Owing to labour migration in the 1960s and several waves of political refugees since the 1970s, Islam has become a visible religion in Germany. As of 2009 there had been 4.3 million Muslims in the country (5.4% of the population). Of these, 1.9 million were German citizens (2.4%). There are also several thousand converts of German ancestry. The large majority of Muslims in Germany are of Turkish origin (63.2%), followed by smaller groups from other parts of the Muslim world. Most Muslims live in Berlin, the national capital, and the larger cities of former West Germany. However, unlike in most other European countries, sizeable Muslim communities exist in some rural regions of Germany. Owing to the lack of labour immigration before 1989 – the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall – there are only very few Muslims in East Germany, the former GDR. Most Turkish Muslims are Sunnites, but between a fifth and a quarter are believed to be Alevis. However, one should be aware of the fact that the history of German-Muslim relations dates back far into the Middle Ages ...

 

In light of the above considerations, the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS Malaysia), a think tank dedicated to the study and research on issues pertaining to contemporary Islam and Muslims and intercultural dialogue, and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kuala Lumpur have agreed to jointly organise an international seminar on Germany and Islamic culture.

Three points are among the main objectives of the seminar:

1. to inform the public of the various levels of interactions in the past until now between Germany and Muslims, and the Islamic world at large;
2. to introduce to the public past and present German scholars and intellectuals who in their own respective ways have helped to build bridges between German culture and Islamic culture;
3. to help Malaysia to appreciate the need to promote mutual understanding between Germany and the Islamic world.

Speakers from Germany will include; Prof. Dr. Mathias Rohe, Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Rotraud Wielandt, and Prof. Dr. Gudrun Krämer.

 

Prof. Dr. Mathias Rohe (Chair of Civil Law, Private International Law and Comparative Law, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), a former judge at the Court of Appeals (Oberlandesgericht) at Nuremberg. Professor Rohe, who did Islamic studies at Tübingen and Damascus, is the founding director of the Erlangen Centre for Islam and Law in Europe and the co-founder and (since October 2001) President of the Society for Arabic and Islamic Law. Among his research interests is the legal status of Islam in Germany and Europe and its development within the European context. Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Rotraud Wielandt, professor emerita of Islamic and Arabic Studies at Otto-Friedrich-Universität (Bamberg), too, is going to deliver a lecture at the seminar. Professor Wielandt’s work focuses geographically on the eastern Arabian region, as well as on Turkey, and thoughout her career she has worked extensively on Islamic theology and cultural history of the nineteenth and twentieth century, Christian-Muslim relations in modern times, as well as modern Arabic literature. Prof. Dr. Gudrun Krämer is Chair of Islamic Studies at the Free University Berlin. Her expertise is in topics related to modern Islamic history as well as in Islam, democracy, and modernity. She is the author of Hasan al-Banna (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2009), A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest until the Creation of the State of Israel (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), and Geschichte des Islam (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2005). IAIS Principal Research Fellow Dr Christoph Marcinkowski will present an overview of Germany’s contacts with the world of Islam throughout history.

 

The two-days event will be attended by scholars and students as well as members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Malaysia. It will be officially opened by former Malaysian Prime Minister and IAIS’ Patron, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, HE Dato’ Sri Anifah bin Haji Aman, Malaysia’s current Foreign Minister, and HE Dr Günter Gruber, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Malaysia.

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	Programme Day One, 26 May 2010 (Wednesday)
08:30am	Registration
09:00am	Opening Ceremony, Welcome remarks : HE German Ambassador to Malaysia, Welcome remarks : Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Chairman/CEO, IAIS Malaysia
	Official opening speech : YAB Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Former Prime Minister of Malaysia and Patron of IAIS Malaysia
10:00am	Coffee/Tea Break
10:30am	Session 1
	Topic : Germany and Islam: the Past
	Presenter 1 : Professor Gudrun Krämer (Germany)
	Presenter 2 : Dr. Christoph Marcinkowski, IAIS Malaysia
12:30pm	Lunch Break
02:00pm	Session 2
	Topic : The Muslim Community in Germany : Origin, Development and Challenges
	Presenter 1: Professor Mathias Rohe (Germany)
	Presenter 2: Mr. Fatih Selim Inal (Germany)
03:30pm	Coffee/Tea Break
03:45pm	Session 3
	Topic : Post-September 11 German Response to Islam and Muslims
	Presenter: Professor Gudrun Krämer (Germany)
	Respondent: Emeritus Professor Osman Bakar (Malaysia)
05:15pm	Adjourn
	Day Two, 27 May 2010 (Thursday)
09:30am	Session 4
	Topic : Islam and Pluralism : The Malaysian Experience
	Presenter : Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali (Malaysia)
10:45am	Coffee/Tea Break
11:00am	Session 5
	Topic : Muslims in a Pluralist Society : The German Experience
	Presenter : Professor Rotraud Wielandt (Germany)
12:30pm	Lunch Break
02:00pm	Forum
	Topic : Islam as a Factor in Future German-Malaysian Relations
	Panellist 1: Professor Mathias Rohe (Germany)
	Panellist 2: Mohamed Aslam Haneef (Malaysia)
	Panellist 3: Professor Rotraud Wielandt (Germany)
	Panellist 4: Khalid Jaafar (Malaysia)
04:30pm	Closing Remarks
05:00pm	Coffee/Tea Break

 

Summary

 

This two-day event – hosted by IAIS Malaysia on 26-27 May 2010 and organised jointly with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Malaysia – was officially opened by former Malaysian Prime Minister and IAIS’ Patron, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and Dr Günter Gruber, Germany’s ambassador to Malaysia. Speakers from Germany included Professors Mathias Rohe, Rotraud Wielandt, and Gudrun Krämer. On the part of IAIS, presentations were contributed by its Chairman and CEO Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali, its Deputy CEO Emeritus Professor Datuk Osman Bakar, and Dr Christoph Marcinkowski, IAIS Principal Research Fellow and long-time resident in Malaysia.

 

The main objectives of the seminar were to inform the public of the various levels of interactions that have existed in the past until now between Germany and Muslims, and the Islamic world at large, to introduce to the public past and present German scholars and intellectuals who in their own respective ways have helped to build bridges between German and Islamic culture, and to help Malaysia to appreciate the need to promote mutual understanding between Germany and the Islamic world. The seminar highlighted in particular the role played by religion in a secular European country like Germany and pointed out also some of the problems faced by that country’s Muslim minority, such as religious and cultural identity. The event featured also a frank exchange of views and ideas between the audience and the various speakers as to the role of faith and cultural expressions of religiosity in modern society.