Preface: From the News Item to the Question of Representation
Praise be to Allah. In recent days a news item has circulated about the inclusion of Islamic religious education in German schools as a tool for countering polarisation and strengthening social integration. The material was republished on more than one media platform within a short period, reflecting the presence of the subject in public debate.
The first impression of the Muslim reader may be positive: a non-Muslim European state is including Islam in its official curricula. Yet analytical reading requires moving from the question “Is there religious education?” to a deeper question:
— Who holds the right to represent Islam when it enters the state school?
— And who determines its content when it becomes part of a modern constitutional order?
This study does not seek to issue a verdict, but to build a foundational picture of the legal, institutional and epistemic context in which Islamic religious education arose in Germany, as a preparation for a deeper reading in the coming instalments.
First: The Historical Roots – From Migration to the University Institution
The formation of the large Muslim community in Germany began with the agreement to recruit Turkish workers in 1961. Over time, temporary migration turned into permanent settlement, and a new generation of Muslims born in Germany emerged.
As the community’s children entered schools, the question arose of including Islam within the system of official religious education, on a par with Christianity and Judaism. Since the 1990s, political and legal debates have taken place on the possibility of introducing Islamic religious education as a subject in state schools.
The basic difficulty, however, lay in the absence of a unified representative structure for Muslims comparable to the Christian churches in terms of legal organisation.
In 2010, the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) issued a recommendation to establish university centres of Islamic theology within German universities, in order to train teachers of Islamic religion and academically qualified imams, and to reduce reliance on external institutions. Some of these initiatives had begun before the recommendation, such as the Erlangen-Nuremberg centre (2009), and the experiment later expanded to several universities, including, for example:
— University of Münster
— University of Tübingen
— Humboldt University of Berlin
This path shows that Islamic religious education in Germany is not an individual initiative, but a long-term institutional project.
Second: The Constitutional Framework – Article 7 and the Problem of the “Religious Community”
The German Basic Law (Grundgesetz), in its seventh article (Art. 7), provides that religious education (Religionsunterricht) is a regular subject in state schools and is taught “in accordance with the tenets of the religious community concerned”, while general supervision remains with the state.
In theory, this opens the door to any recognised religion. But its application requires the existence of a “religious community” with clear legal representation able to determine the content of instruction.
Here the particularity of the Islamic case appears:
Muslims in Germany are distributed among federations and associations of differing national and sectarian backgrounds, without an overarching representative body officially recognised in the manner of the churches.
For this reason, some federal states resorted to forming advisory boards that include Muslim representatives and academic experts in cooperation with the ministries of education.
The essential question here is not only legal, but epistemic:
— If there is no overarching religious community to determine the content of instruction, who in practice exercises the function of defining Islam within the school curriculum?
Third: Muslim Actors – Between Adaptation and Reservation
It is important to stress that Muslims in Germany are not a single bloc, and that the internal landscape is marked by diversity.
There are federations such as:
— DITIB (the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs)
— The Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD)
Positions have ranged between:
— A tendency that sees in the inclusion of Islamic religious education an opportunity to establish the presence of Islam in the public sphere in an organised way.
— And another tendency that has reservations about state intervention in drafting curricula, and fears a redefinition of religious authority outside its inherited traditions.
This diversity reveals that the matter is not a one-sided imposition, but a field of negotiation and tension between the state and Muslim actors.
Fourth: The Decentralisation of Education – Differing Experiences Among the States
Germany is a federal state, and education falls within the competence of the states (Länder). Consequently, there is no single model applied literally throughout the country.
For example:
— In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen) a model has developed that is closer to official confessional religious education.
— In some states – such as Bavaria – the state offers a model known as (Islamischer Unterricht), an Islamic instruction organised directly by the state that is not considered a full application of the confessional religious education provided for in Article 7(3); rather, it takes on a character closer to a religious-studies format under state supervision without a constitutionally recognised religious partner.
This differentiation makes talk of “the German model” a generalisation in need of precision, and confirms that the experiment is still taking shape.
Fifth: A Brief Comparison – The Austrian Model
Comparison with Austria shows that the legal framework plays a decisive role.
Austria officially recognised Islam from the Islam Law of 1912, and then reorganised the relationship with the law of 2015. There is an officially recognised representative body (IGGÖ) that coordinates religious affairs.
By comparison, there is still no unified representative body for Muslims in Germany in the constitutional sense that would directly qualify it to exercise the powers of Article 7(3) as a (Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts), which has led some states to adopt transitional formats through advisory boards and university centres.
This comparison reveals that the reshaping of religious authority is not a single inevitable path, but is shaped by the legal structure of each state.
Sixth: From the Mosque to the University – The Shift of the Centre of Gravity
Traditionally, Islamic religious authority was formed through:
— Mosques
— Circles of learning
— Inherited institutions of Islamic scholarship
— Chains of transmission and isnad
In the German model, however, the training of religion teachers takes place within state universities, in newly founded faculties of theology.
The university here is not merely an administrative framework, but an institution that works within a modern epistemic philosophy, relies on critical and hermeneutical methods, and is subject to academic standards.
In this sense, the centre of gravity shifts from the traditional sphere to the academic-constitutional sphere.
This is a structural shift that deserves reflection.
Seventh: The Pedagogical Shift – From Reception to Competence
German curricula adopt the philosophy of “competence-oriented teaching” (kompetenzorientierter Unterricht), in which the aim is not limited to transmitting knowledge, but to enabling the student to engage in:
— Critical thinking (critical reflection)
— Building religious self-determination (religiöse Selbstbestimmung)
— Managing religious plurality in society
In this context, religious education is presented as a process that accompanies the building of identity, not merely the reception of rulings.
To bring the picture closer, an applied example may be mentioned:
In some experimental curriculum projects, the concept of “jihad” is presented with a focus on its moral and spiritual dimensions within the framework of striving against the self and positive work in society, with reduced focus on its historical and political dimensions, in harmony with the aims of civic education.
This example is not intended as an evaluation, but to show how concepts are adapted within a modern pedagogical framework.
Eighth: The Function of Religion in the Modern State
Among the declared justifications for including Islamic religious education are:
— Prevention of extremism,
— Strengthening integration,
— Supporting social peace.
These aims belong to the social and political sphere, and reflect a conception of religion as an element contributing to stability.
This, however, raises a philosophical question:
— When the purpose of religious education is defined by social functions, does that affect the way its content is formulated?
Raising the question does not mean adopting a position; rather, it opens a horizon for thinking about the relationship between religion and its function within the modern state.
Preliminary Conclusion: Towards a Deeper Reading
What has preceded is not an evaluation, but a foundational description of the course of Islamic religious education in Germany, from its historical roots to its constitutional framework, and from the shift of religious authority to the university to the pedagogical shift in the formulation of curricula.
The matter goes beyond the media news item to a deeper question about:
— Who holds the right to represent Islam?
— How is religious education redefined when it enters a modern constitutional system?
— And what is the effect of the shift of religious authority from the traditional sphere to the academic sphere?
In the coming articles, we will move to a closer reading of the literature issued by some centres of Islamic theology, an analysis of the hermeneutical structure governing this model, and a discussion of the shift from juristic authority to pedagogical authority.
For the question that remains open is:
— How is the concept of “religious education” shaped in the context of a Muslim minority within the modern European state?
And Allah is the Granter of success.