German government officials met here on Wednesday with 15 representatives from the Muslim community to open a two-year long dialogue on how to improve interaction with Muslims living in the country.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble hosted the meeting, the first of its kind which is designed to launch two to three years of talks leading to a pact between the government and the Muslims, who account for 4 percent of the German population.

"Three million Muslims live in Germany," Schaeuble told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, adding, "They are a part of Germany's present and future, just as Islam is, after all, a part of Europe."

He urged German Muslims to accept the country's basic laws, norms and values and learn the German language.

Apart from delegates from Muslim communities, representatives from federal, state and communal organizations also attended the meeting.

Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the meeting as she told a newspaper:"The dialogue with Islam is necessary and important."

Representatives from major Muslim organizations issued a joint statement on Sunday saying: "We expressly welcome the German government's efforts to lastingly address the complex of Islam and Muslims in Germany."

They said the integration of Islam into the German state system and the integration of Muslims into society were the top priorities, but noted that they couldn't recognize the concrete goal of the meeting yet.

The organizations also made the criticism that the hosts did not consider the idea of the self-organization of Germany's Muslims, and also that the composition of the Islam delegation did not represent correct proportional representation.

They said that mosques, as the central unit of Islamic religion, always had to be the starting point for proper representation and the legal integration of Muslims.

Source: Xinhua