Processes of canonisation and censorship in Islam can be influenced by numerous actors and institutions, religious and language policies, political and economic interests as well as historical events. Within the framework of a series of interviews, four researchers will shed light on the topic from different perspectives. The four-part interview series on YouTube will start on the 11th of May 2022. The interview series is a result of the AIWG project workshop „Canon and Censorship in the Islamic Intellectual and Theological History“.
Prof. Dr. Mohammad Gharaibeh from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin conducted interviews with scholars from Germany and abroad on the processes of canonisation and censorship as part of the one-year AIWG project workshop „Canon and Censorship in the Islamic Intellectual and Theological History“. The interviews were conducted as a follow-up to the international conference bearing the same title, which the project workshop hosted at the Institute for Islamic Theology in Berlin in October 2021.
This four-part discussion series begins with Dr. Almila Akca from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In the interview, she examines the dynamics in German mosque communities and points out how actors in the mosques in some cases try to enforce a certain interpretation of Islam in their community by pointing out or constructing an apparent contradiction between „true Islam“ and the „Islam of the forefathers“.
The following conversations focus on the challenges of teaching the Qur’an in religious education and the influence of norms and values of the recipients as well as language and translation in the interpretation of the Qur’an. Prof. Dr. Mohammad Gharaibeh spoke about these topics with:
- Prof Dr Jörg Imran Schröter from the University of Education Karlsruhe,
- Prof Dr Sara Omar, Georgetown University, USA and
- Postdoc Olav Elgvin, University of Bergen, Norway
Release dates
From the 11th of May onwards, the AIWG will publish the interviews monthly at 7pm on its YouTube channel.
The exact release dates for the individual episodes of the four-part interview series are:
- 11 May 2022: „Canon and Censorship in Mosques in Germany: How Islamic Knowledge is Authorised through Practice or Not“ with Dr Almila Akca
- 8 June 2022: „Canon and Censorship in the Context of Islamic Religious Education“ with Prof Dr Imran Schröter
- 6 July 2022: „Shifting Orthodoxy“ with Prof Dr Sarah Omar
- 10 August 2022: „Canonization and censorship through translation?“ with Dr Olav Elgvin
Click here to visit the AIWG YouTube channel.
About the AIWG Project Workshop
The project workshop „Canon and Censorship in the Islamic Intellectual and Theological History“ was a joint research project of the Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology at the Humboldt-Universität with the Institute for the Study of Islamic Culture and Religion at the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Swiss Centre for Islam and Society at the University of Fribourg.
