Berlin  - Muslim voters in Germany are wary of parties with "Christian" in the name - but not for the reason you might think.

In a teahouse in the heart of Berlin, Turkish men playing cards and backgammon explain why a majority in their community tends to vote for Social Democrat (SPD) or Green candidates.

"Those parties' policies a bit more pro-migrant," explains Ali E, a man in his mid-50s. "And they aren't opposed to Turkey joining the European Union.

Turks make up the bulk of Germany's community of 4 million Muslims, 5 per cent of the overall population.

A survey this year funded by the German interior ministry found 45 per cent of the Islamic community had German nationality. Germany's political parties are eager for their votes, but are mainly silent on faith issues.

Instead, the stark differences involve issues such as dual nationality and voting rights.

Currently, Germany only offers naturalization to immigrants who renounce their citizenship of birth.

The SPD proposes in its election manifesto to extend municipal voting rights to foreigners who have lived in Germany for at least six years, and to grant citizenship even to migrants who keep their nationality of birth.

Both ideas are anathema to many right-of-centre Germans.

In their joint 2009 manifesto, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian counterpart, the Christian Social Union, reject dual nationality and any franchise for foreigners.

"We would rather that aliens who have lived, worked and integrated over many years should exercise the option of accepting our citizenship," says the manifesto, which also opposes Turkish membership in the EU.

Despite their name, these parties have only loose bonds to the Christian church.

The manifesto affirms that the parties are inspired by the "Christian concept of humanity" and acknowledges the place of churches in society. But the CDU has gingerly reached out to Muslims.

In particular, it claims credit for the German-Islam conference, a series of meetings since 2006 where Muslim leaders have told the government why they think schools are failing Muslim children and why many Muslims are held down in low-skills, low-pay jobs or unemployed.

The CDU has also begun a membership drive among Turks, appealing to their social conservatism.

Nevertheless, someone like Bulent Arslan, 34, admits he long felt an oddity. As a Muslim schoolboy 18 years ago, he joined the CDU.

"It wasn't quite what a cool dude did at 16," he jokes. Arslan heads the CDU's Turkish section in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany's most populous state.

A survey of 3,000 ethnic Turks in March by Data 4U pollsters found 55 per cent would vote SPD and 23 per cent for the Greens. Just 10 per cent would vote for Christian parties and 9 per cent for the Left party.

Kenan Kolat heads the Turkish Association in Germany, a secular group that sympathizes with the SPD.

He see Turkish support for the SPD as payback for help from trade unions and the SPD to Turkish immigrant workers in the 1960s and 1970s, and also for the party's pro-immigrant policies.

"Turkish people still tend to vote for personalities. That's why it's important that five members of the current parliament are of Turkish origin," he adds. The community identifies with them.

Greens party co-leader Cem Ozdemir is a key to rounding up votes in his Turkish community for his party.

Sociologist Volker Ronge of Wuppertal has suggested immigrants are being kept outside the loop in German political debates because they tend not to read quality newspapers or watch highbrow television.

He said research shows that people of Turkish, Russian, Polish and Moroccan background adore German television, but they are stuck on the entertainment channels and rarely watch the serious news programmes.

CDU member Arslan also chides a certain coldness towards immigrants.

A "significant proportion of Germans" view integration as assimilating newcomers into the German mindset, he says, whereas many immigrants want to nurture their own cultural heritage in parallel.

"It's right that immigrants be asked to love Germany, but Germany has to learn to love its immigrants too," he said. (dpa)