By IRNA,
Berlin : German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Sunday stressed the practical need to pave the ground for ensuring religious freedom for Muslims.
Speaking at a ceremony in the eastern town of Wittenberg, marking the unveiling of a decade of celebrations on the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Protestant Reformation, Schaeuble said, “We also have to enable Muslims in a practical manner to exercise the freedom of religion which our constitution guarantees them.”
He urged Protestants to step up efforts to help other followers of faiths, especially Muslims, to integrate in Germany.
Schaeuble has repeatedly emphasized that the building of churches, synagogues and mosques should not be viewed as a “threat but as an enrichment.”
“Islam has become a part of our country,” the minister reaffirmed earlier.
There are 3.5 million Muslims living in Germany of which 2.5 million are Turks.
Most Muslims reside in what used to be traditional blue-collar cities like Cologne, Duisburg, Essen, Berlin, Frankfurt and Mannheim.
Islam has also become one of the fastest growing religions in Germany, as some 4,000 Germans converted to Islam between July 2004 and June 2005 which is four times as many as in the prior space of time.
Some 14,352 out of 3.5 million Muslims in the country are of German-origin, according to figures released by the Islam-Archive Central Institute.
Faced with daily verbal abuse, media prejudice and racial discrimination, Germany’s Muslim community is also battling with educational problems for their children and a chronic lack of job opportunity.