New beginnings? The refugee “crisis”, the “Other”, and Islamic religious education in Germany

• Authors: Droeber Julia
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The recent influx of refugees has been in the headlines for more than a year in Germany. On a daily basis, new items about refugees, asylum policies, disasters, or xenophobia makes it into print, visual, or social media. Everybody has an opinion about this issue. In this essay, I record some of my own observations in this regard, as someone, who, in different ways, has been involved with refugees and “Others”. I am trying to make some sense of the discourses and actions that the so-called “refugee crisis” has produced. It has become evident that the discourse about the refugees is as much about the “Other” as it is about the “Self”. It is my argument that Germany is at a crossroads as a consequence of the arrival of relatively large numbers of refugees mainly from a Middle Eastern context – it can either lead to Germany closing in on itself, trying to exclude the “Other”, which in a globalized world would probably be a disadvantage; on the other hand, the “refugee crisis” has the potential of a new beginning, expanding on the already existing efforts to integrate “Others” into one’s own society. One example for such integration efforts would be the fairly recent introduction of Islamic Religious Education in state schools. The success or failure of this experiment can provide an indication of the willingness and ability of Germans to find constructive ways to integrate refugees into their communities.

Keywords

EN

refugee crisis; the other; Islam; Islamic education; Germany

• Publisher: Akademia Pedagogiki Specjalnej im. Marii Grzegorzewskiej. Wydawnictwo APS
• Journal: Studies in Global Ethics and Global Education
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 93-107

Dates

published

2016-08-25

Contributors

author

Droeber Julia

• Department of Theology, Pedagogy of Religion, University of Education, Ludwigsburg

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Identifiers

DOI

10.5604/23920890.1215493