Dear fuenfnullzwei.de/60pages,
I am a proud Muslim from a family with a rather long tradition of religious scholars. I have read about the history of Jews in Germany and how they were able to adapt to German life in the 18th and 19th century through a process of assimilation. Today, we know that that assimilation process clearly did NOT work out and so we, the new “religious minority” in Germany, aren’t interested in joining any high society salons. (Some of us might be trying to become university professors, though.) Still, my question is this: I am a modern man, and I know that there are some aspects of Islam my family brought with us from the old country that are not exactly up-to-date. Reforming our religion to deal with the modern (German) world wouldn’t be such a bad thing and many people are doing that in their individual forms of practice. My cousin thinks it might make our existence here in Europe a bit easier to deal with. But let me be clear: I am not willing, and I believe my community is not willing, to give anything up in the process of becoming more modern or German. Who would? Everyone knows this did not work out for the Jews in Germany. But still, I wonder: is there anything positive in Jewish history for us to draw from? Sincerely,
A reformer seeking advice
Dear Reformer,
There are so many ways that the story of the Jewish population in Germany parallels today’s Muslim population. We have many common differences that separate us from the majority German culture: religious practice and dress, food preparation according to religious law and the avoidance of pork, and even a different religious language from our secular, day-to-day life. We recently came together over circumcision. Neither of us is made up of one race or nation nor are we part of one religious behavior. But there are many more of you than there ever were of us, since Jews only comprised about 1% of the population at the most and they say that today’s population of Muslims is 4%. So your chances of enduring in Germany seem better than the odds the Jews faced.
So what can we tell you about what worked back in the day?
Have you thought about getting an organ for the mosque? I know you probably hate organ music (so did we back in the 19th century). But composers such as Louis Lewandowski changed liturgy by creating new harmonies to accompany the organ and made synagogue music popular all over the world. We don’t really know what it was about the organ that made it so popular but we know it was really very important. The Germans seemed to like it. It is still popular in Berlin today. Don’t believe us? This coming week, you can find out yourself how just by adding an organ, you can become the most-loved religious minority hierzulande. The Lewandowski Festival takes place from December 20-22 in Berlin. See you there!