Muslim Life in Germany - Deutsche Islam Konferenz

Introduction 21
of the DIK which commissioned the study and wishes to use a
differentiated examination to obtain well-founded information
about the individual religious groups it represents for the first
time. On the other hand the Alevi community is recognised as
a religious community as defined by Art. 7 (3) of the Basic Law
in four Federal states. A third reason is that Alevi clearly differ
from followers of Sunni and Shiite Islam in their spiritual orientation
and religious practice (see chapter 4) and a lack of differentiation
could lead to inaccuracies in the interpretation of the
results. In those parts of the report where it is not necessary to
distinguish between Alevi and other orientations of Islam, both
groups are combined under the term “Muslims”. This procedure
is regarded as legitimate as around three quarters of the Alevi
interviewed referred to themselves as Muslims.
Following an estimate of the number of Muslims in Germany
the report looks at how Muslim society is structured in
terms of religious communities, and also in terms of age and
gender (chapter 2.2). In this chapter the interviewees themselves
and also information on the members of their household
form the basis for the analyses. From chapter three onwards all
analyses refer only to the interviewees themselves unless there
is an explicit reference to another source. Here, Muslims are
compared with the members of other religious communities.
For the first time this serves to show the extent to which resources
relevant to integration are determined by cultural, regional
and social-economic characteristics. Chapter 3 looks at sociodemographic
issues and aspects relevant to migration. Chapter
4 is devoted to religiousness. It considers the religious practice
of Muslims living in Germany as well as their involvement in
religious organisations. The report examines which Muslim or-