BERLIN, January 2 (IslamOnline.net) – As German Muslims turned the calendar page to 2005, they recalled being caught in an anti- and pro-Islam battle in 2004 with anti-Muslim voices speaking louder than ever.

Dealing with the Muslim community became the overriding concern of German officials against the backdrop of the murder of anti-Islam filmmaker Theo Van Gogh in neighboring Holland and the Madrid blasts.

They jumped on the anti-Islam bandwagon across Europe and came up with plans and ideas on the best way to contain the Muslim community security-wise.

All of a sudden, Muslim issues like hijab and integration were deliberately brought to the fore as if Muslims were the thorn in the government’s side.

Interior Minister in the state of Bavaria Guenter Beekstein was in the vanguard of officials attacking Muslims, accusing the sizable Turkish community of living in “parallel societies” with their own cultural and social activities.

Warning that the “Turkish ghettos” were posing a threat to German society, the minister called for placing restrictions on immigrants, including mastering the German language and adapting to the prevailing Christian culture.

His colleague Aneeta Schavan, the Culture Minister in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, pressed for enacting laws obliging imams to deliver their sermons and preach in German and deporting those who allegedly incite violence.

No sooner said than done: the new immigration law, under which immigrants are bound to attend language and culture classes, comes into force on Monday, January 3.

The law further provides for deporting imams inciting racial hatred against non-Muslims, particularly Jews.

It appears as if the anti-immigrants politicians follow in the footsteps of former chancellor Helmut Schmitt who said that contemporary German governments “committed the mistake of giving access to Muslim workers who are of different cultural backgrounds.”

Islam comes third after Protestant and Catholic Christianity. There are some 3.4 million Muslims in Germany, including 220,000 in Berlin alone.

An estimated two thirds of the Muslim community are of Turkish origin.

Like France, hijab took central stage in Germany during 2004 with several states passing laws banning the Muslim veil either in state schools or at workplace.

The legislature in the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg voted almost unanimously in April for a law banning public school teachers from taking on the Muslim headscarf.

Lower Saxony followed suit after the state parliament, dominated by a coalition of the conservative Christian Democratic Union and the liberal Free Democrats, pressed for a similar law with the support of the opposition Social Democrats.

Of the six states which put forward anti-hijab measures, four have already put the drafts into effect.

Incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder voiced his opposition to civil servants wearing hijab, but made clear he was not against students taking them on in schools.

Former German president Johannes Rau said that there was nothing wrong for Muslim women to put “a piece of cloth” atop of their heads in obedience to their religion.

He stressed that if hijab was banned, all crosses and other religious signs should be taken off as well.

The Brussels-based European Commission expressed its deep concern that the German anti-hijab drive was running counter to the European anti-discrimination laws.

President Kohler stressed the importance of entering into a dialogue with Muslims

Some officials, rights activists and Christian clerics, however, opposed the anti-Muslims campaigns.

President Horst Kohler stressed in May the importance of entering into a dialogue with Muslims, warning that Muslims were felling a “crusade” was being launched against their religion.

His predecessor Rau had said that Muslims in Germany should not be treated as second-class citizens, asserting that they have become part and parcel of the German society.

Interior Minister Otto Schily soothed fears sparked by the killing of the Dutch filmmaker, opposing any comparison between Germany and the Netherlands when it comes to the status of the Muslim community.

He further hailed the Muslim cooperation in the “war against terror.”

She questioned the very selective approach, noting that other religious communities were practicing their rituals in their native tongue.

The Greens’ parliamentary commission at the Rhein’s parliament also questioned why the government had dragged its feet on reaching out to the sizable Muslim community.

The Hamburg kiosk used “Muslims Against Terror” as its mantra

The party drafted an initiative regulating the relation between the legislature and executive authorities in Rheinland-Pflaz state, on the one hand, and Muslims, on the other.

It called for establishing a unified Muslim Shura (consultative) Council whose elected chairman would be the legitimate representatives of the Muslim community in the state.

Add to that, the German University of Munster inaugurated in April the first institute qualifying Muslim teachers to teach Islam in state-run schools.

The Rhein’s Ministry of Education also started in July teaching the Islamic Guidance subject to some 5,000 Muslim students enrolled at 100 public schools in the state.

Also in July, Germany’s first Muslim Academy opened in Berlin, bringing together a host of scientists, researchers and academics from Germany and several Muslim nations.

Henier Belifiedrut, the director of the German human rights institute, said Germans should not place all Muslims in one basket, asserting that the vast majority of them were tolerant and moderate.