Hamburg may soon become the first German state officially to recognize Islam as a religious community and give Muslims the same legal rights as Christians and Jews in dealing with the local administration.
Four years of quiet negotiations about building mosques, opening Muslim cemeteries and teaching Islam in public schools are nearing an end just when Germany is embroiled in a noisy debate about Islam and the integration of Muslim immigrants.
The deal seems set to go through, but the national debate on Islam and local political changes could make its approval more difficult than expected, politicians and Muslim leaders said.
It's important for us that this agreement makes clear that we are part of this society 
"It's important for us that this agreement makes clear that we are part of this society," said Zekeriya Altug, chairman of the Hamburg branch of DITIB, a Turkish-German mosque network that is one of Germany's largest Muslim organizations.
Germany has about 4 million Muslims, mostly of Turkish origin, in its 82 million population. Long treated as migrant workers due eventually to return to their countries of origin, they are now an established minority that wants equal rights.
The agreement in Germany's second-largest metropolis, a city-state in the country's federal system, would set out their rights and also their duties, such as consulting neighborhood residents before building mosques or erecting minarets.
Religious equality
Equal status with Christians and Jews could be more controversial when the agreement comes up for discussion in the local assembly for Hamburg, a traditionally Lutheran city where Muslims make up about 5 percent of the 1.7 million population.
President Christian Wulff set off a heated debate by saying in his Oct. 3 German Unity Day address that the country had Christian and Jewish roots but the presence of a large Muslim minority meant that Islam too now "belongs to Germany."
Conservative leaders argued Germany had a "Judeo-Christian heritage" that Islam did not share and demanded Muslims do more to integrate into German society.
A leading lay Roman Catholic leader said Muslims could not be partners for an agreement with the state because Islam did not have a hierarchy and structure like established churches.
"Of course Muslims have the right to live out their religion and the state must guarantee their religious freedom," Alois Glueck, head of the Central Committee of German Catholics, told Deutschland radio. "But there is no organized church or authority in Islam ... that could be a partner."
The Hamburg agreement would integrate Muslims in several practical ways. For example, city schools would have to hire Muslims to teach Islam in religion classes all pupils attend. These are now run by teachers from the local Lutheran church.
It would ensure burial rights in municipal cemeteries, so Muslims can be interred in shrouds rather than coffins and have no other religious symbols nearby. Many immigrants prefer to be buried in their original countries to ensure a Muslim burial.
Muslim pupils would be free to skip school on 2 or 3 Islamic holidays and Muslim preachers could be posted in prisons.
Two other states, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, are also considering recognizing Islam. Since recognition of religions is a state issue under German law, some other states may not follow Hamburg's example.
Over two million Turks
We are old friends.... The things that connect us are much more than the things that keep us apart
Meanwhile Wulff urged Turks and Germans Tuesday to see they "are closely connected" as he sought to ease a simmering debate on whether Berlin had failed in efforts to integrate Muslim immigrants.
"We have to realize that we are closely connected," Wulff, the first German president to visit Turkey in a decade, told reporters after talks with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.
"We are old friends.... The things that connect us are much more than the things that keep us apart," he said.
Wulff travelled to Turkey just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany's efforts to create a multi-cultural society had failed and urged immigrants -- many of them Turks -- to integrate, learn German and adopt German culture and values.
While many later-generation Turks have integrated with German society, large sections have never learned German and live in closed communities.
Gul renewed a call on Turkish immigrants to learn the German language, but stressed that "instead of using the integration problem politically, everybody must help find a solution."
He added that few Turks were immigrating to Germany today, stressing that "even a reverse migration has started."
The debate in Germany flared after central banker Thilo Sarrazin said that Germany's 16 million people with an immigration background were making the country "more stupid."
There have also been concerns that Muslim failure to integrate is helping to create homegrown Islamic extremists in Germany.
"Multikulti", the concept that "we are now living side by side and are happy about it," does not work, said Merkel, who faces a tough series of state elections next year, on Saturday.
"This approach has failed totally," she said. "We feel tied to Christian values. Those who don't accept them don't have a place here."
Next Wednesday, Merkel's cabinet will adopt "concrete" new measures on immigration policies, addressing German language courses and combating forced marriages, a government spokesman said in Berlin Monday.