Streit um das Minarett. Zusammenleben in der religiös pluralistischen Gesellschaft

Der Bau von Minaretten und die daran sichtbar werdende Präsenz des Islam in Europa lösen Kontroversen aus, die in der Schweiz bis zu einer Volksinitiative zum Verbot von Minaretten geführt haben. Das vorliegende Buch thematisiert erstmals die wichtigsten Aspekte der Kontroverse: Was sind die Motive und die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen für den Bau von Minaretten? Warum konnte die Minarett-Initiative zustande kommen und worin besteht ihre Problematik? Wie sind die Argumente der Minarett-Gegner zu bewerten und welche Rolle spielen die Kirchen in der Minarett-Diskussion? Welche Lösungen gibt es für Minarett-Konflikte und welches sind die Regeln für das Zusammenleben in der religiös pluralistischen Gesellschaft? Diese Fragen werden aus juristischer, soziologischer, islamwissenschaftlicher und theologischer Perspektive diskutiert. Das Buch richtet sich sowohl an politisch Interessierte als auch an Fachleute.

Legal Integration of Islam: A Transatlantic Comparison

The status of Islam in Western societies remains deeply contentious. Countering strident claims on both the right and left, Legal Integration of Islam offers an empirically informed analysis of how four liberal democracies—France, Germany, Canada, and the United States—have responded to the challenge of integrating Islam and Muslim populations. Demonstrating the centrality of the legal system to this process, Christian Joppke and John Torpey reject the widely held notion that Europe is incapable of accommodating Islam and argue that institutional barriers to Muslim integration are no greater on one side of the Atlantic than the other. While Muslims have achieved a substantial degree of equality working through the courts, political dynamics increasingly push back against these gains, particularly in Europe. From a classical liberal viewpoint, religion can either be driven out of public space, as in France, or included without sectarian preference, as in Germany. But both policies come at a price—religious liberty in France and full equality in Germany. Often seen as the flagship of multiculturalism, Canada has found itself responding to nativist and liberal pressures as Muslims become more assertive. And although there have been outbursts of anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States, the legal and political recognition of Islam is well established and largely uncontested. Legal Integration of Islam brings to light the successes and the shortcomings of integrating Islam through law without denying the challenges that this religion presents for liberal societies.

Political Sociology of Islam Integration: the Role of Liberal Law

In Europe and North America, migration and integration has become a busy subfield of political sociology. Of particular interest in this respect is the integration of Muslims and Islam, which has dominated the debate in Europe. Broadly conceived «political opportunity structures» have received much attention in this context. But the role of liberal law in the integration of Islam has been largely ignored, not by lawyers of course, but by political sociologists who have thus delivered far too negative and truncated pictures of Muslims and Islam in Europe. This is the deficit we sought to redress in Legal Integration of Islam; A Transatlantic Comparison (2013) (co-authored with John Torpey). Some of this study’s main ideas and findings are presented in the following.