Cultural and Social Anthropologist Werner Schiffauer at Freie Universität

Mercator Senior Fellow at Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies through June 2018. No 025/2018 from Feb 01, 2018 The cultural and social anthropologist Professor Werner Schiffauer from the European University Viadrina is currently at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies for a for nine-month research stay as a Mercator Senior Fellow. During his stay he is doing research for the project "The Islam Policy of the German Ministries of the Interior - A Contribution to the Anthropology of the State Apparatus." "Following reforms in German immigration policy in 1999 and 2000, German policy has had to address the integration of Islam," explains Professor Werner Schiffauer. The major issue is: How can a religion that is viewed skeptically or even rejected by sections of the population be integrated into the social and political order of the German Federal Republic? The Ministry of the Interior plays a key role in dealing with this issue. The Ministry of the Interior needs to ensure political and social stability, the preconditions for all other state activities. Although statehood and the state cannot be reduced to the Ministry of the Interior, this ministry does have a prominent role in the interaction of the ministries. In his current research project, the cultural and social anthropologist Schiffauer uses the government's policy toward Islam to examine how the German Federal Ministry of the Interior defines a framework for the policy toward Islam practiced by the individual German states.