Muslim Life in Germany - Deutsche Islam Konferenz

276 Aspects of Integration
These relatively high barriers to interreligious partnerships/marriages
correspond to the pattern revealed by an analysis
of marriages registered in Germany in 2006 (Haug 2008). An
assessment of the marriages of Muslim women only shows a
declining trend in absolute figures since 2003. At the same time,
the number and proportion of marriages in which the partner
does not adhere to an Islamic religion has been in decline since
2002. In 2006 around one fifth of Muslim women entering into
marriage married a partner of another or an unknown religion
or belonging to no religion, as compared to around one quarter
in 2000. This indicates higher barriers to interreligious partnerships.
A declining trend is also to be observed with regard to
Muslim men entering into marriage, in terms of both the total
number of marriages and the number of marriages to women
of a non-Islamic religion. Interreligious partnerships are more
widespread among Muslim men than among Muslim women,
however. In relative terms, the number of Muslim men marrying
a woman who did not belong to their own religious community
was almost twice that of Muslim women marrying a man of
another or no faith.
This gender-specific pattern with regard to interreligious
partnerships also emerges from the results of the study “Muslim
Life in Germany”, according to which male Muslims are more
likely than female Muslims to have a non-Muslim partner than
female Muslims (table 46).