Islam's significance inGermany increased[3] after thelabour migration in the 1960s and several waves of political refugees since the 1970s. In2019, there were 5.3–5.6 million Muslims with a migrant background[b] in Germany (6.4–6.7% of the population), in addition to Muslims who do not fit into that category.[4] A similar survey in 2016 estimated a number of 4.4–4.7 million Muslims with a migrant background (5.4–5.7% of the population) at that time.[5] A survey in 2009 estimated a total number of up to 4.3 million Muslims in Germany.[6] There are also higher estimates: according to the German Islam Conference, Muslims represented 7% of the population in Germany in 2012.[7]
In 2014, it was estimated that 20,000-100,000 Germans converted to Islam, numbers comparable to those inFrance and in theUnited Kingdom.[8][9]
Germany does not register the religion of individuals in a centralized or mandatory system. Religious affiliation is only recorded if a person is a registered member of a recognized religious community, such as for purposes of church tax ("Kirchensteuer"). Many people of Muslim background in Germany are not affiliated with a mosque or Islamic organization, and may be secular, agnostic, atheist, or have converted to another religion.
Estimates of the Muslim population in Germany often rely on the assumption that individuals from Muslim-majority countries are Muslim. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) notes that between 5.3 and 5.6 million individuals with a migration background from predominantly Muslim countries reside in Germany.[1] However, this figure may not account for the diverse religious identities and beliefs of these individuals.
Some refugees in Germany fled their home countries due to persecution related to blasphemy or apostasy. In Afghanistan and Iraq, individuals who renounce Islam or are accused of blasphemy face severe penalties, including the death penalty.[10][11]
The Central Council of Ex-Muslims has highlighted the plight of non-religious individuals and converts who face discrimination and danger in their countries of origin.[12]
From the mid-2000s to 2016 there has been a surge migrants to Germany from outside Europe. Of the 680,000 regular migrants, 270,000 were Muslim. Additionally, of the 1,210,000 asylum seekers mainly from theSyrian civil war, 900,000 were Muslim (around 74%). Of the asylum seekers, 580,000 applicants were approved and 320,000 were denied or expected to be denied. According to thePew Research Center, similar patterns of Muslim migration to Germany should be expected in the future and the Muslim population share is expected to grow.[18]
In 2020 theDeutsche Islamkonferenz [de], based on a study, estimated between 5.3 and 5.6 million Muslims lived in Germany.[19]
When in June 2024 the results of the 2022census were published by theFederal Statistical Office of Germany, it became evident, that the German government does not know how many Muslims live in Germany and where they are located. While the number and localisation of citizens attributed to major Christian denominations could be pulled fromResident registration, no such data were available on unrecognized religious communities. Furthermore questions about religious beliefs had been dropped from the 2022 census questionnaire.[19]
The Wünsdorf Mosque, at theHalbmondlager POW camp, was Germany's first mosque, built in 1915; it was demolished between 1925 and 1926.
Muslims first moved to Germany as part of the diplomatic, military and economic relations between Germany and theOttoman Empire in the eighteenth century.[20] Twenty Muslim soldiers served underFrederick William I of Prussia, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1745,Frederick II of Prussia established a unit of Muslims in the Prussian army called the "Muslim Riders" and consisting mainly ofBosniaks,Albanians andTatars. In 1760 aBosnian Muslim corps was established with about 1,000 men.[21] In 1798 a Muslim cemetery was established in Berlin. The cemetery, which moved in 1866, still exists today. A number of German philosophers expressed sympathy for Islam, includingJohann Wolfgang von Goethe (who particularly admired the Sufi poetry ofHafez)[22] and laterFriedrich Nietzsche (inThe Antichrist, he claimed that the Germanic spirit was closer to the Moors ofAl-Andalus than that of Greece, Rome and Christianity).
