Dr. Martin Baumann

University of Lucerne
Religions in Diaspora: Islam and Asian Immigrant Religions in Central Europe

Slide Show: Religious Diversity in Central Europe

Research by Martin Baumann, in collaboration with Brigitte Luchesi and Annette Wilke

Europe has witnessed a tremendous diversification of its religious landscape in the last thirty years. Yet, Europe has never been as monolithically Christian as most historical overviews tend to tell us. Jews, Muslims in the Balkans and during Moor reign in Spain, adherents to various western esoteric traditions, and many more have been part of Europe's multi-religious set-up.

Nevertheless, it certainly is right to state that the various Christian denominations and confessions exercised and continue to exert a dominant influence on religious life and affairs in Europe. During the second half of the twentieth century, however, with the influx of people from former overseas colonies and waves of refugees and workers, the landscape has started to become plural in more obvious and more visible terms. The plurality does not only apply to a growth and diversification along the line of so-called world religions. It also relates to an internal diversification of the religions themselves, be it Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and others. In Asia separated by nation borders, cultures, languages and vast distances, in Europe the different religious traditions have become close neighbours� a new experience and challenge for most. However, this new and increasing religious plurality has also become a challenge for both the established Christian churches and European societies. Visibility of "foreign" faiths and rituals has caused fears and states of uncertainty among certain parts of European-born people. Disputes about the building of mosques or temples, discussions about the place of religious symbols in school and public arenas, debates of granting privileging rights to immigrated religions are head lines in the newspaper. They point to a renegotiation of the place of non-Christian religions in the public sphere. The politics of recognition fought by religions of minority status is visible in various social areas: in the sphere of education, law, politics as well as public appearance and presentation. However, despite the pluralization of Europe's religious landscape it is important to remember that up to now the percentage rate of non-Christian religions is well below 10% at all.

This slide show aims to provide an idea of the evolved religious diversity by portraying religions brought by immigrants from Asia to Europe. It depicts and describes selected places of Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh worship in Germany and Switzerland. Though there are considerable numbers of western converts, especially so in the case of Buddhism, the show is restricted to the experience and locations of Asian immigrants. Most often, the places established, whether small in a narrow basement or huge in a newly built edifice, form vivid homes away from home. They provide nostalgic remembrances of as well as continuing links to the people, culture and religion left behind.

The slide show consists of seven parts: Each show is an avenue to specific facets of South and South East Asian migrant religiosity and newly created places of worship. Martin Baumann presents pictures and texts of selected Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and places of worship in both Germany and Switzerland. Annette Wilke contributes a contrasting portray of two Hindu goddess temples in Northern Germany - a tiny one located in a cellar and a huge one where the goddess is installed in a magnificent shrine as the center of a purpose-built temple. Brigitte Luchesi presents pictures and moments where the gods and goddesses are taken out of the temple to the street. During such public processions living Hinduism becomes most visible to the overall population. Otherwise, Hindu temples � with one notable exception � and Hindu life are hardly known and noticed at all in Germany and Switzerland.

Related books by the authors

Baumann, Martin, Migration, Religion, Integration. Vietnamesische Buddhisten und tamilische Hindus in Deutschland, Marburg: diagonal 2000, pp. 240.
Baumann, Martin and Brigitte Luchesi, Annette Wilke (eds.), Tempel und Tamilen in zweiter Heimat: Hindus aus Sri Lanka im deutschsprachigen und skandinavischen Raum, Wurzburg: Ergon, 2003, pp.500 (with English summaries).

The Pluralism Project at Harvard University

Dr. Martin Baumann