Muslim Life in Germany - Deutsche Islam Konferenz

How many Muslims live in Germany? 81
grant group in Germany. Religious affiliation can also change
in the wake of migration - a problem which is familiar to experts
(Brown 2000: 97). In order to avoid the problems entailed by this
indirect method, a direct method is recommendable, i.e. surveying
the population to determine their religious affiliation. In
addition to providing an estimate with greater validity, this also
offers the advantage that questions on subjective elements such
as religiousness and attendance of religious events can also be
asked.
The results of the “Muslim Life in Germany” survey confirm
that it is not possible to draw any reliable conclusions regarding
immigrant groups living in Germany on the basis of the
religious composition of their country of origin. If one compares
the share of Muslims identified in the survey with the share
of Muslims in the country of origin as stated in the CIA World
Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency 2008), large differences
are evident for almost every country (table 7). The assumption
that religious minorities account for a disproportionately large
number of immigrants from some countries of origin is borne
out. Iraq, for example, is stated as having a population which is
97 per cent Muslim, yet of the household members covered by
the survey, just under 60 per cent are Muslim, and some 24 per
cent are members of a different religion. Another reason, however,
which has rarely been discussed to date, is the fact that national
statistics often list people who no longer feel affiliated to
any particular religion under their earlier religious affiliation or
under the religious affiliation of their parents. The fact that this
leads to an overestimation of the number of Muslims is made
clear by the unexpectedly high percentage of people from predominantly
Muslim countries living in Germany who state that
they do not belong to any religion – more than 50 per cent of