Abstract
The migration of Muslim workers, to Western Europe, and Germany especially, can be seen historically as one of the significant global population shifts. The discussion in this chapter reflects a ‘starting point’ in 1949, which should be viewed in the context of a history of 350 years of German legal development. Thirty years after this date, the majority society and its unanticipated religious minorities had to cope, through a process of trial and error, with factors concerning differences in their religious and social outlooks. The orthopraxy oriented Muslim minority had to adapt to a changing and secularizing majority. The emerging learning process is described, with its various societal players and legal barriers. The survey will finish with a discussion of German perceptions of Shari’a, including the latest debate, which refers to the conflict over different views of human rights.
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Notes
- 1.
No social scientific investigation starts from zero. The groups, persons, and associations questioned have begun in a certain historical context, often long before any scientist reflected on hypotheses concerning them. Thus the language in which the researcher questions an interviewee might not be the one with which that person is familiar. The interviewee might comprehend enough to give the researcher a response he can understand; but if a third person were to question the two interview partners about what each of them understands and associates with, for example, the term ‘secularization’ this person would probably hear two different descriptions, since for each partner the term has its own history.
- 2.
The concept was developed in 1742 by Christoph Matthäi Pfaff who used the word in an academic article, and it became a popular term during the nineteenth century.
- 3.
The term ‘Doktor beider Rechte’ means that the candidate has passed two exams, one of the state with its secularized (Roman) system and, additionally, the exam of the church(es). The Catholic and the Protestant churches each have a law of their own and, consequently, courts of their own. This system is still in place. These judges discuss questions of parishes, priests, orders, etc., and the Roman Catholic courts also discuss divorces (see von Campenhausen and de Wall 2006).
- 4.
‘Rechtsstaatlichkeit’ can be translated as ‘rule of law’.
- 5.
The term ‘shura’ is an Arabic word which means ‘assembly’ or ‘congregation.’ It was adopted by the mosques in the federal Lands of Lower Saxony and Hamburg so that they would have an Islamic term for their organizational form. A shura is somewhat like a parliament.
- 6.
The UETD is a typical second generation association whose bilingual members grew up in Germany but had deep roots in Turkish culture and Islam. Most members studied at German universities.
- 7.
One consequence of this conflict can be a methodological trap if foreign researchers begin their work with representatives of the organization’s opponents. As anti-Islamic persons and organizations tend to be much more responsive than pious ones the research can be biased before it starts. This situation has occurred often during recent years and conceals the fact that the German Muslim community has a Turkish majority and several smaller minorities, the biggest of which is the Arab one, which is itself quite varied in the country of origin of its members. Each national group tends to found its own mosque and Islamic club. Thus one may find five different mosques on the same street. The umbrella organizations—Islamic Council of Germany and the Central Council of Muslims in Germany—tried to unite the smaller groups under their umbrella but had a limited success. The African and Islamic mystical orders, especially, still go their own separate ways.
- 8.
Some social scientists think that the German development of the relationship of minority to majority, here concerning the Muslim minority, should be seen as part of a longer historical development, as Muslims are not the first minority group which has tried to become part of German society. Catholic historians point out that the arguments used against Muslims are the same as those which were used against the Catholics after 1871, the year in which the German Reich was founded at Versailles. The Protestant majority fought against the so-called Ultramontanismus. With regard to integration, one might assume that the ongoing processes are usual. The definitive, but open, question is how to keep the implicit aggression under control.
- 9.
For example: Islam im Alltag (Borek 1999); Ilmihal: Der gelebte Islam (no author n.d.)—a best seller among Turkish Muslims; Handbuch Islam: Die Glaubens- und Rechtslehre der Muslime (Reidegeld 2005)—used by intellectual Germans.
- 10.
In a recent publication Rohe complains about the reaction to his efforts to interpret Islam for the public in Germany. He says, “I myself was repeatedly denounced for promoting the replacement of the German legal order by shari’a, simply because I wanted to inform the public about existing German legal order with respect to the treatment of Islamic norms” (see Rohe 2013: 25).
- 11.
For a detailed discussion of mahr under German law see Yassari (2013).
- 12.
But see Balz (2007) for an account of efforts to develop financial transactions that would function for Muslims in Germany.
- 13.
Society for Arabic and Islamic Law: http://www.gair.uni-erlangen.de.
- 14.
Balz writes, however, that “the German Animal Welfare Act [Tierschutzgesetz] provides for an exemption if it is required by the needs of members of certain religious communities ‘whose mandatory rules require ritual slaughter’” (Balz 2007: 563). It is not known how often this exemption is exercised, but apparently it is not frequent in Muslim communities.
- 15.
Examples of these websites are: http://myhalalcheck.misawa; http://MuslimMarkt.de; http://vzbv.de.
- 16.
When goods are purchased through a murabaha contract, the bank owns the building or the vehicle (for example), even if temporarily. This forces banks to find ways to handle warranty problems for the vehicle and also to pay a transfer tax on property, unless some way is found to avoid this double taxation, as is done in the UK through an exemption explicit in the tax statutes. Balz offered several solutions to both these problems in his 2007 article. Dr Balz also gave a lecture on Shari’a financial issues at Harvard Law School while he was a Visiting Professor at the Islamic Legal Studies Program in 2008 (see Balz 2008).
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Ahmed Aries, W.D., Richardson, J.T. (2015). Trial and Error: Muslims and Shari’a in the German Context. In: Possamai, A., Richardson, J., Turner, B. (eds) The Sociology of Shari’a: Case Studies from around the World. Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09605-6_9
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