Multifaceted Islam

The preoccupation with Islam shapes the political sphere as well as public discourse, and not only in Germany. To meet the growing demand for experts, the Graduate School is training professionals from science and academia, the media, politics, as well as from fields of international cultural and economic cooperation. The Graduate School does not understand Islam as a homogenous body that could or had to conflict with other civilisations. Rather the emphasis is on the inner diversity, the historical changeability and the global networks of predominantly Islamic cultures. Extending beyond the Middle East, the researchers include Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, as well as the Muslim diaspora in Europe and North America. They examine the diversity of what Islam is understood to be, historically and in the present. This involves a combination of religious and legal aspects of Islam with identity- endowing factors like language, space, ethnicity, social situation, and gender. The Graduate School attaches particular attention to the history of relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. The participating institutions are: * Freie Universität Berlin (host institution) * Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University Berlin * Centre of Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin