Government urges German Muslim group to enter Berlin talks

Berlin - Germany's government urged a hesitant Muslim group Thursday to join upcoming talks with Berlin on bringing Islam classes into more German schools and curing high dropout rates among Muslim pupils.

The Central Council of Muslims had previously complained that not enough devout Muslims were being invited to the three years of planned talks with the government.

The council, which is one of four nationwide alliances of Sunni mosques, has said it is still making up its mind whether to show up at the start of the talks on May 17 or boycott them.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the council was "cordially welcome" to the meeting, which would discuss the spread of Islam classes for Muslim children to more schools, along with state-paid university training for imams and religion teachers.

He said the multi-year talks, entitled the Germany-Islam Conference, was vital to establish a distinction between Islam and Islamism. "The distinction is very important to ensure acceptance of Islam in our society," he said.

The negotiations are to resume 2006-09 talks between Berlin and leaders of Germany's 4 million residents of Islamic background.

The Central Council of Muslims had complained that mosque groups, were under-represented in the government-selected panel, with only four of 15 seats, while too many individuals who are critical of Islam were given seats.

The Central Council also upset that another of the national federations of mosques, the Islamic Council, has been denied speaking rights at the talks, prompting the Islamic Council to boycott them completely.

De Maiziere said the panel would be increased to 17. This means six out of 17 Muslim seats will be held by a range of devout organizations including German Allawites.

Berlin says a non-mosque majority is justified because most Muslims do not pay membership dues to any mosque. It rejected Islamic Council participation because that group's head, Oguz Ucuncu, is under police investigation for alleged financial misdeeds.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/322359,government-urges-german-muslim-group-to-enter-berlin-talks.html.