Jews and Turks in Germany after 9/11 · 85original name of the Cemaat, Türkische Gemeinde zu Berlin, mimics the
Jewish Community’s official name, Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin.^54
In the German corporately oriented democracy, state authorities
would welcome a strong representation by Turkish immigrant organi-
zations that could represent their common interest—and discipline the
Turkish community. However, Turkish immigrant organizations are far
from unified. The controversy around the headscarf is one example.
The TBB campaigns strongly against the use of the headscarf in public,
whereas the Cemaat supports it—not by holding public campaigns but
by providing social services for women with headscarves or assisting
them with employment. As a result of this Turkish fragmentation, Ger-
man state authorities play down the role of immigrant organizations as
their interlocutors.
Some political leaders of the Turkish immigrant communities, such as
the foreigners’ commissioner of the Tempelhof-Schöneberg borough in
Berlin, Emine Demirbüken, resent political disunity among Turkish im-
migrant associations. She draws parallels between the Jewish community
and the young Turks and stresses that it is essential to demonstrate the
economic and intellectual potential of Turks to German society:
The Jewish community combines its members’ economic power
with their brain power. Turks also have economic power here. We
have many people who are bilingual, who can speak perfect Ger-
man and Turkish. Why can’t we combine our economic power with
our brain power? Why don’t we show our power to the Germans?
Why can’t we force them to take us seriously? If we don’t do this,
then they will always stereotype us as members of a society who
do not want to learn German, whose women are battered by their
husbands, and whose daughters are locked up at home.^55Demirbüken argues that a consolidation of its organizational structures
would lead to a change in the Turkish guest worker stereotype. Despite
their economic achievements, many Turks in Germany still follow tra-
ditional practices such as conservative child-rearing habits. Moreover,
many Turkish immigrants, forcibly and voluntarily, are isolated from
German society and do not speak German, a problem Germans today
decry as the “parallel society.” However, young Turks are better educated
and have better language and social skills than their immigrant parents.
According to Demirbüken, Germans will take the Turkish community