THE MOST INTIMATE FORM OF ENCOUNTER with Islam is to embrace it and become a Muslim. In the present-day atmosphere of fear of Islam and Islamism, however, Western converts tend to be viewed by their compatriots with suspicion, if not downright hostility. Is conversion to Islam not a motivating factor in becoming a terrorist? In March 2007, in a Saturday issue of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), its third page was completely devoted to what was called a “drastic” increase in the number of German converts to Islam. The news was announced on the first page under the sensationalist heading of “Himmel oder Hölle,” stating that “Die Einladung zum Islam wird als Ausbruch aus der Mehrheitsgesellschaft gerne angenommen” and this polarizing tone was also adopted in the article itself which appeared, rather revealingly, under the category of “Politics,” and not under “Religion” or Society.”

The term “Mehrheitsgesellschaft” in the FAZ article may perhaps sound neutral and objective, but in fact it functions as an alternative for the highly politicized word “Leitkultur” which can be translated as “guiding culture” or “leading culture.” The suggestion made by right-wing politicians belonging to the conservative Christian Democratic Union that German culture—whatever that may be—should be the “defining culture” for the country's immigrants and foreign workers became a national political issue in 2000 as part of heated debates about multiculturalism and national core values.