German Muslims consider uniting 05/03/2007 00:00

Berlin (dpa) - The main Muslim organizations in Germany are considering forming an organization to represent Muslim interests in German society, the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said.

Leaders of Muslim organizations, such as the Turkish religious group Ditib, the Islamic Council, the Central Council of Muslims in Germany and the Association of Islamic Cultural Centres (VIKZ), all said they were in favour of an umbrella organization.

"We are determined to act as representatives of all Muslims in Germany," Bekir Alboga, spokesman for Ditib, said.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble came out in favour of a Muslim umbrella organization last year when he formed an Islam Conference.

Schaeuble said the German government needed a representative organization to discuss issues such as religious education. The Islamic Council was founded last year to discuss precisely this issue with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Alboga said he expected an association to be founded by the summer, but spokesmen for all the organizations acknowledged problems over how the separate groups would be represented in an overarching body and over what it would be called.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine noted that the Muslim organizations could speak directly only for 300,000 of Germany's Muslim population.

Many of the 3.2 to 3.5 million residents originating from Muslim countries regarded themselves as secular Muslims and did not belong to a Muslim organization, the newspaper said.

DPA

Subject: German news