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Michael Schrom

The Servant of Allah and the Responsibility of Muslims

From: Christ in der Gegenwart, 28/2009, P. 315 et sequ.
webmaster's own, not authorized translation

What is the contribution of Islamic theology to integration? Conclusions about the Islam Conference drawn in the press.

Has the Islam Conference, brought into being by the Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble, been a success or not? The opinions about it diverge. "Actually Schäuble should mainly be disenchanted. For judged by his own ambitious goals the result of the recent Islam Conference is meagre for the time being," the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" sums up. All participants admittedly agree that the two and a half years of discussion had been "absolutely worth it". But one has hardly got further with concrete projects.

There was no agreement on conditions for the admission of teachers or guidelines as regards contents for a curriculum in a planned Islamic religious instruction. The hope of the Ministry of Interior has fallen through that the Muslims in Germany could join together as a kind of umbrella organization, which - like the Jews or the Churches - could act as the legitimate negotiator and representative towards the state. The interests of the associations are too different, the gulf between conservatives and liberals too great. Approaches were made by the Islam Conference only with some practical issues, such as school swimming and sex education, with recommendations to the building of mosque and the Muslim burial. But the wording is rather vague. About the headscarf it says that it was religiously not required before puberty. The "Zeit" says that the Muslims had become better acquainted with "the state, but much more with each other and their religion." This should not be disregarded. "Training seminar, imparting contacts, self-appointed Muslim Parliament - the German Islam Conference was some of all that. For the beginning this is not little."

This is all the more so as a study ordered by the Ministry of Interior has shown that far more Muslims live in Germany than assumed. Until now one officially took a maximum of 3.5 million Muslims as one's starting-point, but the latest estimate shows that up to 4.3 million Muslims are living here. This represents a share of 5.2 per cent in the population. By far the majority of Muslims have immigrated from Turkey (63.2 per cent), followed by Southeast European countries (13.6 per cent), the Middle East (8 per cent) and Northern Africa (7 per cent). From it also results the balance of power of the inner-Islamic denominations in Germany: Three-fourths are Sunnis, Shiites seven per cent, and thirteen per cent Alevis, who are admittedly a sect in the opinion of Shiites and Sunnis but were nevertheless represented in the Islam Conference.

The Role of the Associations

The Islam Conference has unduly enhanced the status of the religious, mostly conservative associations, though only a few Muslims are organized in them, the women's rights campaigner and publicist Necla Kelek, who took part in the discussions, criticizes (in the FAZ). That is correct. On the other hand one should bear in mind that at least 78.4 per cent of the South East European and 88.5 per cent of Turkish Muslims living in Germany describe themselves as "believers" or "very devout". In a recently published poll only a minority said they would "rather not believe" or "not at all believe." Well, with whom is the Government to speak, especially if it is about religious issues?

It is all the more important, indeed, carefully to watch what position the associations are taking. Necla Kelek is critical of it. "The associations want rights, but they refuse to take responsibility for things that take place in the name of Islam; they even reject the integration." This became time and again evident in various issues of values. One has admittedly promised that Islamist propaganda in institutions of the Muslim associations is no longer be tolerated. But just with the basic issues such as agreement on values [Wertekonsens] and integration the Islam Council, which is dominated by the organization Milli Görüs, refused to put its signature to a joint position paper. The "Süddeutsche Zeitung" writes that with the planned statement Milli Görüs had the suspicion the Muslim faith was regarded as hindering the integration - "a position that is not shared by the other three major Muslim organizations."

Also at the last meeting, when the representatives discussed about an opinion on the events in Iran, the unwillingness to adopt a clear position turned out to be unusually clear. The proposal for a text to be adopted was, "The Muslims represented in the German Islam Conference defend the right to form and express one's own opinion and the right to demonstrations in the Islamic Republic of Iran and condemn the human rights violations there." Although this really is a matter of course, all the representatives of Islamic associations with the exception of the Alevis refused to sign the paper.

The great timidity and reluctance to take responsibility on behalf of one's own religion and to analyse historical-critically one's own theological sources are the result of the Islamic understanding of the relationship between God and man, between God's "omnipotence" and man's "autonomy", explained the respected expert in Islamic studies Tilman Nagel (Göttingen) in an article for the magazine "Religionen unterwegs" (May 2009).

The Fundamental Theological Problem

The biblical anthropology knows wonderment about the fact that God raises human beings, encourages them to responsibility and looks after them in spite of human weakness and sinfulness, whereas in Islamic theology already early a unilateral authoritarian understanding of man as a servant of Allah gained acceptance.

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Nagel quotes key statements in the Psalms. "Yet you have made him little less than a god / with glory and honour you crowned him" (8.6 f) and "What is man that you should keep him in mind, / mortal man that you care for him" (144.3). He compares this biblical relationship between God and man with the suras of the Koran. There it says, for example (in sura 51.56), "Man was only created to worship gratefully the One."

In Nagel's view man's servant status is basically insurmountable in the Koran. At the latest from the tenth century in the Islamic theology one largely agreed that "the freedom of action of man was an absurd premiss." There were admittedly some thinkers who saw things differently. But they could not gain acceptance in the history of reception. This has far-reaching consequences. "If Allah determines everything and then puts it into effect, there remains no room for man's own actions - and this, although he in everyday life experiences himself as an agent. Very early one has choked off any temptation of man's own responsibility with reference to the fact that in this case two independent agents had to exist: Allah and man. And this was a reprehensible dualism."

The self-restraint of many Muslims in following and interpreting the Sharia and other authoritative and ultimately unfathomable texts had here its final theological reason. Since Islam does neither know the idea of a fallen world nor the concept of the world's salvation, because Allah created everything extremely well, and since man was not designed as "co-creator" [Mitschöpfertum], the only way that remained for pious people as Allah's servants was to follow the commands of God on earth. "To allow this servant autonomous actions would mean to grant him the ability to accomplish something on his own responsibility, perhaps even beside or against Allah, and thus to diminish the state of salvation of creation."

It is therefore not surprising that a theological discussion on the authoritative texts of Islam suggested by Tilman Nagel in the Islam Conference met with opposition by all associations (with the exception of the Alevis).

The Silence of the Scholars

In search of support for his integration efforts Wolfgang Schäuble visited a few weeks ago Islamic religious leaders and scholars in Egypt. He gave a lecture at the university in Cairo and met the highest scholar of the Sunni, Al Tantawi Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mosque, and other dignitaries for a theological dispute. The reporter of the "Zeit" soberingly records the result. "Three Muftis in two days, in addition to the two Egyptians still a Syrian cause in the German Minister of the Interior the feeling: We are alone in this struggle. He cannot rely on the Arab scholar. Upside-down world: Those who listen to the German Minister of the Interior trying to rouse the dignitaries through his anxious inquiries catch themselves with the question: Who is actually the grand mufti? Who is more worried about the future of Islam?"