithely by as some parts of its Muslim communities began turning into parallel societies. For years, the country's courts have been excusing Muslim girls from coed swimming lessons and class outings - citing the most absurd reasons for their rulings.

However, the example of the VIKZ highlights the difficulties of penetrating the wall of silence that surrounds these Islamic institutions. The VIKZ has a lot of clout among Muslims in Germany. Some 300 mosque communities count themselves as members. It is the third-largest Muslim organization in the country, representing more people than the Central Council of Muslims. In public, the association's officials are eminently friendly and impeccably dressed, often in stylish pinstriped suits. "Only German-speaking teachers are employed in the group's homes," emphasizes Sam. The majority are of German stock, he claims, adding that the homes "are keyed to encouraging intercultural skills and success at school, not religious education."

The Duisburg home is viewed as the association's showpiece. In addition to a theologian and teacher of Turkish origin, its payroll includes one German, Holger Kellner, who was assigned by the employment office; a second German is now being sought. Meetings with non-Muslim children are being arranged, starting with occasional weekend soccer tournaments against teams from the local Social Democratic Party's youth division. Officials at VIKZ argue that this involves more contact with Germans than when the pupils lived with their families.

Yet skepticism is justified. Employing German-speaking teachers is a statutory requirement. And, in practice, pupils often have no time for leisure activities with their non-Muslim peers. One 17-year-old high school student explains that he used to train at a local sports club, but since taking up residence two years ago, sports no longer fit into his daily schedule. Now his friends are "almost all Turkish."

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Pertinent Links:

1) A Parallel Muslim Universe