The exchange between the North Rhine-Westphalian state government and Muslims is often bumpy; the government no longer talks to Ditib at all. This is now to change.
In its cooperation with Muslims, the North Rhine-Westphalian state government wants to break new ground. In addition to traditional Islamic organizations such as the controversial German-Turkish mosque association Ditib, liberal Muslim communities and associations are to be integrated into the interreligious dialogue for the first time.
Wearing headscarves by girls on agenda
The new beginning is to take place on 1. July to be made in the Ministry of Integration. In a plenary session, the most diverse representatives of Islam will elect an "expert council" that will advise the state government on important religious and cultural ies in the future.
The agenda includes the establishment of Muslim welfare organizations as well as the wearing of headscarves by girls in daycare centers and schools, explains Integration State Secretary Serap Guler (CDU) to the Catholic News Agency (KNA). Muslim commitment should be "recognized, made visible and promoted in the long term".
At the same time, the state government wants to use the new dialogue formats to give space to internal Islamic debates "without determining them," as Guler emphasizes. "This will be an exchange at eye level."Topics such as the relationship between men and women in Islam or the way Muslims deal with homosexuality are to be put on the agenda by Integration Minister Joachim Stamp (FDP).
"They are nationalists, but not extremists"
So far, all relevant associations and actors seem to have accepted this new orientation of dialogue work. Biggest point of contention in the run-up was the participation of the Ahmadiyya community. Their teachings are considered heresy by most Muslims. The Ahmadiyya are recognized as a public corporation in Hesse.
So far, associations like Ditib have waited in vain for this. Since the introduction of Muslim religious education in 2011, the state chancellery has been checking whether Ditib and three other Islamic associations are religious communities. At present, the state government is still obtaining a "sociological report on religion". Following allegations of espionage and war propaganda, the state's cooperation with Ditib in Muslim religious education, prison chaplaincy and Salafism prevention has been on hold since 2016.
In the state parliament, leading representatives of the CDU, SPD and Greens have called for the mosque association to be monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of Constitutional Affairs. But so far, the latter has not wanted to officially classify the Ditib as an object of observation. "These are nationalists, but not extremists," is the tenor among security authorities in almost all 16 German states. At present, there are no indications that Ditib is "subversively active" in Germany. However, Burkhard Freier, head of NRW's interception service, says: "Ditib is not a religious organization in life."
"Will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed by Ditib"
Nevertheless, the state government does not want to further exclude Ditib in its dialogue work. While relations with the mosque association are still officially frozen, exploratory talks have been going on behind the scenes for weeks. This apparently involves the state Department of Education, which has until mid-2019 to come up with a follow-on rule for Muslim religious instruction.
The current advisory board model expires at the end of July. Until now, an advisory board of eight people in North Rhine-Westphalia has ied teaching licenses for Muslim religious education teachers. Ditib had to rest its seat at the insistence of the previous red-green government. Now, the catch has apparently prevailed within the state government that Islamic religious education, currently attended by four percent of Muslim students, can only be meaningfully expanded with the largest mosque association. Otherwise, the acceptance of Muslim parents would be jeopardized.
If Ditib remains outside, government circles fear, religious instruction would migrate to mosques. "But we will not be blackmailed by Ditib," says Guler. In the reorientation of the dialogue, however, local Muslims and mosque communities should be given greater weight.
By Johannes Nitschmann