Media reporting tends to concentrate on the subject of violence, he said. This could be one of the reasons behind the growing prejudice towards Islam in German society.
Islamic fanaticism and terrorism that flies the Islam flag are undoubtedly a real and serious threat, says Schäuble. Still, too little attention is paid to the fact that the vast majority of Muslims are law-abiding, peaceful people.
Looked at from another angle, more and more Muslims in Germany feel excluded from and rejected by society. This ever-widening societal gap poses a huge integration policy challenge.
Integration as a core policy area
In the past few years, the German government has launched a wide range of integration initiatives. The first National Integration Summit was held in 2006. And at the second summit in July 2007, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a jointly developed National Integration Plan.
Minister of the Interior Schäuble also called the German Conference on Islam (DIK) into being. Its aim is to foster ongoing dialogue between state representatives and people who belong to the Islam faith.
Differentiated images of Islam
As Schäuble announced at the conference, a DIK working group focuses on media impressions of Islam in Germany. But, he continued, it is not it’s job to tell the German media what it should report on and how to present it. Rather, it is designed to promote a responsible, unprejudiced and differentiated attitude in the media. Reports should reflect everyday issues in the lives of Muslim people, said Schäuble.
The working group also looks at how the Muslim media reports on events in Germany. The minister said this was another area that had attracted criticism. One recent example involves reports in the Turkish media about the deadly fire in Ludwigshafen in which a large number of Turkish women and children were killed. Jumping to premature conclusions that the fire was the outcome of a racist attack had not helped, said Schäuble. The situation called for more reserve and no prejudgements.
