Muslim self-organisation and the State's approach towards Muslim organisations in a European comparison , Date: 2012.09.10, format: project (finished), area: Authority , Research project to analyse efforts and approaches of European states to establish Muslim interlocutors

In this research project, the efforts and approaches taken by other European states to create Muslim contact partners were examined against the background of the German Islamic Conference (DIK) as an institutional platform for dialogue. The objective was to gauge the most promising approaches carried out under comparable conditions in terms of the states’ constitutions and religious laws.

Analysis of other European states' experiences

Developments and experiences from other European states with considerable Muslim populations (Italy, Spain, Austria, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom) were gathered and analysed. The project looked at countries in which attempts had been made to institutionalise this type of dialogue at national level, albeit against the background of different legal situations in terms of state religion and different religious and social circumstances.
Based on the theory that the institutional structures of society have a considerable bearing on immigrants' political mobilisation, the project examined the extent to which the self-organisation of immigrants from majority Muslim states corresponded to the expectations of the respective states in terms of their law on state religion and their policy on religion in general.

Investigation of structures of Muslim representations

Following a compilation and analysis of the legal and political framework conditions, the structures of existing Muslim representations were investigated. The organisational structures of other religious communities that are already recognised also had to be included, as the adjustments made by 'newcomers' are based not only on the normative rules imposed on them but also on the examples of other successful organisations in the institutional field.
Concepts of 'communitisation', which are apparently original to Islam, and as they are put forward in the debate by Muslims, should be accepted as alternatives, given that they and other factors may exert a strong influence on the type of self-organisation.