WHAT IS OTHER ABOUT OTHER
RELIGIONS?
The Islamic Communities in Berlin between Integration
and Segregation
GERDIEN JONKER
Center for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin

ABSTRACT
Based on fieldwork among Muslim communities in Berlin, this article examines
the encounter between German legal traditions on religion and Muslim
immigrant communities. The discussion of German law is juxtaposed with discussions
from within various Muslim communities that seek a place for their
members as religious practitioners in German society through emerging
interpretations of Islamic law.
Key Words  collective memory  Europe  migration  minorities 
Muslims  religion
What is different about other religions? This question was posed anew some
years ago by the German sociologist of religion, Joachim Matthes. Matthes
points out that the term ‘religion’ is widely used, at least in the German
context to which he is referring, in a self-referential way (Matthes, 1993).
According to Matthes, the word conveys unquestioned values which came
into existence during the Reformation. Originating in the juxtaposition
between the sacred and the mundane, in which the religious realm was seen
as something extraordinary, the definition of religion has developed into a
concept of differentiation which determines how the religiosity of others is
judged. Other religions are evaluated according to the criteria of seriousness,
membership and degree of worship. Combined with evolutionary
theories, this has resulted in a ‘conceptual Jacob’s ladder’ which in turn has
led to three different grounds for negative evaluation: that the religious life
of others is ‘not serious enough’, that it is ‘not genuine enough’ or that the
group in question is ‘not yet mature’. Matthes refers to an ongoing process
Cultural Dynamics 1 

 
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