Focus areas ,
In the German Islam Conference’s founding phases (from the 16th to 18th legislative terms), objectives were formulated, and joint declarations and recommendations were made in key areas of religious policy (e.g. Islamic chaplaincy and social welfare work, Islamic religious instruction and Islamic theology), largely in fixed committees and working groups with perma-nent members. The German Islam Conference (DIK) sought to identify and document a common foundation of values and put in concrete terms the conditions and requirements which need to be met to enhance integration of Islam under the law governing religious communities. Since the 19th legislative term, the DIK has been building upon this foundation by working on concrete, practical projects. In contrast to its previous phases, it did this using flexible structures, a variety of event formats, and constellations appropriate to the subject areas in question (the "implementation phase" of the DIK).
In the current 20th legislative term, the DIK is building on this foundation, continuing the flexible and open working methods and the involvement of a broad-based and diverse circle of participants from the previous phase. In terms of content, the DIK is drawing on the ideas and building on the progress made in various fields during the previous legislative term.
On this basis, and also in line with the coalition agreement for the 20th legislative term and as a result of a broad-based consultation process in 2022, the DIK is currently focusing its efforts on the following priority areas:
- promoting social cohesion and preventing group-focused enmity, with an emphasis on preventing and combating anti-Muslim hostility, based among other things on the report by the independent expert group on hostility against Muslims;
- taking the "mosques for integration" funding initiative further, and consolidating an exchange of local experts on Islam-related issues in order to improve the participation of Muslims and Muslim congregations in their neighbourhoods;
- strengthening and expanding the training of imams in Germany and in the German language, and phasing out the secondment of imams from abroad;
- taking stock of and monitoring the impetus previous DIK phases gave especially in the field of chaplaincy;
1. Preventing and combating anti-Muslim hostility.
Muslims often experience hostility, rejection and lack of respect both as members of the Islamic faith and as persons with an immigrant background. The Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community stands for the fight against every form of racism, extremism and group-focused enmity – and specifically also against anti-Muslim hostility. The DIK is the clear signal to all who do not want to hear or accept this: a signal that Muslims in Germany and their religion are of course an integral part of our society and that the state addresses their concerns.
As a response to anti-Muslim threats and racist attacks, an independent expert group on anti-Muslim intolerance and hate was set up in late 2020. In the group, experts analyse current manifestations of anti-Muslim hostility – also including its overlap with antisemitic attitudes and other forms of group-focused enmity.
The group will submit a report to the Federal Government in the summer of 2023, which will look at the dimension of anti-Muslim hostility in Germany and shed light on its structural and everyday manifestations. The DIK will discuss and follow up on the report’s recommendations for action to combat the phenomenon.
2. Improving the participation of Muslims and Muslim congregations in local communities
Muslims are an integral part of our country today. At the same time, the conditions under which they participate in society need to be improved, also as part of the DIK. Muslims are making a commendable contribution to our society, which should be made more visible. Numerous Muslim congregations are doing neighbourhood work and are recognised as civil-society actors in their local communities. The DIK helps other, mostly younger mosque congregations reach out to their local communities, make their services more professional, create neighbourhood networks and take part in shaping their immediate social environment.
To this end, the DIK introduced the "mosques for Integration" funding initiative, which runs from 2019 to 2023 and aims to make mosque congregations more visible as integral parts of neighbourhoods in non-Muslim environments, and adds to their recognition as social actors. The current DIK phase is to evaluate this funding initiative and develop it further. In addition, an institutionalised exchange of experience is to be added to the model project to enable local authorities to share their expertise and experience as regards cooperation with mosque congregations, learn about Islam-related issues and jointly provide new ideas.
3. Imam training in Germany
The DIK, with its work in previous phases, has made an important contribution to the establishment of departments of Islamic theology at German universities, which is an important requirement for the practical training of imams and other religious personnel in Germany. Of course, training clergy is and will continue to be a matter for the religious communities themselves. At the same time, it is an important part of integration policy for more imams who have been socialised in Germany and trained in the German language to work in Muslim congregations.
For this reason, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community welcomes the fact that some, especially large, umbrella organisations of mosque congregations are training, or have begun to train, their own personnel. The DIK accompanied this development among other things by promoting the Islamkolleg Deutschland e.V. (IKD), which is active in the basic and advanced training of imams, chaplains and mosque staff. The University of Münster’s programme on Islam in social work ("Islam in der Sozialarbeit"), which is co-financed by the DIK, is another important model project. The two cases show that something has been set in motion. The DIK is providing an important boost to the training of imams in Germany, without affecting the religious congregations’ constitutional right to self-determination. The DIK will use this momentum in the current phase and continue to flank and promote the creation or strengthening of relevant structures.
A second, correlated field of action concerns phasing out the secondment of imams to Germany from abroad, primarily from Turkey. The DIK is in an intensive dialogue with the relevant Turkish bodies, specifically the Diyanet, the Turkish religious authority.
4. Islamic chaplaincy in public institutions
Already in its previous phases, the DIK provided an important push for establishing and expanding Islamic chaplaincy in Germany’s public institutions, among others in prisons and the armed forces, the Bundeswehr. The concrete implementation of the DIK’s recommendations rests with the federal states (chaplaincy in prisons) and the Federal Ministry of Defence (military chaplaincy). However, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, both with and within the DIK, is also cooperating with those having primary responsibility in these fields to ensure that military chaplaincy is offered for the first time in this legislative term, that chaplaincy in prisons is expanded and strengthened, and that progress is made in implementing the objectives formulated by the DIK.