The Divergence of Judaism and Islam. Interdependence, Modernity, and Political Turmoil

(Joyce) #1

80 · Gökçe Yurdakul and Y. Michal Bodemann


With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a chaotic social environment and
cheap labor from East Germany led to mass unemployment in the west-
ern part of Berlin.^28 As the federal subsidy for industry was phased out
and plants were dismantled, many Turks who worked in these factories
lost their jobs. Those who came to Germany as workers in the 1960s and
1970s became increasingly dependent on welfare after 1989. The mass job
dismissals have had long-term effects. According to 1997 statistics, it was
estimated that 18 percent of the Turks in Berlin were unemployed.^29 This
number was even worse in the areas that have a Turkish majority: 26.2
percent in Kreuzberg.^30 In February 2000, the federal commissioner for
foreigners, Marieluise Beck, stated that “the unemployment rate among
migrants remains at almost 20 percent, demonstrating that foreigners
continue to be subject to unemployment twice as often as Germans.”^31
The problem of unemployment is exacerbated by discrimination against
immigrant children in the education system. Second- and third-genera-
tion German citizens of Turkish background and Turkish immigrant chil-
dren complain that they are not given equal opportunity in the educa-
tion system.^32 “While only 8 percent of German young people and adults
remain without vocational training, the rate of unskilled Turkish young
people is five times higher, at about 40 percent.”^33


Racism and Anti-Semitism: Fallout from 9/11


As elsewhere in the Western world, the attacks on the World Trade Cen-
ter in New York City and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 cast a dark
shadow over all Muslims in Germany and at the same time, perhaps
paradoxically, intensified anti-Semitism. Interethnic relations in general
became affected. On the one hand, many Muslims, Turkish Muslims in-
cluded, accused Jews of being responsible for 9/11. Just after the attack,
many adopted a widely held conspiracy theory that the Jews working in
the World Trade Center were informed beforehand about planes crash-
ing into the towers, and so they did not come to work on that day.^34
Just like Turks in Turkey, however, German Turks are a diverse group.
Many Western-oriented Turkish Muslims have been supporters of Jews,
whereas others have sided with Arabs against the Jews on account of
Israeli policies toward Palestinians. For example, a statement by Öger is
evidence of how Turks want to distance themselves from Arabs: “The ac-
tors of political Islam are not Turks. Jihad is not Turks’ business. Palestine

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