A library photo of a German mosque

Additional Reporting By Ahmed Al-Matboli, IOL Correspondent

BERLIN, March 3, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Six major Muslim organizations in Germany have agreed to unite under one umbrella in an effort to combat racist practices against the Muslim minority in the country and ensure the teaching of Islam in schools.

During a meeting last weekend in Hamburg, the groups endorsed a document - the Hamburg Declaration – on the establishment of an Islamic body representing all German Muslims.

It stipulate the formation of working groups to outline recommendations on the establishment of the umbrella body within a year.

The declaration also calls for reviewing the best means to enhance Muslim integration into German society.

There are some 3.4 million Muslims in Germany, including 220,000 in Berlin alone.

Islam comes third after Protestant and Catholic Christianity.

Islamic Teaching

“It is vital to resolve this problem and ensure that Islam can be taught in German in schools,” said Elyas.

Participants also pressed for teaching Islamic subjects in the German schools, reported Agence France Presse (AFP).

“It is vital to resolve this problem and ensure that Islam can be taught in German in schools,” said Nadeem Elyas, president of the central council of Muslims.

“If we don't, the next generation of Muslims will grow up without values, and if they don't get their religious education in schools they risk being influenced by bad interpretations of the Koran,” he warned.

Last week, Islamic groups won a legal verdict from the Leipzig court to supervise classes of religious education in the German schools.

Such a court ruling would allow the Islamic institutions in the country to have a complete supervision on classes of Islamic subjects in schools without any government intervention.

There are 700,000 Muslim students in state schools, according to recent official estimates. Muslim institutions, however, put the number at 1,000,000.

Welcomed

The Hamburg declaration was welcomed by Islamische Zeitung newspaper as “a right and positive response to pressures practiced by the German officials against the Islamic institutions.”

It stressed that time was ripe for Islamic institutions in the country to unite under one umbrella despite the challenges ahead.

The Muslim minority in Germany has been suffering racist practices, especially following the killing of anti-Islam Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh.

German officials, particularly members of the Christian Social and Democratic parties, have championed an anti-Islam campaign and called for imposing restrictions on the Muslim minority.

The ruling Christian Social Party is seeking a new legislation banning hijab in schools.

Many Muslims were also deported by the German authorities under its new immigration law.

Only last month, two Egyptian imams were banned from the country under claims that they were inciting extremist ideologies.

Under the new immigration law, German authorities are entitled to kick out foreigners, especially Muslim imams, if security agencies view them as posing a threat to national security.

In 2004, German Muslims had been, in effect, caught in an anti- and pro-Islam battle with anti-Muslim voices speaking louder than ever.

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

Though German Minister of Economics and Labor Wolfgang Clement said in June that Turkish investments help create 300,000 new jobs for Germans a year, 80 percent of the Turkish community feel discriminated against, according to a recent study.