DUISBURG – German parties are slowly waking up to the ballot box potential of the country’s sizable Muslim minority, realizing that their higher birth rates will give Muslims more political influence in future. "We have an ever increasing proportion of voters with immigrant backgrounds so every party now has an interest in appealing to them," Soeren Link, who represents the Social Democrat (SPD) in the state assembly of North Rhine-Westphalia, told Reuters on Wednesday, September 16.
The main parties in Duisburg, traditionally a SPD stronghold, are targeting the Turkish community with special campaign events and posters and adverts in Turkish.
"We neglected immigrant voters for too long,” notes Thomas Mahlberg, a lawmaker of conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat (CDU).
About one in five Germans has an immigrant background and the biggest single minority is Turkish.
“But we've woken up now and are starting to win them over," says Mahlberg.
But the task is not easy.
Not only is the "Christian" in their name a barrier for many of Germany's 4 million Muslims, but Merkel also panders to her traditional voters by insisting minarets should be no higher than church steeples.
Many Muslims have also been put off by conservative rhetoric, especially last year's campaign by CDU Hesse state premier Roland Koch.
A recent poll by DATA 4U showed 55.5 percent of Germans with Turkish background would vote for the SPD, 23.3 for the Greens and only 10.1 percent for the CDU.
"Despite having religious, conservative views, Germans with Turkish roots reward the SPD and Greens at polls due to their integration policies," notes Joachim Schulte, head of Data 4U.
An SPD-Greens government eased German citizenship rules in 2000.
The SPD's long ties with trades unions also play a role as most Turks who came to West Germany in the 1950s and 1960s and contributed to its economic boom worked in plants with unions.
Alienated
But many German Muslims feel forgotten and ill-inclined to vote in this month's election.
"I haven't got a job, nor have my mates,” said Ismet Akgul, 19, standing with friends outside an amusement arcade in Duisburg’s Marxloh suburb.
“Politicians don't care," he complained.
"Firms see a foreign name on an application form and chuck it in the bin."
About 60 percent of the population in Marxloh suburb has immigrant, in most cases Turkish, roots.
At around 16 percent, unemployment here is nearly double the national average.
"I worry about what chances my daughter will have and that's bad for everyone," said Lale Ceran, mother of a four-year-old.
"You can't treat immigrants as patients who need medicine," said Zuelfiye Kaykin, who heads the meeting centre at Merkez mosque, the country’s biggest mosque.
Wearing a smart trouser suit and no hijab, she says Muslims need to know they have a stake in the community before they will show an interest in politics.
"There's little motivation to get involved in politics as we are not seen as full members of the German family."
Source: IslamOnline
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