The deal seems set to go through, but the national debate on Islam and local political changes could make its approval more difficult than expected, politicians and Muslim leaders said.
“It’s important for us that this agreement makes clear that we are part of this society,” said Zekeriya Altug, chairman of the Hamburg branch of DITIB, a Turkish-German mosque network that is one of Germany’s largest Muslim organisations.
“We’re close to wrapping this up,” said Norbert Mueller, a German convert who is a board member of Shura, the largest mosque association in this north Germany port city.
Germany has an estimated 4 million Muslims, most of them of Turkish origin, in its 82 million population. Long treated as migrant workers due eventually to return to their countries of origin, they have become an established minority that wants equal rights.
The agreement in Germany’s second-largest metropolis, a city-state in the country’s federal system, would set out their rights and also their duties, such as consulting neighbourhood residents before building mosques or erecting minarets.
The project also lost its strongest supporter when Mayor Ole von Beust resigned in August.
“I expect it to be passed, but the outlook is not as good as it was before,” said Wolfgang Beuss, religious affairs spokesman for Hamburg’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
Altug said many rights were already allowed under various German laws, or granted as local exceptions. “This agreement should bring all this together in a single text,” he said.
The Hamburg agreement would integrate Muslims in several practical ways. For example, city schools will be able to hire Muslims to teach Islam in religion classes all pupils attend. These are now run by teachers from the local Lutheran church.
It would ensure burial rights in municipal cemeteries, so Muslims can be interred in shrouds rather than coffins and have no other religious symbols nearby. Many immigrants prefer to be buried in their original countries to ensure a Muslim burial.
Muslim pupils would be free to skip school on 2 or 3 Islamic holidays and Muslim imams could be posted in prisons.
Two other states, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, are also considering recognising Islam. Since recognition of religions is a state issue under German law, some other states may follow Hamburg’s example.
Source: Agencies