Mosques
with Foreign Flags: Islam in America and Germany
By Dr Muqtedar Khan
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
and International Relations
University of Delaware
Non-Resident Fellow, Brookings Institution
Berlin
May 23, 2006. We entered the mosque through a
large iron gate closely watched by a score of
Turkish men. Unlike most architecturally interesting
buildings in Berlin which are open and easily
accessible, this mosque which is both majestic
and grand, is surrounded by a high wall and is
accessible only through iron gates. I was in Berlin
for a conference organized by the American Institute
for Contemporary German Studies and one of their
scholars and a Berlin Parliamentarian kindly volunteered
to show me around Berlin.
As we approached the grand mosque, the Berlin
Parliamentarian remarked, “Notice the Turkish
flag on the mosque, do you see a German flag anywhere?”
The daylong conference in Berlin was about comparing
the experiences of Germany and the US in integrating
their Muslim minorities. Throughout the day, scholars
from both sides of the Atlantic struggled with
political and philosophical issues involved in
the absorption of large number of minorities whose
political and cultural values may be at odds with
those of the host nations.
While Muslim scholars argued for more openness,
more religious and racial tolerance and equal
treatment of all religious communities, others
called for more assimilation and insisted that
immigrants must make the effort to learn local
languages and adapt to the mainstream political
and cultural norms.
As I looked at the mosque with its Turkish flag
flying proudly, the high walls, the iron gates
and the stoic faces, I suddenly realized that
this was not a mosque, this was a sort of embassy,
a foreign enclave, an extension of Turkish sovereignty
in the heart of Germany. In the US one may occasionally
find a US flag in a mosque, but never a flag of
a foreign country. The only mosque that has foreign
flags is the Islamic Center in Washington DC which
was established by diplomats from Muslim countries.
I sympathized with the Berlin parliamentarian’s
obvious displeasure with the Turkish flag. Turkish
nationalism is particularly irritating. Several
years ago I ran into a large contingent of Turks
in the holiest of Muslim mosques in Mecca while
circumambulating the Kaaba. They were wearing
tiny Turkish flags on their shirt collars. I found
this display of nationalism even in the House
of God deeply offensive. Islam is a strictly monotheistic
religion and nationalism in its extreme form begins
to subvert the very idea of One God. Perhaps these
Turks did not know that God is blind to nationality,
ethnicity and race.
With Islamophobia on the rise in most Western
countries, grand displays of Islamic religiosity
– the mosque is indeed fabulous –
combined with overt, in your face displays of
allegiance to foreign nations can only be described
as spectacularly stupid.
Both Muslims and non-Muslims are actively demanding
the elimination of barriers between Western mainstream
and Muslim diasporas. While Muslims are insisting
that host societies accommodate, recognize and
respect all the differences that they bring, non-Muslims
– usually the dominant white Judeo-Christians
– are demanding that Muslims moderate these
differences. In Germany the focus is on learning
the German language and the incorporation of Islam
as a German institution. In the US the challenges
are more related to real or perceived sympathy
of American Muslims for anti-Americanism in the
Middle East.
Muslim immigrants bring three significant challenges
to Western societies – cultural differences,
religious differences and political differences.
In the US the first two challenges are easily
manageable. Most Americans believe in the United
States as a multicultural society and deeply value
religious pluralism. Unlike Europe where the elite
talk a lot about secularism but the State actually
incorporates religion, America does practice separation
of church and State.
In the US the government is neither involved nor
interested in how Islam is institutionalized or
managed by Muslims, where as in Germany the state
not only teaches religion in school but also has
religious clergy on government payroll. This becomes
particularly problematic since Germany finances
both Christianity and Judaism but does not even
recognize Islam.
In the US most people respect and even value cultural
differences, jealously guard religious freedom
and consequently practice religious pluralism
at all levels of society. Primarily because most
Americans are from somewhere else, the fact that
Muslims are also from elsewhere is not a big issue.
American identity is open, flexible and continuously
evolving. American citizenship is also easily
acquired and hence becoming American in law and
spirit faces less cultural and political barriers.
Additionally the “American dream”
is a powerful positive that all immigrants aspire
for and often achieve. When traveling overseas,
I frequently testify that coming to America for
me was like joining the marines – in America
one can “be all you can be”.
At present the key barrier to the mainstreaming
of Islam in America is the relations between the
US and the Islamic World.
Germany has a long way to go. Even though it does
not have foreign policy problems like the US,
it has several domestic policy issues. First Germany
must recognize Islam. Germany has been for decades
a multi-ethnic society but very few Germans imagine
Germany as a multicultural society. German intellectuals
brag a lot about being secular, well how about
secularizing the German State and dumping Christianity
and Judaism from the national budget?
German identity is rooted in the past and is culturally
tied to race, and ethnicity. Becoming German is
very difficult even for those who are born in
Germany, speak German better than most natives
but happen to look like me rather than Boris Becker.
German intellectuals must begin to imagine a Germany
as a political community that is a composite of
values, rather than a nation-state based on a
specific ethnicity. In the age of globalization,
narrowly defined identities are untenable. Germany
as an integral part of the emerging global society
must define itself in terms of global values that
are sensitive to cultural, racial and religious
differences and become a role model for other
European nations like Ireland and Portugal that
will soon face similar problems.
Muslims who live as minorities in the West or
anywhere else, must understood that their demand
for tolerance for religious and cultural differences
is a just cause. But they must align their political
and economic interests with those of their neighbors
[whose acceptance they seek] and not with those
who live in foreign lands.
There is room for Islam in America and Germany.
We can and we will build bigger and more spectacular
mosques in the West, but there is no place for
Saudi flags, or Turkish or Pakistani flags in
Western mosques. They have their embassies and
that is enough. They should not be allowed to
use our mosques.
(Muqtedar Khan teaches Islam and Global Affairs
at the University of Delaware. He is a Nonresident
Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author
of Islamic Democratic Discourse, 2006).
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