The Current Discourse on Islam in Germany

Islam has become a dominant issue in the German debate about the integration of “foreigners”. This debate has generated several buzzwords such as “Islamophobia” on the one hand and the fear of “fundamentalism” and the need for “security” on the other. Initial empirical studies of that deconstruct those concepts. The paper gives an overview of these attempts, including several undertaken by the author. It shows that the organizational development of Islam in Germany and the intergenerational change of its clientele have little correspondence with the conditions for inclusion established by the discourse of the German majority. At the same time, the discourse itself proves to be complex and more determined by conflicting interests between various groups within the Muslim and German communities than simply a Muslim–German divide.