Wolfgang Schaueble supports German Muslims

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaueble urged Muslims in Germany on Sunday to develop a "German Islam" based on liberalism and tolerance, saying the influx of people seeking refuge, many of them Muslims, is a challenge for mainstream society.

Wolfgang Schaeuble urged tolerance, saying the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants required a better understanding among Germans of what is important to them and how they want to live.

Schaeuble, a stalwart of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), said: "Without a doubt, the growing number of Muslims in our country today is a challenge for the open-mindedness of mainstream society."

In a guest article for conservative paper Welt am Sonntag, he added: "The origin of the majority of refugees means that we will be increasingly dealing with people from quite different cultural circles than previously."

"We should not, in this more tense situation, allow an atmosphere to emerge in which well-integrated people in Germany feel alien," Reuters cited him as saying.