Islam part of Germany or Germany part of Islam?

More than 10 years ago, the President of Germany Christian Wulff said that Islam is part of Germany. Then it caused a stormy debate. Now there is no doubt about it. To date, about 5 million Muslims live in Germany. This is one largest community in Europe.

It can be said that Germany itself is already part of Islam. Another confirmation of this is the opening college for learning Imams in the German city of Osnabruck. College will prepare imam – men and women, as well as social workers for mosques and Islamic religious communities in Germany. Classes will be held in German. The first course consists of more than 50 students, about 20 percent of which are women. Like Catholic priests,Protestant pastors and Jewish Rabbi, students of the Islamic College,having received theological education, should be prepared for work in Muslim communities and the mosques of Germany as imam.

Not all Muslim Associations support Islamic college in Osnabruck. For example, the Turkish-Islamic Union of Religious Institutions last year founded its own training center in the Aifel in the south-west of the Northern Rhine-Westphalia. Most Islamic communities in the country are headed by imams associated with this union, which oversees the activity of more than 900 mosques throughout Germany. The union unites up to 70percent of Muslim living in the country. Among other things, this cultural and religious organization is responsible for the lessons of Islam in public schools.

Financing of this college carries the Government of Lower Saxony. The amount of funding for the first five years will be about five and a half million euros. At the same time, they do not have the right to vote when drawing up a training program. The training program will determine the Central Council of Muslims of Germany and Lower Saxony.

According to the State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Germany, who is responsible for the Islamic Conference, Markus Kerber, from the moment of arriving in Germany in 2015, a large number of refugees,the Islamic community in Germany has become more diverse than in any other European country. He expressed the hope that in a few years the college will take a worthy and authoritative place among such educational institutions and in Muslim countries.

Germany is trying to do everything to create more comfortable conditions for refugees from Muslim countries and their children already born in the country. This is another attempt by Berlin to integrate visitors to German society.However, it is probably doomed to failure. Muslims prefer to live in their society and repel all that they are trying to impose from the side of the local. However, refugees in Europe are becoming more and more, it is possible that not only colleges will be built for them. Maybe even to the detriment of the local population.