Muslims as a counter-image of the German majority? An analysis of mechanisms of symbolic exclusion by the German majority population

Abstract: During the last decades, Germany has been experiencing an ongoing religious and cultural diversification. But despite this process, other groups are still excluded from dominant discourses of the German society. Especially the Muslim population is often presented as being different and oppositional in comparison to the German majority. Since Islam is of rising interest in the integration debate as a result of the growing Muslim population, it is considered important to find out about these assumed differences. The aim of this thesis is to uncover the ways in which the German majority population differentiates itself from the Muslim population and which pictures of Muslims are reflected in these processes of differentiation. Within this thesis, to analyze the processes of differentiation, the theoretical concepts of the boundary literature are used. Symbolic boundaries reflect normative distinctions, cultural practices and attitudes or examples of likes and dislikes and reflect the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion of individuals into a community. The hypothesis of this thesis is that the processes of exclusion are not independent, but interrelated with the generation one grew up in, with the national identity and with the personal experiences with Islam. To research these assumptions, a dominant, sequential mixed method design where qualitative methods dominate over quantitative methods is applied. Survey analysis is used as an insight into possible boundaries and unstructured interviews to uncover the process of boundary drawing in more detail. Boundaries towards the Muslim population were drawn because of their religion that appeared to the respondents as more violent, radical and intolerant than Christianity. But not only having a different belief made Muslims appear to be different but also their different normative systems, lifestyles, customs and traditions. Further a generation affect was displayed with younger generations being less likely to draw symbolic boundaries. But on the contrary having a strong national identity and no contacts with Muslims increased the likelihood of symbolic exclusion.