By Wolfgang Polzer
Special to ASSIST News Service

March 25th, 2007


In unison, evangelicals and feminists in Germany have expressed deep concern that the judicial system may be threatened by concessions to Muslim culture.

A recent family court decision in Frankfurt has caused a storm of protests right across the political, cultural and religious landscape. A German Muslim woman had requested a speedy divorce, because her Moroccan husband frequently beat and threatened to kill her.

The judge, Christa Datz-Winter, turned the request down on the grounds that the couple came from a cultural environment, in which it is common for husbands to beat their wives. The Koran, she argued, sanctions such physical abuse. Therefore the couple would have to endure the year of separation before the divorce.

In the aftermath of a swarm of critical reactions to the ruling the judge has been removed from the case. She has also regretted her decision.

The case highlights the increasing tensions between Muslim traditions, which encompass judicial affairs, and the secular rule of law in Western democracies. There are approximately 3.5 million Muslims in Germany, mostly Turkish immigrants.

! Politicians and the churches insist that Muslims must succ umb to the German constitution, which guarantees the equality of women and protects them against abuse. While Muslim associations have pledged allegiance to the constitution, serious doubts remain whether the ordinances of Islam can indeed be fully reconciled with Western democracy.

With reference to the controversial divorce court decision the Institute for Islamic Affairs of the German Evangelical Alliance has warned not to compromise the Constitution. The judge's decision impairs the constitutional right to physical integrity for religious or cultural reasons, said the institute's director Christine Schirrmacher.

The expert on Islamic affairs is concerned that such religiously biased legal decisions temper with the legal system and pave the way for the formation of a parallel Muslim society. According to Schirrmacher the Koran states clearly that a husband may beat his disobedient wife.

The director of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Ayyub Axel K! oehler, however, disputes the claim that Muslim husbands a re allowed to beat their wives. "Our prophet never struck a women, and he is our example", said the German Muslim.

The most prominent spokeswoman of the feminist movement in Germany, however, shares these evangelical concerns. Alice Schwarzer, editor of the magazine "Emma", wants to see judges, who refer to the Koran, removed from German courts of law altogether. She is convinced that Islamist forces have been infiltrating the German judicial system for a long time.