Die Zeit, 10.08.2006

In her reportage dossier on Turkey, Charlotte Wiedermann reports on the growing tensions between the state's religion watchers and believers. She appeals for a tolerant exegesis of laicism. Because in Turkey laicism "in no way implies the separation of state and religion. Religion is not permitted to interfere with politics but the opposite is allowed. And while the state will not tolerate even the tiniest corner of a headscarf in the porter's lodge, it has subjugated Islam to its control, cropping it and supporting it by turns, instrumentalising it in the fight against the Left and the Kurds."

Süddeutsche Zeitung, 10.08.2006

Two pages of the SZ feuilleton are dedicated to new mosques in Germany. The question is: Do these sites promote integration or an Islamic parallel world? Most local residents and many politicians believe the latter, as is the case with the new mosque in Munich, opposed by head of the CSU, Edmund Stoiber. As Gottfried Knapp notes, only Munich's suffragan Bishop Engelbert Siebler interprets the architectural confrontation between Christianity and Islam on Gotzinger Platz as "a positive arc of tension between two world religions." Tanja Rest describes the unfriendly reactions of local residents to the three-storey, domed structure in Munich. And Alexander Kissler outlines the differences in the liturgical meaning of synagogue, church and mosque.

It's an entirely different story in Duisburg: Sonja Zekri describes how "a surprisingly sizable alliance of churches, parties, citizens and community" supported the construction of the largest mosque in Germany. "The construction in Marxloh is considered a great success. But when is the construction of a mosque a success? 'If there is an atmosphere in which everyone feels comfortable,' says Leyla Özmal of the development company Duisburg (EGDU). 'If we have a dignified house of worship,' says Mehmet Özay, head of the Mosque association. 'If they keep their promises, if they remain as communicative as they are today,' says Christina Becker, deputy director of the district. 'If there are fewer hidden, backyard mosques,' says Adolf Sauerland, mayor."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 10.08.2006

Beat Stauffer reports on a study into the opionions of Moroccan youth, which was published last spring in a special edition of the Moroccan weekly L'Economiste. It showed that young Moroccans are becoming increasingly apolitical and religious. "Of those questioned, 57 percent expressed their approval of headscarves, and 49 percent of the male youths said they would want their future wives to wear a veil. Just under three-quarters of young men and women oppose marriage with a non-Muslim partner as a matter of principle, and 99 percent said they observed Ramadan. Very apparent too is that Islam plays an increasingly important role in the formation of personal identity: 49 percent of those asked describe themselves first as Muslims and then as Moroccans."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 10.08.2006

Andreas Rosenfelder seeks to calm FAZ readers' fears about the nature and effects of Web 2.0. "If teachers now reach beyond the confines of the classroom into the blogosphere to link Google Earth coordinates to youth hostels for school trips, if every prankster can put a daily video parody of news reports on the Middle East conflict onto the Net, in other words if the unforeseeable aspects of life are revolutionising the Internet - then there is no reason, once again, to expect the Internet to revolutionise life completely."


Die Welt, 10.08.2006

The boom in lay journalism does not render professional journalism superfluous, Marlis Prinzing reassures editors. Because journalism does not work like Wikipedia. "News reconditions itself much more quickly than does an encyclopedia, where self-control mechanisms meant to discover and correct mistakes or manipulations are slow to kick in. News production is relevant and it is work, it is a discourse - whether about the Iraq war or about love life - whereas a citizens' portals like Opinio, the online forum of the Rheinische Post, is in the final analysis a leisure activity. Journalism is more than just publishing something. Anyone can help media take its balancing function more seriously - and its seismographic function. Professional journalists get first-hand information and opinion from blogs and communities as well as through citizen reporters, and thereby can perceive changes and dangers earlier."


Die Tageszeitung, 10.08.2006

Monika Goetsch chats with Jean-Claude Kaufmann, sociologist of the everyday, whose new book is about the sociology of food and cooking in the age of the individual: "Family is created at the dining table. It has always been that way. Even in earlier societies, connections were made by eating porridge together."