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Germany: Turkish Muslims Hope for More Muslims Than Christians
by Soeren Kern
August 27, 2012 at 5:00 am
August 27, 2012 at 5:00 am
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Integration
may even be unattainable if the younger generation of Turkish-Germans
increasingly continues to embrace Islam.
Nearly half of all Turks living in Germany say they hope there will be more
Muslims than Christians in Germany in the future, according to a new survey of
Turkish-German mores and attitudes.
The study also shows that Islam is becoming an increasingly important
component of the value structure of Turks in Germany, especially among the
younger generation of Turkish-Germans, who hold religious views more radical
than their elders' views are.
The findings have filled many Germans with a sense of foreboding and are
certain to contribute to the ongoing debate (here,
here and here)
about Muslim integration (or, rather, lack of it) in Germany.
The 103-page study, "German-Turkish
Life and Values" (abridged version in German here),
was jointly produced by the Berlin-based INFO polling institute and the
Antalya, Turkey-based Liljeberg research
firm, and was released to the public on August 17, as a follow-up to
similar studies conducted in 2009
and 2010.
It aims to determine just how satisfied the estimated 2.7 million Turks living
in Germany are with their life there.
Of those Turks surveyed, 27% were born in Germany (77% of 15- to
29-year-olds were born in Germany) and 39% have lived in Germany for at least
30 years. Only 15% of Turks, however, consider Germany to be their home --
compared to 21% in 2009, and 18% in 2010.
The survey also shows that labor migration is no longer the main reason why
Turks immigrate to Germany; only one in five respondents said they had gone to
Germany to look for work. Rather, the most important reason Turks gave for
immigrating to Germany was to marry a partner who lived there. More than half
of the Turkish women interviewed said they moved to Germany for that reason.
In the area of language, the survey shows a major generational gap. Overall,
only 37% of Turkish-origin men and 27% of Turkish-origin women speak better
German than Turkish. Nevertheless, in the 15 to 29 age category, 75% of those
surveyed speak better German than Turkish. Meanwhile, those in the 30 to 49 age
category, 71% of those surveyed speak better Turkish than German.
While 91% of Turks surveyed believe that Turkish-origin children need to
learn German from an early age, 90% also say that children absolutely must
learn Turkish. A growing number of Turks (53%) believe that German teachers of
Turkish-origin children need to understand the Turkish language to be able to
help children having difficulty with the German language.
In the area of hypothetical voting patterns, the vast majority (80%) of
Turks surveyed say they would vote for leftwing or far-leftwing parties if they
were able to vote in Germany. 50% said they would vote for the center-left
Social Democrats (SPD), 26% would vote for the leftwing Green party and 5%
would vote for the far-left Die Linke. Only 13% would vote for the center-right
Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU).
Almost all Turks surveyed (95%) said it is absolutely necessary for them to
preserve their Turkish identity; in a sign indicating that efforts at
integration have a long way to go, 62% said they would rather be around Turks
than around Germans (in the 2010 survey, it was 40%). Only 39% of Turks said
that Germans were trustworthy.
At the same time, 87% of those surveyed said they believe that German
society should make a great effort to be considerate of the customs and
traditions of Turkish immigrants.
Of those Turks surveyed, 72% believe that Islam is the only true religion
(in the 2010 survey, it was 69%); 18% say Jews are inferior people and 10% say
Christians are inferior.
Arguably the most sobering finding of the study is that 46% of Turks say
they hope that Germany will one day have more Muslims than Christians (in the
2010 survey, it was 33%). More than half of Turks (55%) believe that Germany
should build more mosques.
More than 90% of Turks surveyed consider themselves to be religious; only 9%
label themselves as "not religious" (37% say they are highly
religious). The survey shows high levels of religiosity (91%) among the younger
generation of Turks (ages 15 to 29) living in Germany.
The study also finds that 63% of Turks aged 15 to 29 year-olds approve of
the radical
Islamist campaign to distribute a Koran to every household in Germany, and
36% of the young people said they would be willing to support the Salafist
campaign financially with donations.
By contrast, 69% of those over the age of 50 (the older generation was
heavily influenced by Kemalism)
are opposed to the campaign called Project
"READ!"
