DAR AL HARB - GERMANY: THE DEBATE ON JIHAD IN GERMANY GROWS

Muslim debate grows in Germany

Early last month, a German judge provoked an outcry by citing the Quran as grounds for denying a divorce to a German Muslim woman whose husband beat her.

Last week, Der Spiegel ran a scare story on the case with a cover showing an Islamic crescent rising over the Brandenburg Gate. But the most fascinating aspect of the case was neither the clash between liberal Western and conservative Muslim values nor the misplaced multiculturalism of the judge.

The most gripping element was that the judge's ruling drew outrage not only from women's groups and politicians, but from Muslim leaders, as well.

Germany, like most Western European nations, is wrestling with how to integrate its growing Muslim population. The issue has become more intense since 9/11; Mohammed Atta organized the plot from Hamburg.

Germany's population of 82.4 million includes a Muslim minority of 3.2 million to 3.5 million, the largest in Western Europe after France. And the numbers are steadily rising. But the intense public debate in Germany on issues of identity, religion and belonging makes the nation's prospects for coping seem more promising than France's.

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