The motivating force
behind all of this is university principal, Prof. Ahmed Akgündüz. The
55-year-old who has taught in both Turkish and American universities in the
field of Islamic law is an influential figure whose views carry considerable
weight.
The IUR
is intended to be a university that is run by Muslims and for Muslims. It
currently has around 200 students. The courses include Islamic Theology, Islamic
Arts, Muslim Spiritual Counselling, Arabic, Law, History of Islam and
Comparative Religion. Teaching languages are Dutch and Arabic.
In
addition to a library, which includes an extensive collection of classical works
on Islamic theology and Islamic law, the university also contains a small studio
where calligraphy and ebru, the Turkish art of paper marbling, are taught. --
Jan Felix
Engelhardt
By Jan Felix
Engelhardt
The Islamic University of
Rotterdam has set itself the goal of creating a Muslim academic elite in the
Netherlands. The private university has close religious ties to the Turkish
Nurcu movement, but is also a space for internal Islamic discourse. Jan Felix Engelhardt paid a
visit.
Integrating a Muslim element into the Dutch
social structure: The Islamic University in
Rotterdam
Tural Koç is feeling rather
pleased with himself. The administrative head of the Islamic University of
Rotterdam (IUR) has just taken a major step towards gaining state approval for
his university. Following close consideration of contents and formal
requirements, the Dutch accreditation authority has now granted official
recognition to the first IUR course.
Students taking the masters
programme in "Islamic Spiritual Counselling" are now able to qualify with a
state-recognised degree. This, Koç believes, shows that the university is well
on its way to fulfilling its aim of creating a Muslim academic elite in the
Netherlands.
It is a goal that the Islamic
University has been pursuing since taking up residence in a prestigious former
school building in the centre of Rotterdam in 2003. Its close proximity to a
Reformed and a Catholic church provides a reminder that educational, health and
social institutions were traditionally, and often still are, organised according
to confession in Holland.
"We are adapting ourselves to
this system," explains Koç, "and working on integrating a Muslim element into
the Dutch social structure." The IUR is intended as part of this process.
Whether or not they can be in the long term depends very much on official
recognition.
Courses in Islamic law, history and
calligraphy
In order to achieve this, those
involved in the Islamic University are pulling out all the stops in their
dealings with other institutions involved in integration. They organise events
to promote interfaith dialogue, celebrate the end of Ramadan, arrange
conferences on tolerance in Islam and maintain close contact with
representatives from the churches and politics.
The IUR library includes an extensive collection
of classical works on Islamic theology and Islamic
law
The motivating force behind all
of this is university principal, Prof. Ahmed Akgündüz. The 55-year-old who has
taught in both Turkish and American universities in the field of Islamic law is
an influential figure whose views carry considerable weight.
The IUR is intended to be a
university that is run by Muslims and for Muslims. It currently has around 200
students. The courses include Islamic Theology, Islamic Arts, Muslim Spiritual
Counselling, Arabic, Law, History of Islam and Comparative Religion. Teaching
languages are Dutch and Arabic.
In addition to a library, which
includes an extensive collection of classical works on Islamic theology and
Islamic law, the university also contains a small studio where calligraphy and
ebru, the Turkish art of paper marbling, are taught.
Private network of
sponsors
The IUR runs largely on this
idealism. Until such time as it receives full state recognition it will also
necessarily have to get by without state funding and be reliant on donations.
These have been forthcoming from private individuals, foundations and Turkish
religious entrepreneurs, most of them part of the personal contact network of
principal Akgündüz.
Although no names are mentioned,
the university's funding structure is made open to the authorities. Until these
authorities begin contributing to IUR funding, however, it is likely that a few
more semesters will pass by. In Holland, too, the wheels of academia turn only
slowly.
Competition with state
universities
The lack of funding is also one
of the major obstacles to the provision of quality teaching at the IUR,
according to Nico Landman of the theological faculty of the University of
Utrecht. This is especially problematic where the funding problems have an
adverse effect on the quality of the study programmes offered and, as a
consequence, on the university's ability to compete with other academic
institutions.
Science as the study of God's creation: students
at the Islamic University in Rotterdam
Students who want to study
Islamic theology or spiritual counselling in the Netherlands are not dependent
on the IUR. The universities of Utrecht, Amsterdam, Den Haag and Leiden all
offer the same courses, with an official degree at the end and the kind of
financial support that every student attending state university in Holland
receives. The teachers also have academic qualifications, whereas their
counterparts at the Islamic University tend not to.
Recognised degrees, financial
support, and high academic quality – three factors where the Islamic University
is struggling to compete with the state universities. Nevertheless, the IUR
believes that it has an advantage. According to Principal Akgündüz, "Islamic
theology, art and spiritual counselling are best taught by Muslims." In contrast
to the state universities only the IUR is a genuine Muslim institution where
Islamic schools of thought from all over the world come together.
The Nurcu
movement
Whether or not prospective
students will be convinced by this argument remains to be seen. At the present
time they are still tending to favour the state universities, though one
additional reason for this may be the university's reputation due to its ties to
the Nurcu movement.
The founder of this Islamic
community was the Turkish scholar Said Nursi who declared science, which he
understood as the study of God's creation, to be the only way to preserve Islam
in the modern world. Over the years the mainly Turkish followers of the Nurcu
movement have established hundreds of educational institutions all over the
world. Spiritual ties to the movement are not something the IUR denies. On the
contrary, in the university bookshop the writings of Said Nursi are prominently
displayed in various translations.
"Positive, constructive role" in multicultural
Holland
Despite the university's evident
attachment to the Nurcu ideology however, the university's teaching and student
bodies reflect the great diversity and variety of interpretations of Islam.
These diverse religious convictions are thrown together at the IUR when, for
example, students whose parents are from Morocco, Turkey, Indonesia or Pakistan
find themselves discussing questions of religious practice with teachers from,
say, Egypt or Syria.
Questions cover areas such as,
should Muslim shop assistants in Holland have to sell pork or alcohol? The
answer? Yes, according to the majority vote, because it goes with the job. And
what about the questions on the position Dutch Muslims should adopt with regard
to homosexuality? Well, they need not approve of it, but they must accept it, is
the general consensus.
The IUR can provide Muslims in
Holland with an institution where their religious positions on such questions
can be developed, believes Nico Landman of the University of Utrecht. "The
diversity of the teachers and students makes the IUR a space for internal
Islamic discourse," says the academic. It has a "positive, constructive role" to
play in multicultural Holland.
Jan Felix
Engelhardt
Translated from the German by Ron
Walker
Editor: Lewis
Gropp/Qantara.de
Source:
qantara.de
9:28 PM
Sultan Shahin
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