"Islam and the modern nation state" was the title of a conference held in Berlin, Germany. Experts and academics there discussed the significance of the concept of secularism for Muslim societies.

Lucian Hölscher, historian at Bochum University,

critically examines the concept of secularism.

Although secularism may indeed have tamed the battle between religions, secular states have always shown a preference to a particular community of faith, claims the historian. This allows for the establishment of a "basic consensus of its citizens" and provides society with orientation.

Such a concept of civic religion has not been able to develop in Germany

Instead,

a societal identity was established in Germany after 1945 that

based itself upon an avowal of secularism and a sense of responsibility arising from the Second World War and the Holocaust.

How Muslims in Germany

are to share in this identity was an issue that could not be answered at this conference.