16./ 17.01.2012
On January 16th, German Federal Education Minister Annette Schavan officially opened Germany’s first Centre of Islamic Theology at the University of Tübingen. The centre in Tübingen is the first of four planned Islamic study centres throughout the country, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a total sum of around 20 million Euros (as reported earlier). During the opening ceremony, Annette Schavan said the centre was a “milestone for integration” of Germany’s approximately 4.3 million Muslims. And indeed, the plans to establish Islamic study centres and introduce study programmes in Islamic theology are part of a modern integration policy. The centre will mainly function to train imams and teachers for Islamic studies; so far, most imams currently in Germany are from Turkey and many of them do not speak German.
