Entries from July 2006 ↓

Last Friday’s sermon was another twofer.  The topic of the first informal message was lying and the topic of the ritual sermon was bribery.
The preacher started by lamenting the fact that lying is all too common in the community and gave a couple examples of what he had in mind.
First, he described a situation [...]

In my last post I asked whether there were any data confirming the common view that Turkish Muslims in Germany have become more conservative over the last few years.  The answer appears to be yes.
The Foundation Center for Studies on Turkey published a trio of mini-reports in English last April that offer findings from a [...]

I’m offering a $10 iTunes gift certificate to the first person who can point me toward quantitative data showing that Muslim immigrants in Germany have become more religiously conservative over the last 5-10 years. [UPDATE...Sorry, less than 24 hours later I found something on my own; see comments below...]
Sound good?  Read on.
I’ve had several conversations [...]

Today’s meeting with Ridvan Cakir went quite well.  He didn’t have a lot of time to spare, but we still spent a solid 45 minutes discussing DITIB, integration, and Islamic sermons.  Mr. Cakir definitely helped answer my key questions, but I also came away puzzled about some things.
When I showed up at the mosque and [...]

Today I was finally able to speak directly with Ridvan Cakir, the president of DITIB.  His office is in Cologne, which has complicated things, but more importantly he was in Turkey for the past couple weeks.  Although he’s back on the job, he told me over the phone that many DITIB employees in Cologne, [...]

Last Friday I listened to the sermon at my neighborhood mosque, partly because I had interviewed the imam the day before and partly because the acoustics at Sehitlik Mosque, while beautiful, can make it hard for a non-native Turkish speaker sitting in the back to catch the whole thing.
Both the message delivered before Friday prayers [...]

I just got back from watching the World Cup Final and partying on the Fan Mile in front of the Brandenburg Gate here in Berlin.  What a night!  I saw the game way down by the Victory Column with a crowd that was mostly Italian.  If that wasn’t clear enough from all the flags and [...]