Germany’s “Islampolitik”

Key points

• For decades, Germany has struggled to produce a model that gives Islam in Germany equal status to the established religions of Christianity and Judaism vis-à-vis the state.
• Little progress has been made in the last decade. The current approaches still amount to little more than a patchwork of variegated policies which still lack a clear roadmap towards a coherent German “Islampolitik”.
• Recent international and domestic challenges and developments such as the influx of Muslim refugees, the developments in Turkey, a number of terrorist attacks in Germany in 2016 and the rise of populist parties and movements brought back some dynamism to the present immovable state of affairs.
• Most notably, the legal situation of Islam and Muslim organizations is currently in a process of reassessment. Additionally, politicians, academics and commentators have brought up several proposals about the strengthening of loyalty of Muslims towards state and society in Germany.
• These debates demonstrate the need for a major restatement of Germany’s “Islampolitik”. The next federal government to be elected in September 2017 should seize the opportunity to define a new model that could reconcile the expectations of the state with the rights and aspirations of Germany’s growing Muslim population.