DAR AL HARB - GERMANY: 70% OF GERMANS ARE ISLAMOPHOBIC, BUT A CHRISTIAN-MOSLEM ALLIANCE SHALL WORK IN COMBINING SHARI'AH & GERMAN LAW REGARDLESS

Inter-faith group accuses Germans of anti-Islamic attitudes

Frankfurt - An inter-faith group which works to integrate Muslims into German life complained in Frankfurt Tuesday that up to 70 per cent of Germans were still hostile to Islam. Christians and Muslims established the German Forum on Islam five years ago and drafted a detailed code on how to combine the dictates of the Sharia system of rules with the German legal system.

Juergen Micksch, one of the foundation members, said Muslims and long-established Germans usually got on very well with one another, but in the abstract, the Germans were often Islamophobic.

He attributed this paradox to international tension over terrorism, which Germans perceived as coming from Islamic nations.

Yasar Bilgin of the Council of Germans of Turkish Origin pointed to popular resistance in Cologne and some towns to construction of mosques. It was understandable that some Germans reacted this way, but Muslims had a right to worship under the German constitution.

"The Germans will eventually get used to it," forecast Bilgin, who is a doctor of medicine.

Micksch said it was common for opposition to arise when the building plans for mosques were announced.

"Once the mosque is built, the conflict usually goes away," he said.

The Forum, which also includes government officials, is distinct from the German Islam Conference, a round of negotiations which began last year between the federal government and leading figures from the Muslim community.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Inter-faith group accuses Germans of anti-Islamic attitudes