No abstract

Throughout the last decades, state and civil society actors in Germany have undertaken a number of initiatives in order to enter into a structured conversation with Muslim communities, and to find spokespersons who serve as partners for political authorities. This process has commonly been analysed in terms of its empowering effects for Muslims via the emerging ‘institutionalisation’ of Islam. The modes and techniques of power at stake in this process have yet often been undermined. Through the lens of Foucault's concept of governmentality, the starting point of my article is one particular dialogue forum, initiated by the German state in 2006 – the ‘Deutsche Islam Konferenz’ (DIK) – whose primary goal is to institutionalise and regulate the communication between Muslims and state actors and thereby to regulate the conduct of Muslims. Focusing mainly on the way in which gender and Islam have been coupled and played out in this initiative, I argue that the DIK is less a dialogical encounter than a tool of a broader civilising liberal project. Through the inquiry into the modes of power operating in this state led dialogue initiative the article shows that while aiming to secure Muslim's ‘integration’ into German society and to liberate Muslim women from restrictive gender norms, the DIK operates as an enactment of a particular notion of freedom with normative and normalising implications.

No abstract

Ausgehend von den anhaltenden Debatten um das islamische Kopftuch in staatlichen Bildungseinrichtungen Deutschlands und Frankreichs analysiert Schirin Amir-Moazami die Logiken der Diskursproduktion über den Islam und bringt die Argumente der Kritiker mit den Stimmen Kopftuch tragender junger Musliminnen ins Gespräch. Die Studie zeichnet nach, wie die wachsende Partizipation sichtbarer Muslime, hier symbolisiert durch das Kopftuch, im dominanten Diskurs beider Länder Abwehrreaktionen provoziert und der Islam mehrheitlich als Gegenkategorie zu jeweils national geprägten Säkularitätskonzepten begriffen wird. Zugleich zeigt sie, wie die jungen Frauen in die Diskurstraditionen beider Länder eingebettet sind und sich in komplexen Aushandlungsprozessen engagieren.

No abstract