Muslim Life in Germany - Deutsche Islam Konferenz

246 Aspects of Integration
of social norms such as the principle of reciprocity and helps to
develop a general sense of trust. According to Robert Putnam,
this ultimately enhances the democratic capacity of collectives
(Haug 1997: 28). Slootman and Tillie (2006) were able to verify
this assertion in a study on Muslims in Amsterdam. Slootman
and Tillie established a link between social isolation, e.g. a lack
of integration into social networks, and radical Muslim tendencies
(Slootman/Tillie 2006). For the purposes of the following
analyses it is thus assumed that broad-ranging membership of
diverse organisations indicates a large degree of social capital
among the interviewees and a resultant capacity to solve problems
by collective means (Haug 1997: 28).
No distinction is made in this study between active and
passive membership of an organisation. It thus remains unclear
whether the purported member of an organisation is actually
exposed to contact with other people or merely holds formal
membership without any interaction and thus does not possess
any more social capital than non-members. The findings of the
survey of volunteers conducted on behalf of the Federal Government
also indicate that membership of organisations has a positive
influence on social capital. The survey of volunteers showed
that so-called organisational environmental conditions exist
which are conducive to actual active participation in an association
or organisation. Membership is a particularly important
factor here: 91 per cent of those who play an active role in an
organisation are also members of the organisation concerned
(Gensicke et al. 2005: 135-136). On the basis of these findings it
may be assumed that membership of organisations provides a
structure offering opportunities to interact with other people
and to acquire social capital.