” “This afternoon (at 6 pm) Pope Benedict XVI will meet representatives from some Moslem communities in the archbishop’s palace in Cologne. The meeting envisages a greeting addressed by Ridvan Cakir, President of the Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion. This will be followed by the Pope’s speech. After the meeting, the Pope will go to the Marienfeld esplanade for the prayer Vigil with the young people.
Some data regarding the Moslem Communities in Germany: The Moslems are around 3.2 million, of whom over 2 million are Turks (there are 7.3 million foreigners in Germany, that is 8.9% of the population). The Turkish community is well structured and the DITIB (Diyanet Isleri Turk Islam Birligi, www.diyanet.org) co-ordinates the religious, cultural, social and sports activities through 870 associations present in the whole country. There are 70 thousand Turks in Cologne. The other Moslem Communities come from Bosnia (168,000), from Iran (116,000), from Morocco (82,000), from Afghanistan (71,000), from Pakistan (38,000), etc.
