D’égal à égal ? Herméneutique critique du dialogue initié par l’État avec les musulmans d’Allemagne

Cet article analyse le dialogue interculturel en Allemagne grâce à l’outil conceptuel que représente l’herméneutique critique de Gadamer. Le point de départ en est le Deutsche Islam Konferenz (DIK), une initiative de dialogue avec les musulmans menée par l’État en Allemagne. À partir de l’idée de Gadamer du caractère processuel du dialogue et d’une ouverture principielle à la différence de l’autre, je souhaite montrer que le DIK trouve ses origines bien plus dans une politique d’intégration que dans une idée de « compréhension » mutuelle. Plutôt que de délinéer une réflexion critique sur les prémisses d’un « travail de l’histoire » (Wirkungsgeschichte) propre à un individu et d’une révision potentielle de ces prémisses à travers la rencontre, cet article suggère qu’un tel événement dialogique se base sur l’assomption d’une normalité de soi et d’une déviance d’autrui à transformer. En donnant la parole à certains représentants musulmans et à leur refus de se transformer unilatéralement, j’avance que les retombées de telles mesures de dialogue n’en sont pas moins ouvertes et ambivalentes.This article analyses intercultural dialogue in Germany through the conceptual tool of Gadamer’s critical hermeneutics. The starting point is the Deutsche Islam Konferenz (DIK), a state-led dialogue initiative with Muslims in Germany. Starting from Gadamer’s idea of the procedural character of dialogue and a principled openness towards the difference of the other, I argue that the DIK is in the first place anchored in politics of integration and less in the ideal of mutual « understanding ». Instead of encompassing a critical reflection upon the premises of one’s own « history of effect » (Wirkungsgeschichte) and a potential revision of these through the encounter, the article suggests that this dialogical event is based on the assumption of the normalcy of the self and the deviation of the other to be transformed. Introducing the voices of some Muslim representatives and their refusal to one-sidedly transform, I claim that the outcomes of such dialogue measures are nonetheless open and ambivalent.Este artículo analiza el diálogo intercultural en Alemania gracias a la herramienta conceptual que representa la hermenéutica crítica de Gadamer. El punto de partida es la Deutsche Islam Konferenz (DIK), una iniciativa de diálogo con los musulmanes dirigida por el Estado en Alemania. Partiendo de la idea de Gadamer del carácter procesual del diálogo y de una apertura principial a la diferencia del otro, este artículo desea mostrar que la DIK encuentra sus orígenes más bien en una política de integración que en una idea de “comprensión” mutua. Más que delinear una reflexión crítica acerca de las premisas de un “trabajo de la historia” (Wirkungsgeschichte) propia a un individuo y de una revisión potencial de sus premisas a través del encuentro, este artículo sugiere que tal evento dialógico se basa en la asunción de una normalidad de sí mismo y una desviación del otro que debe ser transformada. Al dar la palabra a ciertos representantes musulmanes y su rechazo a transformarse unilateralmente, el artículo señala que los resultados de tales medidas de diálogo no son menos abiertos y ambivalentes

Pitfalls of consensus-orientated dialogue: the German Islam Conference (Deutsche Islam Konferenz)

This article discusses one deliberative approach to dialogue as conceptualized by the philosopher Jürgen Habermas and brings this into a conversation with the current dialogue practice of the Deutsche Islam Konferenz (DIK) in Germany. This ongoing dialogue forum was initiated by the Ministry of the Interior in the autumn of 2006 in order to enact a structured conversation with Muslims and as a means of recognising them as ‘German Muslims’. My main argument is twofold. Focusing on Habermas’s ideal of dialogue as a consensus oriented rational discourse of equal citizens in non-hegemonic structures, I will argue, on the one hand, that much of the promise of the DIK to enact a dialogue with Muslims at eyelevel and to recognise them as equal citizens on the basis of the liberal-democratic order has not been fulfilled. With its top-down approach to Muslims as mere re-actors the DIK has so far turned out to be much more a governmental technique which aims at reshaping Muslims according to liberal/secular norms. On the other hand, I claim that although the DIK obviously runs counter to Habermas’s principles in many ways, it also shares and simultaneously lays bare the difficulties entailed in his consensus orientation, and, more importantly, in the secular bias of his approach.Schirin Amir-Moazai is Assistant Professor for Islam in Europe in the Department of Islamic Studies at Free University Berlin. Website: http://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/islamwiss/mitarbeiterinnen/professorinnen/Amir-Moazami/index.html

Politisierte Religion

Ausgehend von den anhaltenden Debatten um das islamische Kopftuch in staatlichen Bildungseinrichtungen Deutschlands und Frankreichs analysiert Schirin Amir-Moazami die Logiken der Diskursproduktion über den Islam und bringt die Argumente der Kritiker mit den Stimmen Kopftuch tragender junger Musliminnen ins Gespräch. Die Studie zeichnet nach, wie die wachsende Partizipation sichtbarer Muslime, hier symbolisiert durch das Kopftuch, im dominanten Diskurs beider Länder Abwehrreaktionen provoziert und der Islam mehrheitlich als Gegenkategorie zu jeweils national geprägten Säkularitätskonzepten begriffen wird. Zugleich zeigt sie, wie die jungen Frauen in die Diskurstraditionen beider Länder eingebettet sind und sich in komplexen Aushandlungsprozessen engagieren

Toward a More Accurate Web Service Selection Using Modified Interval DEA Models with Undesirable Outputs

