Interreligiousness and interreligious openness of people with a migration background from predominantly Muslim countries of origin , Date: 2024.06.13, format: brief analysis, area: Authority

The Brief Analysis 2|2023 examines the interreligious openness of individuals with a migration background from predominantly Muslim countries of origin. It considers interreligious knowledge about Islam, Christianity and Judaism, attendance at places of worship, i. e., mosques, churches and synagogues, and interreligious contacts.

The analyses are based on data from the nationwide representative survey "Muslim Life in Germany 2020", which was conducted on behalf of the German Islam Conference. The analyses focus on the level of interreligious openness of individuals with a migration background from predominantly Muslim countries of origin. Individuals without a migration background serve as a comparison group. Furthermore, a person's religious affiliation is taken into consideration, distinguishing between Muslims, Christians, members of other religious groups and people who are not affiliated with any religion. In addition, associations with religion-, migration- and integration-related characteristics are analysed.

Key findings:

• Non-Muslim people with a migration background from predominantly Muslim countries of origin in Germany are more likely to state that they know a lot or very much about Islam than people without a migration background. Knowledge about Christianity is relatively high among non-Christians in both groups. The majority of people with and without a migration background state that they know little or very little about Judaism.
• Existing opportunities play a role when visiting places of worship. Churches, which are easily accessible in Germany, have been visited once or several times by the majority of non-Christians with and without a migration background. Visits to mosques and especially synagogues are less common.
• Opportunities are also important with regard to interreligious contacts. Non-Christian people with and without a migration background mostly have contact with Christian people, which are clearly the largest religious community in Germany.
• Personal interreligious experiences by visiting a mosque and interreligious contacts with Muslims minimise fears that Islam is becoming too influential among non-Muslim people with and without a migration background.
• Self-assessed knowledge has a less clear effect on such fears. There is no significant correlation for people without a migration background. For people with a migration background, a high level of knowledge is even associated with greater fears.

The authors of this Brief Analysis are Katrin Pfündel and Dr. Anja Stichs. It is part of a three-part series of publications on the wide-ranging topic of social cohesion. Another report analyses attitudes towards various aspects of belonging to Germany and towards members of other social groups (Research Report 47). A third study focuses on the experiences of discrimination of people from predominantly Muslim countries of origin in everyday life, at school and when looking for work and housing (Research Report 48).

This download is available in other languages, too.

• Kurzanalyse 2|2023: Interreligiosität (German)