Danger of Drowning?
Islam, Integration, and Power in German Pools
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.10873Abstract
The integration of Muslims has been a core issue within German socio-political debates for over 20 years. The participation of Muslim pupils in certain school subjects, most prominently in school swimming lessons, has been a core issue within those larger debates. This article demonstrates that Germans, including Muslims in Germany, dispute not merely the participation of members of a religious minority in one of dozens of school activities. Rather, all parties involved negotiate recognition, share, and power within society at large. Muslims seek to take part in determining the character of a society they have been making a home since the 1960s. Inspired—among other factors—by Global Islam movements, they challenge notions of ethnic hegemony, the public visibility of different religions, and interpretations of liberalism, including aspects of gender equality. The article illustrates how the encroaching integration of Muslims in Germany led to the demand for respect for religio-cultural difference by a minority among them; and how the struggle by Muslims to become equal members of society created resistance among those in Germany who seek to protect their inherited share of influence. The development is also illustrated by court decisions about the degree of religious difference accepted in schools. As agents of change, Muslims have forced non-Muslim Germans to answer some uneasy questions about what they want society to be like.
Key words: Islam in Germany, Islam Debate, Migration and Integration, Islam and Education, Islam and Swimming, Muslim Minorities in the West, Global Islam
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