Multicultural Symbol or Gateway to Fundamentalism?

Wolfgang Bosbach

“The debate is absurd,” says the domestic affairs expert for the conservative Christian Democrats in the German parliament (photo). “This is not an Islamic country, it’s a Christian country, and we should not be forced to accommodate Islam.”

The headscarf also remains a sore spot because many consider it a symbol of fundamentalism and female discrimination in a Western society.

“There are very few women who wear the head scarf voluntarily, and their number is so small they are not worth talking about,” said Seyran Ates, a women’s rights activist and lawyer in Berlin.

"What we're talking about is fundamentalism"

The 40-year-old, who wrote a book about leaving her traditional Turkish home in Berlin, says she is astounded at the legitimacy with which some German politicians give the headscarf. “We need to never forget that what we’re talking about here is fundamentalism,” she said.

Instead of deciding what place a piece of cloth that represents religious freedom to some, fundamentalism to others has in a state-run school, Germany’s constitutional court referred the question to the state parliaments and the public domain--where many believe it belongs.

“We’re (as a society) not ready for such a decision,” says Riem Spielhaus, an Islamic Studies lecturer at Berlin’s Humboldt University. Referring to Germany’s integration problems, Spielhaus said “we need an atmosphere of openness where we can accept that other religions might also change our values.“

How a headscarf ban produces terrorists

The direction the debate is going worries both Muslims and Germans. Misconceptions that the head scarf and fundamentalist Islam are one and the same could have the

Mohamed Atta allegedly headed the Hamburg cell of terrorists that carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

opposite effect of closing German minds to the religion and alienating Muslims in the country. Scenarios of the most extreme critics of the head scarf would have pockets of devout Muslims, facing limited job opportunities because of their religious dress, withdrawing into parallel societies that might harbor the type of terrorist nests that produced the Sept. 11 hijackers.

Others dismiss such ideas as scare tactics.

“There’s not a fundamentalist under every head scarf, and thinking that would be fatal,” said Spielhaus. “Mrs. Ludin’s head scarf, which she willingly puts on, is good for the Western society. Banning head scarves would be a victory for fundamentalists.”

Oztürk makes a similar argument, adding that her head scarf could even help dismantle prejudices before they arise in her young students.

“I think it’s very sad that this society continues to look at the head scarf as something of a threat,” said Oztürk. “I find it shocking that so many things are projected onto the headscarf without anyone ever asking the women who wear them.”