Berlin, Germany - Amid all the issues that divide Germany’s Muslims and non-Muslims — from women’s rights to the teaching of Islam in schools — there was one point on which the 30 participants in a landmark conference held here on Wednesday could agree, according to its organizer.
They would like to see the Deutsche Oper of Berlin reinstate the Mozart opera it canceled earlier this week after receiving an anonymous threat that the production — which features a scene with the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad — could put the opera house at risk.
The 30 representatives, drawn equally from the German government and Germany’s Muslim population, could even go see the opera together, said Wolfgang Schäuble, the interior minister, who organized and served as chairman of the conference, held in an 18th-century baroque palace.
With that suggestion, made at a news conference after the session, Mr. Schäuble artfully linked the public uproar over the cancellation of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” to this long-planned gathering, which was meant to demonstrate Germany’s resolve to reach out to its more than three million Muslims.
“We have, in a very tolerant tone, laid out quite different positions,” Mr. Schäuble said. “That was the point.”
In some ways, the opera affair galvanized the meeting — underlining the urgency and complexity of the issues facing Germany, as it seeks to integrate a Muslim population that is growing in size and, in the view of some, growing farther apart from mainstream German society.
“There was general agreement that we would like to see the opera come back,” said Mehmet Yildirim, the general secretary of the Turkish-Islamic Union. “But there were different perspectives on the issue.”
He said that while the atmosphere on Wednesday was positive, he was less sure that Germany and its Muslim population would be able to work together over a period of years to solve their more basic differences.
The conference, which had been planned soon after Angela Merkel was elected chancellor last fall, comes at a time of heightened debate over whether Germans have been too quick to compromise their values in the face of anger, or merely the threat of anger, on the part of Muslims.
Even before the cancellation of the opera, there were misgivings here about the repeated expressions of regret by Pope Benedict XVI, a German, for his recent remarks about Islam and violence.
On Wednesday, Mrs. Merkel added her voice to a chorus of political and cultural leaders who criticized the Deutsche Oper.
“I think the cancellation was a mistake,” she said to reporters. “Self-censorship does not help us against people who want to practice violence in the name of Islam. It makes no sense to retreat.”
A top cultural official in Berlin, Thomas Flierl, said the city would like to stage “Idomeneo” as soon as possible. The Deutsche Oper said it was open to rescheduling it, provided that a “suitable date” could be found. On Tuesday, the director of the opera house, Kirsten Harms, said she would first have to resolve the political and diplomatic implications.
Ms. Harms has been roundly scorned. But critics said the Berlin government, particularly its chief security official, Ehrhard Körting, should have given her more advice.
At the conference, the issues were no less sensitive, ranging from the teaching of Islamic religion in public schools to the training of imams in Germany, and from the construction of mosques to the discrimination against Muslims living in this country, the majority of whom are of Turkish origin.
The meeting was a necessary step because the government needs to get a feel for the Islamic point of view, said Ayyub Axel Köhler, chairman of the Central Council of Muslims.
Complicating attempts at dialogue, Muslims in Germany are a fractured group. The government took note of that by inviting independent figures like Seyran Ates, a Turkish-German lawyer who represents victims of domestic abuse. Mr. Schäuble, an experienced and influential member of Mrs. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party, supports teaching Islam in schools. But he also insists that Muslim schoolgirls be allowed to take physical education — an activity some conservative Muslim families resist.
Mr. Schäuble, who oversees antiterrorism policy, warned Muslim leaders that they must abide by the German Constitution and the principles of a democratic society if they wanted to be included in the conference.
In an interview with Der Spiegel this week, he made clear the limits of his tolerance. “I can promise you this,” he said, “anyone who calls me an infidel at the conference will be in for a fight.”
The session was closed to the news media, but judging by the conciliatory tone afterward, it did not seem likely that anybody called him one.