“Claims that Islam is unmatchable with the German constitution are groundless and run counter to spirit of pluralism,” said Beck

GERMANY, November 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Germany has proposed an action plan to fight extremism and promote Muslim integration into German society.

Releasing a 20-point strategy to step up the Muslim integration into society, German integration minister Marieluise Beck told a press conference Tuesday, November 23, that imams coming into Germany should have a knowledge of the German language and society.

Beck, also a member of the German Greens Party, said that the training courses for Muslim imams in German education centers will include language lessons and education in German cultural and legal norms.

“Muslim spiritual leaders should serve as social bridge builders,” Beck was quoted by Deutsche Welle as saying.

Beck added that courses to teach German to immigrants, funded by local authorities, would be imperative for all immigrants from the next year.

Some 16-18 thousand immigrants are expected to attend the German education courses, according to unofficial estimates.

Beck also voiced support to enlist all mosques in the European country.

Islam is Germany's third most popular religion after Protestant and Catholic Christianity.

There are some 3.4 million Muslims in Germany, including 220,000 in Berlin. An estimated two thirds of them are of Turkish origin.

Last month, Germany’s mass-circulation Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said Germans reverting to Islam have risen dramatically in the past few years and are keen on leaving their indelible marks on society.

Clearing Stereotypes

The German minister further urged hardliners not to circulate stereotypes about Islam and the Muslim community as intolerant and not forthcoming.   

“We run the danger of destroying the progress we've already made in living side by side,” she said.

“Claims that Islam is unmatchable with the German constitution are groundless and run counter to spirit of pluralism.”

A recent study by the think tank RWI showed that among the children and grandchildren of the first wave of Muslim immigrants to Germany, a sense of pessimism and feelings of exclusion are on the increase, Deutsche Welle said.

Beck further called for placing more restriction on anti-Semitism laws and other Internet materials inciting racial hatred.

She also added that Muslim imams inciting hatred in the German society should be “punished.”

A study conducted by the University of Bielefeld’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence had shown that Islamophobia was on the rise in Germany.

Former German president Johannes Rau has said that Muslims in Germany should not be treated as second-class citizens.