With the growing number of Web services on the internet, there is a challenge to select the best Web service which can offer more quality-of-service (QoS) values at the lowest price. Another challenge is the uncertainty of QoS values over time due to the unpredictable nature of the internet. In this paper, we modify the interval data envelopment analysis (DEA) models [Wang, Greatbanks and Yang (2005)] for QoS-aware Web service selection considering the uncertainty of QoS attributes in the presence of desirable and undesirable factors. We conduct a set of experiments using a synthesized dataset to show the capabilities of the proposed models. The experimental results show that the correlation between the proposed models and the interval DEA models is significant. Also, the proposed models provide almost robust results and represent more stable behavior than the interval DEA models against QoS variations. Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed models for QoS-aware Web service composition. Experimental results indicate that the proposed models significantly improve the fitness of the resultant compositions when they filter out unsatisfactory candidate services for each abstract service in the preprocessing phase. These models help users to select the best possible cloud service considering the dynamic internet environment and they help service providers to improve their Web services in the marke

Forum: Feminism in German Studies

From Professor Wallach\u27s contribution entitled Jews and Gender : To consider Jews and gender within German Studies is to explore the evolution of German‐Jewish Studies with respect to feminist and gender studies. At times this involves looking beyond German Studies to other scholarship in Jewish gender studies, an interdisciplinary subfield in its own right. Over the past few decades, the focus on gender within German‐Jewish Studies has experienced several shifts in line with broader trends: an initial focus on the history of Jewish women and feminist movements gradually expanded to encompass the study of gender identity, masculinity, and sexuality. Historical and literary scholarly approaches now operate alongside and in dialogue with interdisciplinary scholarship in cultural studies, film and visual studies, performance studies, and other fields. [excerpt

Liberal-secular power and the traps of muslim integration in Western Europe

Throughout the last decades, integration programmes in Western Europe have centrally revolved around debates on Muslim populations and the institutionalization of Islam. The concept of integration has become a master paradigm with which to structure plurality of immigration societies across Western Europe. Critically reflecting this inflation, this article argues that the integration of Muslims is animated by a contingent liberal-secular matrix through which the sovereign state, in close connection with civil society, is enabled to decide what counts as proper and improper religion. Integration directed toward Muslims as a “religious minority” is therefore indicative of the very problems that it purports to resolve. In a genealogical vein, the article begins by suggesting that integration is a liberal “recursion” of earlier projects of minority management such as assimilation and conditional recognition within emerging nation-states. It argues that the epistemological ground which animated the assimilatory forces of the modern nation-state has been intimately bound by an imperial knowledge order which classifies and hierarchizes people along a race-religion nexus. The analysis continues by dwelling on contemporary examples of state organized dialog with Muslims, and more specifically the establishment of Islamic Theology Chairs at state universities. Through these examples the article shows that the institutionalization of Islam in Europe reconfigures a pattern which conditionally embraces religious difference, while at the same time continuing hierarchical rankings and by transforming it to make it fit for religion's legitimate place in public life. Finally, the article suggests that the somatic aspirations prevalent in assimilation projects and imperial race-religion constellations are both inscribed and concealed in the frequent invocation of Muslims to reveal their loyalty to the liberal-secular contract by bracketing their religious sensibilities for the sake of secular reason

Islam, Muslims and Muslim Communities in European Societies Report to Porticus by an International Expert Group on Muslim Communities in Europe (IEMCE)

This report is submitted by the IEMCE members, a group of eight academis, that has been convened on behalf of Porticus. The essays are covering subjects such as mapping Muslim communities in Europe : religion, ethnicity, class, citizenship ; towards an inclusive historical view ; islamic religious education in Euorpe; interreligious learning ; shari'a in Europe ; qur'anic criticism and islamic tradition l europe as a theological Opportunity ; typologies of muslim organisations and orientations in Europe ; islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Racism Across Europe

Politisierte Religion

Ausgehend von den anhaltenden Debatten um das islamische Kopftuch in staatlichen Bildungseinrichtungen Deutschlands und Frankreichs analysiert Schirin Amir-Moazami die Logiken der Diskursproduktion über den Islam und bringt die Argumente der Kritiker mit den Stimmen Kopftuch tragender junger Musliminnen ins Gespräch. Die Studie zeichnet nach, wie die wachsende Partizipation sichtbarer Muslime, hier symbolisiert durch das Kopftuch, im dominanten Diskurs beider Länder Abwehrreaktionen provoziert und der Islam mehrheitlich als Gegenkategorie zu jeweils national geprägten Säkularitätskonzepten begriffen wird. Zugleich zeigt sie, wie die jungen Frauen in die Diskurstraditionen beider Länder eingebettet sind und sich in komplexen Aushandlungsprozessen engagieren

Discourses and counter discourses: The Islamic headscarf in the French and German public spheres

Defence date: 13 October 2004Examining board: Prof. Christian Joppke (EUI-Supervisor) ; Prof. Werner Schiffauer (University of Viadriana - Second Supervisor) ; Prof. Peter Wagner (EUI) ; Prof. Nilüfer Göle (Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales)PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017Ausgehend von den anhaltenden Debatten um das islamische Kopftuch in staatlichen Bildungseinrichtungen Deutschlands und Frankreichs analysiert Schirin Amir-Moazami die Logiken der Diskursproduktion über den Islam und bringt die Argumente der Kritiker mit den Stimmen Kopftuch tragender junger Musliminnen ins Gespräch. Die Studie zeichnet nach, wie die wachsende Partizipation sichtbarer Muslime, hier symbolisiert durch das Kopftuch, im dominanten Diskurs beider Länder Abwehrreaktionen provoziert und der Islam mehrheitlich als Gegenkategorie zu jeweils national geprägten Säkularitätskonzepten begriffen wird. Zugleich zeigt sie, wie die jungen Frauen in die Diskurstraditionen beider Länder eingebettet sind und sich in komplexen Aushandlungsprozessen engagieren