Source: Qantara

Islamic theology is still a very new academic discipline at German universities. It is hoped that a new nationwide post-graduate programme will boost its development, lead to increased representation of Muslims in Germany, and lay the groundwork for the training of state schoolteachers of Islam. As Christoph Dreyer reports, expectations are high all round

Serdar Kurnaz does not suffer from a lack of self-confidence. According to the 23-year-old, his PhD project could open up “a new philological, theological and legal philosophical approach” to Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh).

Nimet Seker is equally confident about her dissertation on gender-equitable approaches to the Koran. In her own words, the 31-year-old wants to “continue and refine” existing attempts to this effect and eventually hopes to advance the methodology of contemporary hermeneutics of the Koran.

Such ambition corresponds well with the high expectations surrounding the first class of a German graduate programme in Islamic theology, which was launched recently in Berlin. The Mercator Foundation, which has pledged to put €3.6 million into the programme by 2016, hopes that in the medium term, the post-graduate programme “will foster the appropriate representation of Muslim opinion in the academic world, schools and public life. It will also lay the foundations for the training German state schoolteachers in Islamic religious studies and educating imams at German universities.”