"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." This is what it says in Genesis. Yet no one would take this biblical verse as grounds to call for the death penalty to be brought back. In the debate surrounding Islamic law, however, it is astonishingly common for such literal interpretations of the approximately 1,400-year-old text of the Qur'an to be used in order to brand Islamic law and dogma as premodern.
The discussion about Islam and its laws is far too often weighed down by prejudice, yet all the more unencumbered by any knowledge about the subject.
There is, indeed, a small number of radical Islamist legal scholars who deduce marginal opinions from the Qur'an that are extremist and incompatible with human rights. However, they are not representative of Islamic law as a whole. The rules of Islamic law, too, move with the times, and we should lend our support to this trend instead of invoking the Judaeo-Christian traditions of the west.
The hyphenated term "Judaeo-Christian" is only appealing at first glance. But there are certainly members of the Jewish community who have been unhappy with this newly coined term for some time. In historical terms, too, the assertion that there exists a uniting and binding western Judaeo-Christian tradition does not stand up to scrutiny. The highly diverse creeds and denominations within Christianity and the religion of Judaism draw on different traditions and, on closer examination, one can even discern an Islamic legacy within western civilisation. The works of ancient Greece that were essential to the spread of rationalism came to Europe indirectly through translation via Arabic.
The foundations of German society in 2011 are not composed of one specific denomination or a select group of denominations. Our living together in one society is founded on the basic law and the fundamental rights enshrined therein. Human dignity, freedom of opinion and the equal treatment of men and women are universal rights to which every individual is entitled. We should focus our attention on individuals and not on one specific group.
In any case, Muslims cannot be considered a clearly defined unit. Islam encompasses two large denominations and a number of smaller ones; the Qur'an is taught in different countries, which have highly diverse traditions and cultures, and in those cultures we crudely refer to as the "Islamic world" there are spiritual movements completely different to Islam that exist alongside it. And yet there is a tendency to suppose that those with a Muslim background all have the same typical characteristics – including, in particular, an excessive religious devoutness with a tendency towards fanaticism.
It is true that those Muslims who declare themselves to be religious do tend to adhere to ritual conventions more devoutly than religious Christians. Given this tendency, there is the possibility that conflict could arise between state rules and private religious adherence. But can the tension between religion and state always and at any time be resolved with a bias in favour of the law? And doesn't the Bible also put obedience to God above obedience to laws?
In Germany, too, during the kulturkampf between the Prussian state and the Catholic church, this denomination of Christians was once subject to quite similar accusations and prejudices.
The anti-Catholic arguments used in the period from 1871 have long since been put to rest, but, like ghosts from the past, their presence is still felt in the current integration debate, which has been stylised as a modern-day kulturkampf. For example, the records of the Reichstag refer to Catholics as an "ultra-religious" group loyal to Rome, state that they were educated beyond the bounds of civilised education in Jesuit schools, that they felt a greater bond with Catholics in states hostile to Germany than with their own fellow Germans, and labelled as backward those regions where they constituted a majority.
The suspicion is harboured today that, at its political core, Islam cannot be integrated into democratic society, and that consequently it is not compatible with the rule of law. In 1871, despite the better arguments presented by the opposition, the majority within the Reichstag feared that the large number of new Catholic citizens would refuse to yield to the laws of the new German Empire, but obeyed a "higher law". Nowadays, "parallel society" has become a popular turn of phrase. At that time, the danger was perceived that the Catholic church would, parallel to secular jurisdiction, enforce the observation of church dogma using ecclesiastical penal law.
It is for those in the political arena today to guarantee the basic Law and freedom of the many different religions and belief systems in our country in such a way that each one has the same opportunities to make their concerns heard in society at large. Like Justitia, we must close our eyes to whether adherence to a religion is expressed using a prayer mat, a habit worn by a religious order, or in the form of a red tilak forehead mark, or whether, on the contrary, a person lives his or her life without adherence to any religion or belief system. However, we must not close our eyes where the limits of our constitution are overstepped. Let us make common cause for all citizens to enjoy their constitutional rights as laid down in the basic law, which guarantees freedom for all religions and belief systems, and let us prevent any form of arbitrary exclusion.
Ultimately, those who project their diffuse fears onto groups of people who share certain religious beliefs, or stigmatise them with biased statistics, are merely creating the image of an enemy. Exclusion leads to fundamentalism and is not appropriate in our modern and open society. Instead of pursuing debates fuelled by fear, we need a discussion of the different religions and their rights which is free of prejudice. As a first step we need to learn more about Islamic law. Only then will we be in a position to make critical observations from a legal standpoint.
• Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is the federal minster of justice of the Federal Republic of Germany and a Free Democratic party member of the German Bundestag