After theWest German Government invitedforeign workers ("Gastarbeiter") in 1961, the figure sharply rose to currently 4.3 million (most of them Turkish from the rural region of Anatolia in southeast Turkey). They are sometimes called aparallel society within ethnic Germans.[26]
According to the German statistical office 9.1% of all newborns in Germany had Muslim parents in 2005.[27]
In 2017, Muslims and Islamic institutions were targeted by attacks 950 times, where houses are painted with Nazi symbols, hijab-wearing women are harassed, threatening letters are sent and 33 people were injured. In nearly all cases, the perpetrators were right-wing extremists.[28]
In May 2018 a court in Berlin upheld the right to the state's neutrality principle by barring a primary school teacher from wearing a headscarf during classes, where the court spokesman stated that children should be free of the influence that can be exerted by religious symbols.[29]
According to a study in 2018 byLeipzig University, 56% of Germans sometimes thought the many Muslims made themfeel like strangers in their own country, up from 43% in 2014. In 2018, 44% thought immigration by Muslims should be banned, up from 37% in 2014.[30]
In December 2018, the government of Germany strengthened the control ofSaudi,Kuwaiti andQatari funding for radical mosque congregations. The measure was recommended by an anti-terrorist agency in Berlin (German:Terrorismus-Abwehrzentrum) which since 2015 had started to monitor Salafist proselytizing funding in the wake of theEuropean migrant crisis to prevent refugees from becoming radicalized. Henceforth, Gulf authorities are required to report payments and funding to the GermanFederal Foreign Office (German:Auswärtiges Amt).[31][32]
Between 2010 and 2016, the number of Muslims living in Germany increased from 3.3 million (4.1% of the population) to nearly 5 million (6.1%). The most important factor in the growth of Germany's Muslim population is immigration.[33]
In December 2018, there were no official statistics on how much funding mosques in Germany received from abroad.[31]
In July 2020, federal stateBaden-Württemberg banned face-covering veils for school pupils as an extension of the ban which was already in force for staff.[34]
Diyanet İşleri Türk İslam Birliği (DİTİB): German branch of the Turkish Presidency for Religious Affairs,Cologne. As of 2016, the Turkish government funds and provides staff for 900 of Germany's roughly 3000 mosques run by DİTİB.[40]
Islamische GemeinschaftMilli Görüş: close to the Islamist Saadet Partisi in Turkey, Kerpen near Cologne
Islamische Gemeinschaft Jamaat un-Nur (de): German branch of the Risale-i Nur Society (Said Nursi)
In addition there are numerous local associations without affiliation to any of these organisations. Two organisations have been banned in 2002 because their programme was judged as contrary to the constitution: The "Hizb ut-Tahrir" and the so-called "Caliphate State" founded by Cemalettin Kaplan and later led by his sonMetin Kaplan.
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat Deutschland K.d.ö.R.: German branch of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Community. There is no ethnicity or race associated with this community although most of the members of the community residing in Germany are of Pakistani origin. The Ahmadiyya Community was established in Germany in 1923 in Berlin and is one of the largest in Europe. Communities exist in Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Bremen.[41]
King Fahd Academy, sponsored bySaudi Arabia. The school was closed at the end of the 2016/2017 school year, after long-running criticism that it was attractingIslamists to Germany.[44]
According to the FFGI atGoethe University Frankfurt, wahhabist ideology is spread in Germany as in other European country mostly by an array of informal, personal and organisational networks, where organisations closely associated with the government of Saudi Arabia such as theMuslim World League (WML) and theWorld Association of Muslim Youth are actively participating.[45]
Zentralinstitut Islam-Archiv-Deutschland e.V. : Documentary of Islamic Foundation-writings since 1739. The Islamic Institute was founded in 1942 (Sooner called Ma'ahad-ul-Islam Institut).[clarification needed]
TheA-Nur-Kita preschool was closed in February 2019 due to its parent organisation, the mosque association Arab Nil Rhein in Mainz propagated material from the Muslim Brotherhood andsalafist ideology. Therefore, the parent association was incompatible with theconstitution of Germany. This was the first time authorities closed any preschool inRhineland-Palatinate (German:Rheinland-Pfalz).A-Nur-Kita was the first and only Muslim preschool in Rhineland-Palatinate.[46]
