Germany Archives - Bridge Initiative

09 Jan 2025 | Politics

Reflections on Interfaith Relations: A Decade After My Time as Allianz Visiting Professor at LMU: A Journey of Cultural Exchange

In the fall of 2013, I arrived in Germany as the Allianz Visiting Professor for Islamic Studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), a role that marked a significant milestone in my academic career. This position, endowed by Allianz AG, was part of a continuing guest professorship for Jewish and Islamic Studies, aimed at bringing internationally renowned scholars to Munich to foster intercultural and inter-religious understanding. (Allianz Gastprofessur | Freunde islamischer Kunst) read the complete article

Article

28 Jun 2024 | Politics

E.U. Far-Right Parties Dominate 2024 Parliamentary Elections

Every five years, the European Union (EU) holds continent-wide parliamentary elections to select 720 lawmakers to represent them in decision-making at the EU level. In the run-up to the June 2024 EU parliamentary elections, the current EU Parliament President, Roberta Metsola from Malta, urged Europeans to vote, especially given that right-wing ultranationalist political parties were polling strongly. read the complete article

Article

01 Feb 2024 | Policy/Law

German Ministry Issues 400-Page Report on Islamophobia

An independent expert working group on anti-Muslim sentiment sponsored by Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community recently issued a nearly 400-page report called “Anti-Muslim Sentiment: Germany Takes Stock” in September 2023 to analyze the current state of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment within Germany for millions of its diverse Muslim populations across the central European country today. read the complete article

Article

17 Nov 2022 | Policy/Law

Criminalizing Muslim agency in Europe: The case of ‘political Islam’ in Austria, Germany, and France

This article discusses the emergence of a discourse on ‘political Islam’ in the policy circles of European elites. It interprets this discourse on one hand as a manifestation of the further criminalization of Muslimness emanating from programs of countering... read the complete article

Editorial

03 Apr 2020 | Politics

Racism and the Terrorist Attacks in Hanau, Germany

On 19 February, 43-year-old Tobias Rathjen killed nine people of color at two shisha bars in Hanau, a small city near Frankfurt. He then returned home, killed his own mother and, finally, committed suicide. Before... read the complete article

Article

24 Feb 2020 | Terms/Tropes

Remembering Auschwitz, Deploying Islamopohbia?

Last month, political and religious leaders around the world commemorated the end of the Nazi cruelty, the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp, the Konzentrationslager. The systematic industrial killing of six... read the complete article

Article

04 Sep 2019

The Rising Far-Right in Eastern Germany

This weekend, two major German states will go to the ballots. Sachsen and Brandenburg, two politically quite different states, will elect the next state parliament. And the last polls made by the ZDF Polit Barometer reveal no good... read the complete article

Editorial

18 Jul 2019 | Individuals

Sarrazin and the German Social Democrats’ stance on Islamophobia

It is the third attempt by the Social Democrats to exclude Thilo Sarrazin from their party on allegations of racism. A chance for the Social Democrats to sharpen their profile? Sarrazin was leading as a... read the complete article

Article

05 Jul 2019 | Individuals

Remembering the Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini: A Symbol of Deadly Anti-Muslim Racism in Germany

It was the 1st of July 2009, 11.07 a.m., when Marwa El-Sherbini was stabbed to death by a white nationalist in the court of the German city of Dresden. The 31 year old observant Muslim... read the complete article

Editorial

01 Jul 2019 | Individuals

The silent murder of Walter Lübcke

On June 2 this year, Walter Lübcke, a regional politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), was found dead in his home. Lübcke was found with a bullet wound in the head, suggesting a sniper... read the complete article