by CHRISTOPH STRACK
In a groundbreaking move, Germany has begun training its own Muslim religious leaders, fostering a deeper connection with local communities. Muslim groups across the country are seeing change brought by a new generation.
Osman Soyer is a religious affairs officer who was sworn into office this month in the Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin’s Neukölln district. He is one of 28 young men and women who have been trained as “religious representatives” by DITIB, Germany’s largest Islamic organization. They are involved in a variety of pastoral duties; this can also include acting as imams, but the job description is broader.
Soyer has been working as an Islamic religious representative in Alfter, a town near Bonn in western Germany, for a few months now. Community outreach, he says, is his top priority. It includes a wide range of activities. “I teach pupils, I’m a prayer leader, preacher and pastor. We also go to weddings, I do funerals.”
His parents came to Germany from Turkey in 1972, and his father worked at the large Opel car manufacturer near the city of Mainz — a fairly typical life for many immigrants at the time.
The swearing-in ceremony in Berlin reflects this history. Around 900 mosque communities make up the Turkish-Islamic Union, part of the Institute for Religion (DITIB) in Germany. That’s out of more than 3,000 estimated mosques and Muslim prayer houses in Germany overall.
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