International Programme

Completed Projects

Muslim life and Islamic knowledge in secular societies

Project Duration: 2018-2021 Funded by Federal Foreign Office

Coordination: 2018-2019 Erkin Calisir, Benedikt Körner; 2020-2021 Anja Glaser, Sukayna El-Zayat

Between 2018 and 2022, a series of projects—funded by the German Federal Foreign Office—sought to bring together expertise and experiences from universities, civil society actors, Muslim communities, and public institutions across borders. With a geographical focus on Europe and North America, with focus on secular European an US-societies characterized by significant Muslim minority populations various activities have taken place.

Until 2019 the international exchange focused on the topic of Muslim chaplaincy as a resource for social welfare. In subsequent years, attention shifted toward the education and training of Muslim religious professionals in Europe and North America. Several international conferences were organised with participants from state institutions, academia, and religious communities representing 15 different countries.

Key themes addressed included:

• Muslim Chaplaincy – A Resource for Social Welfare?
• From CopyPaste to Domestic Training? Muslim Religious Leadership in Europe and North America
• Building Bridges between State and Muslim Communities: Domestic Training of Muslim Religious Professionals as a Common Issue
• Approaches to Cooperation between the State and Muslim Communities: Training of Muslim Religious Professionals in Europe
• Education and Training of Muslim Religious Professionals in Europe and North America

Live Talks

Book Talk – The Grammar of ‘God’ in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, July 2025

Can Wittgenstein’s philosophy reshape Islamic theology and make it more accessible for everyday believers? The famous 20th century thinker Ludwig has stated that his goal in philosophy essentially amounts to “showing that things which look the same are really different”. By his insistence to pay close attention to the grammar of a word – that is its use in language – he has opened up new perspectives on (not only religious) language that challenges the prevalent views, such as on the word ‘God’.

Engendering an intimate and deep relationship with God is at the heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The goal of the volume “The Grammar of ‘God’ in Judaism, Christianity and Islam” is to pick up on Wittgenstein’s insights about language and religion and to bring them in fruitful relation to the three mentioned religious traditions respectively in an attempt to reassess the grammar of the word ‘God’. These aspects among others were discussed at the AIWG live talk on 1st July 2025 with the volume editors Dr Farid Suleiman (University of Greifswald) and Prof Mira Sievers (University of Hamburg). Further authors of the volume, Prof Genia Schönbaumsfeld (University of Southampton) and Prof Daniel Weiss (Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge) also took part in the discussion.

The recording is available on our YouTube channel.

Book Talk – “The Attributes of God in Islamic Thought. Contemplating Allah”, June 2024

The debate over Allah’s attribute—the “nature” and the inner articulation of Allah—is one of the focal debates in the intellectual history of Islam. The AIWG live talk on June 2024, based on the volume The Attributes of God in Islamic Thought. Contemplating Allah, edited by AIWG’s former research-fellow, Dr Mansooreh Khalilizand (University of Freiburg), aimed to introduce some aspects of this multifaceted debate. By showing that even an apparently self-evident concept such as Allah, which lies at the heart of every reading of Islam, is highly contentious and polysemous, the rich plurality that has always existed in Islamic thought, is to be emphasized and exposed. With Dr Khalilizand the following authors of the volume took part at the talk: Prof Dr Mohammad Gharaibeh (HU-Berlin), Dr Angelika Brodersen (University Bochum) and Prof Dr Sajjad Rizvi (University of Exeter). The recording is available on our YouTube channel.

Conferences

„Being Muslim in Europe – Orienting oneself in the context of good and bad diversity“  – AIWG International Conference in Frankfurt, November 2023

The Academy for Islam in Research and Society, in cooperation with the Swiss Center for Islam and Society of Fribourg University, has successfully concluded its international conference „Being Muslim in Europe – Orienting oneself in the context of good and bad diversity“ at Campus Westend in Frankfurt am Main. Researchers from Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy engaged in a two-day-discussion about the increasing significance of the concept diversity in migration societies. They explored the discrepancy between „good“ or legitimized forms of plurality and other rather „negative“ connoted categories of plurality. The AIWG published the conference report. Read more about the conference in our report.

“Approaches to Cooperation between the State and Muslim Communities: Training of Muslim Religious Professionals in Europe“ – AIWG International Conference in Berlin, June 2021 

The Academy for Islam in Research and Society at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt has successfully concluded its international conference on the issue of cooperation between Muslim communities and the State in Berlin on 24^th and 25^th June. With a special focus on the issue of “Training of Muslim Religious Professionals in Europe“, the AIWG continued the discussion from its recent workshop in December in Frankfurt with approximately 50 experts from 14 European countries. The AIWG published the  conference report.

Funded by Federal Foreign Office

Read more about the conference in our report.