Regarding the merging of Evangelical, Catholic, Islamic and Jewish theologies within the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) – and most recently in the insert ‘Christ & Welt’ in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit on 2nd March 2017 – HU President Sabine Kunst clarifies the following:

“We are currently beginning the process of establishing an institute for Islamic theology. Nothing more and also nothing less. It was agreed in July 2016 that the institute would be based at the HU and we are sticking to this agreement.”

This is based on a benchmark programme that was developed in collaboration with senate administrations, representatives of several universities, the largest Muslim associations in Berlin as well as experts from existing centres of Islamic theology.

Proposals to combine several religions within the HU, possibly even as part of a ‘Faculty of Theologies’, may be discussed at a later date. “We have to take one step at a time,” explains Sabine Kunst. “The first step is to set up the Institute for Islamic Theology at the HU. We want this to be a success. It is important that this key project is not overloaded by a much broader idea.”

The Institute for Islamic Theology is expected to be established relatively quickly. The aim is to begin offering courses for the 2018/2019 winter semester. The matter of institutional integration (regarding the faculty/centre) has to be discussed intensively in a working group for a decision to be made. A founding commissioner to be announced in the coming weeks will lead and moderate this working group.

Berlin will thus become the sixth university location to offer Islamic studies in Germany. The goal of the course programme is to impart academic foundations in Islamic theology for training imams and to qualify students for a school teaching post. Affiliation to the Muslim faith shall not be a requirement for admission to these courses.

Contact

Hans-Christoph Keller

Spokesperson of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Head of Office

Phone: 030 2093-2345
pr@hu-berlin.de