Cross-Cultural Debate

Amar Abass, a Muslim from the British community organization "Youth Action," works on projects to improve understanding among people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. He was astonished to learn at the conference in Berlin that so many of the three million Muslims living in Germany speak only poor German.

"Every single Muslim who was born and bred in the UK speaks English fluently," he said. "Of course they also learn their cultural language, such as Urdu or Arabic. But they all speak English well, so that's not an issue in the UK."

Engaging Muslim communities better, he argues, cannot really work if all sides concerned can't find a common language in which they can communicate. He said the German government should take strides to overcome this barrier.

The conference participants agree that the diversity of Muslim life in Europe and the contribution that Muslims can make to western societies has not yet been fully recognized. Instead, public perceptions are often shaped by decisive debates on issues such as headscarves and the growth of radical Islam.

Germany ready?

According to Markus Kerber from the German interior ministry, the British model of engaging Muslims at community level has shown some success. However, he said, German society might not be ready yet for large-scale interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims, given Germany's shorter period of time in having serious exchanges with the Islamic world.

"Britain has had for a much longer time a cultural interchange with some of the most important Islamic countries in the world, because they were engaged as a colonial power," he said. "The history, or historical baggage, goes back a longer time, whereas migration into Germany from Islamic countries is a relatively recent phenomenon."

But question the whole idea behind "immigration," a word that is often used but which often has little connection with daily reality, according to British Muslim media expert and author Sarfraz Mansoor. She said most people do not live "integrated" lives. Rather they live their lives with the people who are similar to them.

"We're not actually integrated," she said. "Working class people tend to live with working class people. Middle class people have middle class lives."

She believes it is more appropriate to talk about tolerance rather than trying to foist a kind of artificial assimilation on Muslim communities in Europe, especially at a time when non-Muslims in Germany and the UK seem unable even to just define what they mean by "integration."