There are now 18 official mosques in the country that have been established as mosques since time immemorial. Muslim places of worship (such as mosques and other places of worship) are estimated at between 1,000 and 1,200. Most of these mosques are temporarily built and are mostly located in rented places, factories or warehouses. According to the archives of the Central Institute of Islam, the most important mosques in Germany are located in cities such as Hamburg, Berlin, Mannheim, Marl, Dortmund, Cologne, Frankfurt, Wesling, Bonn, Zingen, Fortsheim, as well as mosques. The cities of Aachen and Munich are important mosques in Germany. These mosques are far from the city center and are often located in industrial areas.[47]
In 2010, the German Ministry of Education and Research established Islamic Theological Studies as an academic discipline at public universities in order to train teachers for Islamic religious education and Muslim theologians. Since then, Islamic theological departments have been established at several universities, conducting research and teaching on Islam from a theological perspective.[48]
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Islamophobia in Germany refers to the set of discourses, behaviors and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towardsIslam and/or Muslims in Germany.[49][50]Islamophobia can manifest itself through discrimination in the workforce, negative coverage in the media, and violence against Muslims. Various Islamic groups in Germany have expressed concerns over the attacks targetingmosques.[51]
At theAlternative for Germany party congress held on 30 April to 1 May 2016, AfD adopted a policy platform based upon opposition to Islam, calling for the ban of Islamic symbols includingburqas,minarets, andadhan (call to prayer), using the slogan "Islam is not a part of Germany".[52][53][54][55]
One issue concerns the wearing of thehead-scarf by teachers in schools and universities. The right to practice one's religion, stated by the teachers in question, contradicts in the view of many theneutral stance of the state towards religion. As of 2006, many of the German federal states have introduced legislation banning head-scarves for teachers. However, such a ban in North-Rhine Westphalia was declared as unconstitutional in 2015 by the Federal Constitutional Court.[56]
In most German federal states, except Bremen, Berlin, and Brandenburg, religious education is offered as an elective subject in state schools. There are discussions about introducing Islamic religious education alongside existingCatholic,Protestant, and, in some schools, Jewish education. Trials for Islamic religious education are underway in several states, and it is already a regular class in Hessen, Lower Saxony, and North Rhine-Westphalia. However, cooperation with Islamic organizations is challenging since no single organization represents the entire Muslim community.[citation needed] The discussion of religious (Islamic) education in German schools started in the 1970s, and also symmetrically with issues of Qur'anic classes as well as its deterrent effects on the integration of Turkish students into the country.[47]
The construction ofmosques is occasionally subjected toIslamophobic reactions in the neighborhoods. For example, in 2007 an attempt by Muslims to build a large mosque in Cologne sparked acontroversy.[57]
In recent years, Mosques in Germany have been receiving larger quantities ofhate mail as well as threats.[58]
According to a 2007Federal Ministry of the Interior report, almost half of all young Muslims in Germany express fundamentalist views. Approximately 12% of Muslims in Germany support moral-religious criticism of certain Western societal values, along with a range of views on punishments, includingcorporal punishment and, in some cases, theCapital punishment.[59]
A 2012 poll found that 72% of Turks in Germany see Islam as the only true religion,[60][61][62] while 46% expressed a preference for a growing Muslim population in the future. A University of Bielefeld survey revealed that only 19% of Germans believe Islam is compatible with their culture.[63]
In September 2014, the"Shariah Police" incident occurred. HardlineSalafist Muslims patrolled the streets ofWuppertal, a city in the west of Germany, to "influence and recruit young people", according to local police.[64] Dressed in bright orange reflective vests with "Shariah Police" printed on the back, the male patrollers loitered around discotheques and gambling houses, telling passers-by to refrain from gambling and alcohol. Wuppertal's police pressed charges.[65]
A 2013 study by the Social Science Research Center Berlin found that two-thirds of Muslims prioritize religious rules over national laws, nearly 60% reject homosexual friends, 45% distrust Jews, and many believe the West aims to destroy Islam. For comparison, among Christians, 9% are openly anti-Semitic, 13% reject homosexual friends, and 23% think Muslims aim to destroy Western culture.[66] Additionally, 25% of Turks in Germany consider atheists inferior.[61][67]
