"The Muslims belong to Germany." This sentence was said by Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CDU/CSU) at the opening of the Islam Conference in November 2018. One might take it for granted, but for many it is obviously not yet.
The new edition of the conference, which was initiated in 2006 under the then Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble, was not a given matter but rather a new beginning. This was also a start for the House of One Foundation, which was for the first time one of about 240 invited guests and observers.
The spectrum of participants was deliberately broader than ever before, so that in addition to the large umbrella organisations, smaller institutions and individuals also made the diversity of Islam in Germany visible. Seehofer said at the start of the event that the central theme of this Islam conference was how to promote an Islam in Germany that was rooted in German society. The legal recognition of Islamic communities, the training of imams, the internal Muslim discourses in relation to the state as well as the fundamental question of the self-image of Muslim institutions in Germany were therefore the focus of the discussions.
For the Foundation House of One, which, following its religious-integrative concept, acts in the same way as a "Islam conference from below", the many discussions that could be held were very valuable; the substantive topics will continue to occupy us anyway.