Abstract
AbstractThe Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DİTİB) runs more than 900 mosques in Germany and circulates Friday sermons in these mosques. Our analysis provides a nuanced depiction of the link to the homeland by conducting qualitative and quantitative content analyses of 481 sermons from 2011 to 2019. To what extent are relations with Turkey reflected in the sermons? And how is the concept of “home” reflected in those sermons? While homeland-related issues constitute a minority overall, the concept “home” occurs in five different contexts within these sermons: First, sermons directly refer to the homeland and norms connected to it. Second, implicit links are created by discussing events in Turkey. Third, leaving the homeland is described as an integral part of the history of Islam. The last two contexts discuss Germany as a “new home”, and build links to Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) through its foundation.
Highlights
As part of the debates about integration1, mosques, and their role in the integration of Muslims, the largest religious minority in Europe, have repeatedly been the subject of controversy
Since the core interest of this article lies in connections to Turkey, a quantitative content analysis was combined with a more in-depth qualitative content analysis
Based on the analyses of the sermons only, homeland politics, or political issues in general, and religion do not seem to be as strongly linked in sermons as political issues and religion in Christian sermons in the US (Boussalis et al 2021)
Summary
As part of the debates about integration, mosques, and their role in the integration of Muslims, the largest religious minority in Europe, have repeatedly been the subject of controversy. In Germany, around half of all Muslims are from Turkey (Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat 2020). A significant number of mosques belong to the Sunni umbrella organization, the DİTİB (Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs), which, in addition to running mosques, is involved in the organization of religious education in public schools, language courses, and social and youth work (Kortmann and Rosenow-Williams 2013). The first DİTİB association was founded in 1982 with the aim of providing a religious infrastructure in Berlin for immigrants from Turkey. The association in Cologne was officially founded and later became the central structure (Rosenow 2013; Beilschmidt 2015, 49). The DİTİB has been partly supported by the German government
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