A Book against Prejudice and Clichés

Many Germans know very little about Islam and everyday Muslim culture. With his book "Islam for Kids", the orientalist Anis Hamadeh hopes to give children in Germany essential knowledge about Islam. Philipp Bilsky reports

The lively pictures and brief explanations in Anis Hamadeh's German-language book help teach young readers about the world of Islam. A comic character, the Arab boy Aladin, takes the children into the mosque and across the whole of the Muslim world.

The author's programme is certainly ambitious. The book's nine chapters deal with the history of Islam, the Arabic language, the Qur'an, Muslim traditions and customs and Islam in Germany, among other subjects.

False idea of Islam

Anis Hamadeh feels there is great need for education about Islam in Germany, and hopes to provide that through his book. "Information is very important to tackle prejudices by providing knowledge about a subject; that's the key premise of the book."

Anis Hamadeh comes from a German-Palestinian family. His father came to West Germany from the West Bank in the 1960s. Hamadeh grew up in Germany, and graduated from university in Islam Studies.

He is now a freelance journalist and writer – with plenty to write about. Many Germans have a false idea of Islam, Hamadeh believes. He partly blames the media, which often only present clichéd images of Muslims.

Moderate Muslims are uninteresting

"If Muslims are moderate and liberal, more Muslim by culture than religion, they're often uninteresting for the media," says Anis Hamadeh. "The fact is, they say: well, there's nothing special about him, he hasn't got a beard, he hasn't planned a terrorist attack, why should we report about him? That's where I see a problem."

But there are other reasons why most Germans know so little about Islam. Just like Christianity, Hamadeh says, Islam is a very complex subject. And as Islam seems so alien to many Germans, they don't even notice how little they know, he adds. But his book, he hopes, may help to change all that.

It's certainly a good idea to teach children about Islam, agrees Donja Amirpur. Amirpur runs the initiative "Vielfalt gestalten – Integration im Kindergarten", which promotes cultural diversity among pre-school children.

The initiative works in kindergartens in Bonn with a high percentage of migrant families. Members of the organisation step in when conflicts arise due to cultural or religious differences, for example. Part of their work is also teaching children about the basic ideas of Islam.

A great help for parents and childcare workers

That's why Hamadeh's book is very helpful, Donja Amirpur confirms: "I think it's also simpler for carers to pick up a children's book and get an introduction to Islam, rather than reading a thick academic tome. And this literature helps us to learn how to provide children with specialised information in an appropriate way from the very beginning."

This should prevent children from putting people into clichéd categories from a very young age. The initiative's members also hope that the German kindergarten teachers and carers will tackle their own fears and prejudices about Islam.

Philipp Bilsky

Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire

Qantara.de

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