"What does Muslim integration look like?"

Event details

February 4, 2016
18:00 CET
Friedrichsaal at Deutsche Bank
Unter den Linden 13/15
10117 Berlin

What are the qualities of nations that draw diverse people together? What challenges does Germany face in the integration of Muslims in its society, and what can Germany and the United States learn from each other?

After the Paris attacks, Europe faced criticism, again, for failing to better integrate Europe-born Muslims and Muslim immigrants into their societies, cultures, and politics. But it’s far from clear what integration really means — or how people are supposed to achieve it in Europe’s vastly different countries.

What are the qualities of nations that draw diverse people together? What challenges does Germany face in the integration of Muslims in its society, and what can Germany and the United States learn from each other? What role can music, the arts, or sports play in integrating new arrivals into the cultures of very old countries? Could the redesign of cities or school curricula contribute to integration? And does integration mean the same thing for a university-educated Turk in Germany versus a teenage Moroccan restaurant worker in the Netherlands?

*Photo by Gero Breloer/AP Photo

On February 4, 2016, Zócalo, the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft, and NPR Berlin are inviting German decision-makers and civil society to discuss the integration of Muslims in Germany and what lessons Germany and the United States can learn from each other on how their diverse societies might come together.

Moderator Rick Stengel, Former Managing Editor of Time Magazine and U.S. Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, will speak with actress and comedian Idil Baydar, Bundestag MP Özcan Mutlu of the Green Party, Riem Spielhaus of the Erlanger Center for Islam and Law in Europe, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Audrey Singer, and Bundestag MP Cemile Giousouf of the Christian Democratic Union about all the ways, large and small, that Europe’s diverse societies might come together.

It is obvious that Islam undoubtedly belongs to Germany by now.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, 30 June 2015 at a reception marking Ramadan at Villa Borsig Berlin

Partners

The panel discussion is a joint event of the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft, Zocalo Public Square, a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization, and NPR Berlin.