Salafism, a part ofSunni branch of Islam,[68] according to German authorities, Salafism is incompatible with the principles codified in the Constitution of Germany.[69] According to the German security service, the Salafist movement has grown from 3,800 members in 2011 to 10,300 in September 2017.[70] Security chief Hans-Georg Maaßen noted that the movement lacks a single leader, requiring many individuals to be monitored.[71] In 2016, the interior ministry ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia reported that the number of mosques with a Salafist influence had risen from 30 to 55, which indicated both an actual increase and improved reporting.[72] In February 2017, German authorities banned the Berliner Fussilet-Moscheeverein, which Anis Amri, the2016 Berlin truck attack, reportedly visited. In March 2017, theDeutschsprachige Islamkreis Hildesheim was also banned for planning to join ISIS in Syria. TheFederal Agency for Civic Education noted that these bans illustrate how Salafist mosques can be involved in planning terrorism.[73]
In 2016, the German security service estimated that around 24,000 Muslims were involved in Islamist movements, with 10,000 linked to the Salafist scene.[73] That same year, 90 mosques were monitored by theFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution for promoting Islamist ideologies.[74] Between 2017 and April 2018, 80 Islamist extremists without German citizenship were deported.[75] By March 2018, 760 Islamists in Germany were classified as dangerous by police, with more than half residing in the country, including 153 in prison.[76]
In July 2010, Germany banned theInternationale Humanitäre Hilfsorganisation e.V. (IHH Germany), accusing it of using donations to fundHamas, which is considered by Germany to be a terrorist organization.[77][78] German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere stated that donations to IHH, presented as humanitarian aid, actually supported Hamas.[78] Authorities believed IHH collected funds and sent $8.3 million to Hamas-linked organizations.[79]
A 2012 poll indicated that 18% of Turks in Germany viewed Jews as inferior.[83][84] A 2017 Bielefeld University study reported that antisemitic harassment and assaults in Germany were perpetrated equally by individuals from the extreme right and left, with a significant portion also committed by Muslims.[85][86] According to theFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the majority of Islamist organizations in Germany cultivate antisemitic propaganda and distribute it in various ways.[87] However, according toGerman police statistics, more than 90 percent of antisemitic incidents along with Islamophobic ones are perpetrated by individuals associated with thefar right.[88] However, government officials and Jewish community leaders doubt the figure, because cases with unknown perpetrators and some kinds of attacks get automatically classified as "far‑right".[89]
Studies show that while not all Muslims are religious, Muslim youths are markedly more religious than non-Muslim youths. A study comparing Turkish Muslim youths living in Germany and German youth found that the former were more likely to attend religious services regularly (35% versus 14%).[90]
41% of young Turkish Muslim boys and 52% of the girls said they prayed "sometimes or regularly"; 64% of boys and 74% of girls said they wanted to teach their children religion.[90]
Ibrahim El-Zayat, European Muslim activist in Germany and has been a functionary in many important Islamic organizations in Germany, Europe, and Saudi Arabia
^Only takes into account the Muslim population residing on land controlled by the Republic of Cyprus.
^A migrant background was defined as having been born or having at least one parent born in a country from a prespecified list of countries with a significant Muslim population, or as having citizenship or having at least one parent with citizenship of one of these countries[1]
^"Country Guidance: Iran".Individuals perceived to have committed blasphemy and/or apostasy, including converts and atheists. European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA). 2025. Retrieved17 April 2025.
^abcdefghi"Mitgliederzahlen: Islam"Archived 9 May 2017 at theWayback Machine, in:Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst|Religionswissenschaftliche Medien- und Informationsdienst e. V. (Abbreviation: REMID), Retrieved 27 January 2016
^"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived(PDF) from the original on 19 January 2019. Retrieved18 January 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^abJaschke, Hans-Gerd."Orte der islamistischen Radikalisierung | bpb".bpb.de (in German).Archived from the original on 2 December 2018. Retrieved1 December 2018.Die beiden Verbote zeigen, dass in salafistischen Moscheen nicht nur auf religiöse Art rekrutiert und agiert wird, sondern in einigen von ihnen schwere Straftaten bis hin zu terroristischen Aktionen geplant wurden.
^abFrank Gesemann. "Die Integration junger Muslime in Deutschland. Interkultureller Dialog - Islam und Gesellschaft Nr. 5 (year of 2006). Friedrich Ebert Stiftung", on p. 9 - the document is written in German
Amir-Moazami, Schirin (December 2005). "Muslim Challenges to the Secular Consensus: A German Case Study".Journal of Contemporary European Studies.13 (3):267–286.doi:10.1080/14782800500378359.S2CID154475536.
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