ABSTRACT
Recognition of the need for long-term integration of different groups into German
society has been slow to take root. The first attempt at a systematic approach to
integration policy on the federal level coincided with a shift in the integration
debate: Germany began to discuss immigrant integration issues at a time when
security, Islam and cultural difference took on great importance mainly as a result
of 9/11 and the ensuing events. As a result, the integration and the security dis-
course intermingled, even though Islam was still far from being considered an
established religion in Germany, lacking as it does the kind of structures that
correspond to the specific German framework of religious policy.
