Beyond Victimhood: German Muslims and the Minority Question after the Holocaust

Tools

Doughan, Sultan and Brusius, Mirjam Sarah. 2022. Beyond Victimhood: German Muslims and the Minority Question after the Holocaust. German Historical Institute London Bulletin, XLIV(2), pp. 86-98. ISSN 0269-8552 [Article]

Text
Beyond_Victimhood_German_Muslims_and_the.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.
Download (154kB)

Official URL: https://www.ghil.ac.uk/publications/bulletin/ghil-...

Abstract or Description

In her research, Sultan Doughan shows how the memory of the Holocaust is mobilized in tolerance education and extremism prevention as a means of integrating Muslims into German society. Yet while the German government invests in memorials and museums that commemorate the Holocaust, Doughan argues, it also extricates itself from current forms of violence. Holocaust commemoration as a European project is part of a triumphalist narrative that presents Vergangenheits bewältigung as a successful transition to liberal democracy — a reality that minoritizes and racializes Middle Easterners as Muslims. In this interview with historian Mirjam Sarah Brusius, anthropologist Sultan Doughan examines how Middle Easterners in Germany relate to the figure of the Jew. Muslims and Jews operate in this governed structure as opposing figures who must be religious and historical enemies. While both have clearly assigned roles in German public discourse, Doughan approaches their historical and contemporary positionalities beyond clearcut concepts of Opferkonkurrenz, and thus rethinks this discourse and points to past and future alliances.

Item Type:

Article