Postcolonial Germany

Abstract This chapter discusses postwar Germany’s approach to Islam and Muslims. It introduces the most important state institutions and political figures that have shaped religion politics and the state’s approach to Islam and Muslims. Two policy fields are specifically analyzed: religious bureaucracy and education. The chapter discusses the German Interior Ministry’s approach to Muslim associations that were largely denied legal recognition on a similar footing to white Christian churches. It discusses the introduction of the German Islam Conference in 2006, and the subsequent expansion of the surveillance state to keep Muslim associations in check as well as the institutionalization of Islamic religious education in schools and universities to control the content of Islamic teachings in public schools and train the ideal future German Muslim theologian.