As Christianity Shrinks in Germany, Islam Grows
The CSU has now promised worried Germans that the country will remain one shaped by Judeo-Christian traditions. At the same time, though, it’s also true that membership in Christian churches in the country has been shrinking for years. In 2016 alone, 350,000 people left the church.
As Christian churches close in many places in the country, Muslims are building new mosques - or they are taking over buildings that are otherwise empty.
In Hamburg’s Horn neighborhood, the Islamic Center al-Nour community is even in the process of converting a former church into a mosque with the help of funding from Kuwait. The church had been empty for more than 16 years with its members having either died, left the church or moved. Nobody is being pushed out. And it also provides the Muslim community with a convenient opportunity to make use of an empty space. Some nevertheless see the conversion as symbolic.
It just saddens me to see this.