Dis/trusted partners: local Mosque activism during the German refugee crisis

Arndt Emmerich

- completed -

As part of his project, Arndt Emmerich analysed the role of local mosque activism during the German refugee crisis through a comparative neighborhood perspective. Through fieldwork in Ankara, he studied how the Turkey-based training facilities for Islamic authorities engage with the changing demographic and political context in Germany. So far, the Turkish perspective is missing from the academic debate but could inform current scholarship in Germany and Western Europe, due to Turkey’s historical experience of building democratic institutions along well-established Islamic traditions. The aim was to explore political techniques, responding to religious diversity in Turkey and its impact on the refugee situation in Germany. Arndt Emmerich has also investigated the history and negotiation of Germany’s first Muslim-Christian kindergarten to inform the current debate around the trajectory of global interfaith movement.