IGMG Calls for Increased Muslim Youth Representation in German Politics

On 19 March 2025, the Islamis­che Gemein­schaft Mil­li Görüs (IGMG) pub­lished a press release stat­ing that the lack of vis­i­bil­i­ty of Mus­lim youth in Ger­man pol­i­tics was a press­ing issue, call­ing for increased rep­re­sen­ta­tion. The arti­cle begins:

“Those who are not vis­i­ble are over­looked. Young peo­ple with a migra­tion back­ground are under­rep­re­sent­ed in pol­i­tics. The Islam­ic Com­mu­ni­ty calls for tar­get­ed mea­sures and urges young Mus­lims to par­tic­i­pate,” explain Furkan Kahra­man and Zehra Karataş, chair­per­sons of the youth orga­ni­za­tions of the Islam­ic Com­mu­ni­ty Mil­lî Görüş (IGMG). The occa­sion is a new study by the Expert Coun­cil on Inte­gra­tion and Migra­tion (SVR) titled “Young and diverse, but not yet polit­i­cal­ly involved?” Furkan Kahra­man and Zehra Karataş con­tin­ue: “The find­ings of the study are alarm­ing: Young peo­ple with migra­tion expe­ri­ence engage less polit­i­cal­ly than their peers with­out a migra­tion back­ground. But those who see this as mere dis­in­ter­est are over­sim­pli­fy­ing. The caus­es do not lie with the young peo­ple them­selves, but in the struc­tures that make their polit­i­cal par­tic­i­pa­tion dif­fi­cult. If there are struc­tures that repeat­ed­ly sig­nal that cer­tain groups do not real­ly belong, one should not be sur­prised if young peo­ple become resigned. The Islam­ic Com­mu­ni­ty there­fore demands more rep­re­sen­ta­tion, tar­get­ed edu­ca­tion­al mea­sures, and gen­uine equal oppor­tu­ni­ties to coun­ter­act this devel­op­ment,” explains Zehra Karataş, chair­per­son of the wom­en’s youth orga­ni­za­tion of the IGMG. [Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man original.]

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Key Points:

• IGMG high­light­ed what it said was under­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Mus­lim youth in pol­i­tics, empha­siz­ing the need for increased vis­i­bil­i­ty and participation.
• A new study by the Expert Coun­cil on Inte­gra­tion and Migra­tion (SVR) revealed that youth with migra­tion back­grounds were less polit­i­cal­ly engaged than their peers.
• Struc­tur­al bar­ri­ers, rather than indi­vid­ual dis­in­ter­est, were iden­ti­fied as the pri­ma­ry cause of this dis­par­i­ty, lead­ing to a sense of exclu­sion among affect­ed youth.
• IGMG called for greater rep­re­sen­ta­tion, tar­get­ed edu­ca­tion­al mea­sures, and equal oppor­tu­ni­ties to address these issues and fos­ter polit­i­cal engage­ment among Mus­lim youth.

Youth advo­ca­cy has been an impor­tant part of IGMG’s activ­i­ties in Ger­many. In 2022, Ger­man media report­ed that the Ham­burg City Sen­ate would allow groups influ­enced by the Turk­ish and Iran­ian gov­ern­ments to have increased input regard­ing youth welfare.

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