Das diskursive Verschwinden der Religionsfreiheit

The mosque construction in Cologne-Ehrenfeld sparked a societal discourse on self-understanding. André Biermann operationalizes a segment of the media public as a discursive field through the approach of sociological discourse analysis and contrasts it with the institutional framework of the mosque construction as an expression of religious freedom. The unveiling of the discursive field in relation to the formal-institutional integration of Muslim practices leads to the observation of a discrepancy between legal possibilities and legitimate options for Muslim actors, which is reflected in the discursive disappearance of the mosque as a religious practice. Where discursive constructions of the judiciary and political culture intersect, there is rather a continuation of the public discourse than a deconstruction of it.