Introduction: Spirituality, Cosmopolitanism, and Muslim German Writers

Summary

From “Guest Worker” to “Muslim”

Und wie oft höre ich in Deutschland, daß “wir” nichts gegen Muslime haben. Oder alle möglichen Talksendungen zum Islam: Wie können “wir” mit dem Islam umgehen, müssen “wir” Angst haben vor den Muslimen? Daß zu diesem “Wir” auch Muslime gehören könnten, scheint den Talkgästen beinahe undenkbar zu sein. Es ist gar nicht einmal böse gemeint, jedenfalls nicht immer. “Wir” Deutschen müssen Dialog führen mit den Muslimen, sagen die Gutwilligen. Das ist löblich, nur bedeutet es für etwa 3 Millionen Menschen in diesem Land, daß sie den Dialog mit sich selbst führen müßten.

[And how often I hear in Germany that “we” have nothing against Muslims. Or the various talk shows about Islam: How can “we” deal with Islam? Should “we” fear Muslims? That Muslims could also be part of this “we” appears to be almost unthinkable for the talk-show guests. It isn't really meant maliciously, at least not always. Wellmeaning people say: “We” Germans must enter into dialogue with Muslims. That is commendable, but for around 3 million people in this country it means that they would have to enter into dialogue with themselves.]

THIS EXCERPT, from the essay collection Wer ist Wir? Deutschland und seine Muslime (Who Is We? Germany and Its Muslims, 2009), by the prizewinning author and Islamic studies scholar Navid Kermani, is illustrative of the widespread exclusion of those deemed to be Muslims from contemporary Germany's collective sense of self. However, Reim Spielhaus's 2006 study suggests that this divide has not always been perceived in the same way. She notes a shift in categorization whereby the label “Muslim” began to be favored over others such as “guest worker” (Gastarbeiter), “migrant,” “foreigner” and “Turk” after 2000, the year when Germany's citizenship laws changed from jus sanguinis to incorporate an element of jus soli, and minority citizens could no longer be singled out on the basis of their passports alone. This transformation was substantially accelerated shortly afterward by the terrorist attacks committed by al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001. Islamist terrorism has since remained at the forefront of German consciousness as a result of the discovery that Mohamed Atta, one of the 9/11 perpetrators, had lived and studied in Hamburg, and also because of events such as the 2011 Frankfurt Airport shooting and the foiled plot in Hanover in the recent aftermath of the 2015 Paris attacks.