31. International Student Conference
of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Europe
March 15th – März 19th 2004
Interreligious Dialogue in Situations of Conflict II
The Contribution of Religious Communities to Current Socio-Political Challenges
Karimah Stauch
(Muslim Lecture)
Thank you very much for inviting me to make a short contribution from a Muslim perspective.
My conscious Muslim life began nearly 10 years ago, and my motivation was almost exclusively spiritual. It was also extremely important for me to experience that the Muslims I was close with were open-minded, for example towards Jews and Christians, and also towards women.1
In the beginning, my interest was mainly spiritual, with regard to personal transcendence and approaching ALLAH (which is simply the Arabic word for God). However, in the course of time, I became more political due to perpetual inquiries from outside, coming both from the non-Muslims and the Muslims I knew.
The complaints voiced by many Muslims, who often see themselves very much as victims, are often based on very serious facts: During the war in Bosnia, 8,000 Muslim men were massacred in 3 days in the UN protected zone of Srebrenica. According to an estimate by an American professor, 4,000 civilians died when Afghanistan was attacked. In Chechnya, combattants fighting Russian rule are being tortured in filtration camps, and in Xinkiang (Eastern Turkistan) the Chinese are implementing a similar policy of sinisation as in Tibet. All of this is hardly ever reported in European media. These are just some examples, and many Muslims are getting the impression that the attacks on Muslims and the conquest of Muslim territory have not ceased ever since the crusades.
Besides these international factors, there are some which appear inside Germany (or Europe), e.g. the non-recognition of Islam by the public authorities and in the German public as well as the lack of Muslim structures, one example of this being that there is still no official university-chair for Islamic law in the whole of Germany.
And so like many other Muslims I am deeply worried about where Europe is going in view of polarisation, war and terrorism. I once had to go through watching the words "Kill the Muslim rabble" being sprayed onto a wall in big letters twice consecutively just outside my university's refectory in Bonn. Last week, a Muslim friend told me the following words stared out from in front of his university in Geneva: "An Islamicised Europe means oppression of women".
A study recently published by the sociologist Heitmeyer concluded that there is islamophobia among the elite as well as in the rest of the population. One expression of this islamophobia is the fact that 65% of the population generally distrust Muslims. For this reason, almost 50% do not want to move into a neighbourhood with many Muslims. In the past few years, we have seen attacks on Muslim prayer rooms time and time again.
In view of all this, many Muslims' fear - and their anger - must not be underestimated.
However, I feel both the urge and the obligation to make remark, which is partly self-critical: the polarisation as well as the growing simplification and categoritis, which I have experienced in the past few years - inside myself, in the Muslim community, between the various groups and in the world - have had detrimental repercussions: occasionally, they make us forget that the others are people with fears very similar to our own.
I have been deeply inspired by Rebecca Birk's presentation. She reminded us of the fact that what lies and has to lie at the very heart of any religion und religious conviction is serving the wellbeing of the whole of humankind and of all living beings.
Also within the Muslim community we have to ask ourselves, more than has been the case in the past, what we can contribute to the wellbeing of humankind, what simplifications and distortions we have to do away with ourselves, and where we need to view the other as a human being, as an individual. We have to aks ourselves this question, regardless of how much we act against all odds sometimes and how limited our action may be.
The Qur'an says that God will not change a people's situation as long as people do not change what is inside themselves. I as a Muslim, and we as Muslims, have to face this and try to grow beyond the boundaries of our own role as victims.
Allah tells us in the Qur'an that He wanted diversity in His humankind, that we should get to know each other and compete with each other in doing good. And if He says so, it cannot mean that we should restrict our thinking to our own suffering and worries, or to the wellbeing of only our own group.
We have to get pro-active when it comes to what we make of our society, and we have to take action jointly, combining the best or our respective traditions.
I draw inspiration and new energy from the encounters which I have made so far during this conference, and which I consider a gift. This enables me to take on these tasks, also and in particular within my own, Muslim, community.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you for this inspiration.
1. At this point I want to express my deep gratitude to Shaikh Bashir Ahmad Dultz, who has created, modelled and protected this open space for many years.