’People’s expectations of us are very high’

Mouhanand Khorchide © WWU - Peter Grewer The Centre for Islamic Theology (ZIT) at the University of Münster has been very popular ever since it was established in 2011. In this interview with André Bednarz and Norbert Robers , ZIT's director, Prof. Mouhanad Khorchide , speaks about the challenges and expectations facing the institute and, at the same time, he looks back at the milestones of the past decade. When the Wissenschaftsrat (the German Science and Humanities Council) recommended the setting-up of Islamic Centres at German Universities in 2010, it hoped, in doing so, that these Centres would play a key role in supporting young talent and would, as quickly as possible, train not only Islamic teachers for religious instruction but also scholars of Islam. Has ZIT at Münster fulfilled all these expectations? It certainly has, and we are sticking to our successful course. One way to recognise this success is that we have around 150 graduates who now work as teachers, professors or heads of academic institutions. Having said that, we have to take into consideration the fact that we are still at a very early stage in building up religious instruction for the approximately 400,000 Muslims at schools in North Rhine-Westphalia. What is special about ZIT in comparison with other Islamic Centres at German universities? Firstly, ZIT stands for a progressive, enlightened Islam which is also open to inter-faith dialogue. This is a major hallmark we have. And secondly, we have intensive contacts with countries which have a predominantly Muslim population. Both Münster University and ZIT are very well-known there. We just recently started publishing the 'Münster Journal of Islamic Theology and Philosophy' in Arabic. Is this profile of ZIT's reflected in student numbers?