The authors of the study say this data reflects the increasing role of Islam
among the younger generation, who consider the religion to be a "gateway
to a politicization which could lead to group building"-- that is, the
growing attraction to political Islam.
Overall, the new survey largely corroborates a 764-page study released by
the German Interior Ministry in March 2012, which found that 48% of Muslims
living in Germany "strongly leaned toward separation" and clearly
rejected the culture of the German majority. .
That study, "The
Daily Life of Young Muslims in Germany," also showed that among
Muslims between the ages of 14 and 32 there is a "subgroup" of
religious extremists who hold anti-Western views and are reportedly prepared to
use violence.
Taken together, the combined research reaffirms that Germany faces
significant difficulties ahead in integrating immigrant Muslim population, and
that over the long-run integration may even be unattainable if the younger
generation of Turkish-Germans increasingly continues to embrace Islam.
Soeren Kern is a
Distinguished Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He
is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de
Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
Related Topics: Germany
| Soeren
Kern
Interfaith Crisis on the Borderlands of Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh, and India
by Irfan Al-Alawi
August 27, 2012 at 3:00 am
August 27, 2012 at 3:00 am
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The new
outbreaks of anti-Muslim violence in Burma, and Muslim radicalism in India,
are, as in so many cases, manufactured or magnified by manipulated rage, for
political ends.
The Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), based in Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia, disclosed at its summit, on August 16, that it would take the question
of violence against Rohingya Muslims in Burma (Myanmar) to the United Nations.
Previously, Saudi King Abdullah announced a donation of US$50 million for
relief of the Rohingyas.
Myanmar permitted an OIC delegation to visit the country, and will allow the
Organization to coordinate relief efforts for Rohingyas displaced within Myanmar.
The OIC action came as the global Islamic body suspended Syria from membership
because of the widening bloodshed in that country.
In June 2012, Rohingya Muslims were attacked in Rakhine State (formerly
Arakan State) on the western Myanmar frontier with Bangladesh, by the local
Arakanese and Bamar (Burman) Buddhist majority. The crisis followed rumours
that a Buddhist woman had been raped and murdered by Rohingyas.
Officially, 80 people were killed – mainly Rohingyas – and 70,000 people
from among both communities were left homeless in the June outbreak. Countless
Rohingya Muslims attempted to flee from Myanmar into Bangladesh and India.
The Muslim Students' Organization of India and the All India Buddhist
Council appealed jointly for Indian government aid to the displaced Rohingya
Muslims. The refugee issue has challenged the Rohingyas, international
humanitarian organizations, and regional governments.
Myanmar is currently undergoing a military-led transition to democratic
rule. Yet the Myanmar government was accused by Human Rights Watch (HRW) of
standing aside during battles between Rohingyas and Rakhine Buddhists.
Myanmar security forces, after failing to intervene and stop the skirmishes,
then shot at Rohingya protestors, organized mass arrests from among them, and
committed rapes, according to HRW. Myanmar authorities arrested 10
international aid workers, including three Myanmar nationals affiliated with
the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), in July.
The aid representatives were accused of siding with Rohingyas in the
communal fighting. Seven of the detained humanitarian personnel were released
in mid-August. They included four Dutch members of Doctors Without Borders and
two UNHCR representatives.
The Myanmar government has announced the establishment of a 27-member
commission of enquiry into the Rakhine crisis. Rohingya Muslims most recently
accounted for about a fifth of the four million residents of Rakhine State.
Rohingya Muslims are stateless, denied citizenship and other rights in
Myanmar. Opponents of Rohingya citizenship in Myanmar claim the Muslims are
illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
In 1978, about 200,000 Rohingya Muslims fled into Bangladesh after an
operation directed against them by the Myanmar military. Again in 1991-92, more
than 250,000 Rohingyas crossed the Bangladesh frontier westward. The Bangladesh
authorities, however, have ceased accepting Rohingya refugees.
Rohingyas have been banned from immigrating to the southeast Asian Muslim
countries of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. Most Rohingyas and even
considerable Indian media admit that the motive for this is racial; southeast
Asian Muslims feel more in common with the Buddhist Burmese than with the
"black" Rohingya Muslims allegedly from Bangladesh. In the past,
Bengalis were considered enemies and competitors of the Burmans. Now the
Bengalis, in the Burmese mind as well as that of the Rohingyas, have been
humiliated into political non-existence. Still, parallel with the OIC
announcement, Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhyono said he would ask
the former vice president of his country, Jusuf Kalla, to head a special
mission on the condition of the Rohingyas.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has participated
in the Myanmar transition and given it international credibility. She has,
however, skirted the Rohingya matter.
Directly after the murders in Rakhine state, she reportedly said, "I
would like to see all people in Myanmar get along with each other regardless of
their religion and ethnicity." During her June tour of Europe, when
queried in Geneva about the status of the Rohingyas, she stated, "We have
to be very clear about what the laws of citizenship are and who are entitled to
them. All those who are entitled to citizenship should be treated as full
citizens deserving all the rights that must be given to them."
Later, Suu Kyi shared a podium with the pop musician Bono, in Dublin. Suu
Kyi then, when asked if the Rohingyas should be granted Myanmar citizenship,
said, "I don't know."
The failure of Suu Kyi to adequately address the difficulties of the
Rohingyas has led to criticism of her, especially in the US.
In the northeast Indian state of Assam, strife between Muslims and the Bodo
people, mainly Hindus of Tibeto-Burman ethnicity, has appeared. As many as 80
people have been killed and 400,000 have been expelled from their homes in
Assam.
Because of the convoluted assignment of international borders, Assam is also
northeast of Bangladesh. As in Myanmar, Assam Muslims are labeled as
undesirable, racially "black" immigrants from Bangladesh. Assam's
population, estimated at 31 million in 2011, is, according to the Indian
government, 65% Hindu and 31% Muslim. The remainder are Christians, Buddhists,
Sikhs and followers of tribal animism or ancestor-worship.
Anger over the situation of Rohingya and Assam Muslims has stirred radical
Islamists to create disorder elsewhere in India. The Indian government has
accused unnamed Pakistani sources of spreading reports that Indian Muslims
would exact vengeance on non-Muslims, causing tens of thousands of non-Muslim
residents to flee Mumbai and other cities in southwest India for the northeast.
Thousands of Muslims protested against the atrocities against Rohingya and
Assam Muslims in Mumbai on August 11, with two people killed. In the north
Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, its capital, Lucknow, and another major city,
Allahabad, were shaken by Islamist violence on August 17. In Lucknow, Muslims
protesting the attacks in Assam and the plight of the Rohingya Muslims took to
the streets, assaulted members of the media, and vandalised a Buddha statue in
a local park.
Syed Babar Ashraf, national secretary of the Lucknow-based All India Ulema
and Mashaikh Board, a Sufi coordinating group, on the occasion of Eid Ul-Fitr,
concluding the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, called on Muslims "not to
resort to demonstrations, [to] maintain calm and respect the law in order that
Eid may be celebrated in its true spirit." He further declared,
"stand firmly against all the evil forces which are trying to weaken the
democratic and secular fabric of India."
The lesson of the new outbreaks of anti-Muslim violence in Burma and Muslim
radicalism in India is that much of it is, as in so many other cases,
manufactured or magnified by manipulated rage, for political ends. The Muslims
of Rakhine State, Assam, and Bangladesh, and the non-Muslims swept by anger in
reaction, need to remain calm and assess their situation realistically and in
the most moderate way.
Bloodshed in Pakistan and Myanmar leaves India – with its Hindu, Muslim, and
all other religious subjects, besieged by the problems of Islam on both its
flanks. The Muslim clerics and leadership of India and Bangladesh should take
the initiative in ameliorating the crisis before it produces new tragedies
across the subcontinent.
Above all, they should prevent destruction of any holy site or structure
associated with any faith. The Koran commands Muslims (6:108), "Do not
insult those the disbelievers invoke in place of Allah, for it may cause them
to insult Allah out of hatred and ignorance. We (God) have made the deeds of
every community pleasing to them." Indian and other Muslims,
notwithstanding their anger over the events in the Myanmar borderlands and
Assam, should study and heed this guidance.
Related Topics: Bangladesh, India
| Irfan
Al-Alawi
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