Baden-Württemberg is described in the guidebooks as having more universities than any other German state as well as a “rich cultural and religious diversity.” I am afraid the cultural diversity bit won’t go down well these days – at least not among German liberals and Muslims, who are outraged over a questionnaire that the state proposes to put before those seeking German citizenship. In Germany the states have say in these matters.
Not every applicant has to fill out the questionnaire. If you are Portuguese applying for German citizenship, chances are you wouldn’t have to bother with it. But since January, if the authorities have some reason to think that you might not make a good citizen, then you might find yourself being grilled. For the instructions say that if the naturalization authority doubts that the applicant has really understood the content of his or her declaration, or doubts that the answers reflect “inner convictions,” then the authorities will “conduct a conversation with the applicant.”
Defenders say Baden-Württemberg is being careful to screen out undesirables, and that only people the authorities have reason to be suspicious of would be questioned. But critics are sure the questionnaire is specifically aimed at Muslims. “This questionnaire is a very dangerous thing and has to be stopped,” one of the best-known politicians of Turkish origin in Germany, Cem Ozdemir, told me. Ozdemir, a member of the European Parliament, says the danger comes from the discretionary powers it gives junior officials. Baden-Württemberg’s government would never say it wanted to make it harder for Muslims to become citizens. But the tone of the questionnaire would lead underlings to assume that was the intention, according to Ozdemir.
“When you read these questions you see the mind of the bureaucracy and German society, not what Muslims may think,” said Barbara John, who was for 20 years involved with migration and integration affairs here in the state of Berlin.
Christian Hoffmann, a convert to Islam who is chairman of the Muslim Academy in Germany, says: “The spirit of these questions is so Islamophobic and ethnically biased. It is an assault against underprivileged people.” Educated people would smell out the trap, he said.
One question asks applicants to comment on the following statements: “Humanity has never experienced such a dark phase as under democracy. In order to free himself from democracy, man has to understand first that democracy cannot offer anything good to him.” Monarchists might agree, but that’s not the group the questions were designed to catch.
In a 
“The Mayor of London looks set to win the supreme accolade of being Britain’s ‘number one’ Islamophile after announcing his plans to host an exhibition of ‘modern Islam’ in the capital on the anniversary of the July 7th bombings which killed 52 innocent passengers and the four suicide bombers themselves….