Plea for the Modernisation of Islamic Studies

Ulrike Freitag is the new director of the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin. On the occasion of the 80th birthday of Fritz Steppat, initiator of the Centre, Freitag dedicates her plea to this pioneer of contemporary Islamic Studies.

Fritz Steppat, the Berlin-based expert in Islamic Studies, turned 80 on 24 June 2003. A professor at the Institute for Islamic Studies at the Free University from 1969 to 1990, Steppat is the precursor of Oriental Studies that are both rooted in history and at the same time relevant to present times. He is viewed as a mediator between the cultures. Having been conferred with the title of Emeritus Professor, he paved the way for the establishment of a Centre for Modern Oriental Studies. The new director of this Centre, Ulrike Freitag, dedicates her plea for a modernisation of the discipline of Islamic studies to Steppat.

After 11 September 2001, European and American seminars in Islamic studies were packed to bursting point. Last winter semester alone, over 100 students began studying Arabic in Berlin, a language which is considered difficult because of its exotic script. The decision to undertake such a challenge cannot simply be justified by an interest in contemporary politics because since the terrorist attacks in the USA and elsewhere, there has been considerable demand for specialist personnel with a background in Islamic studies. This expertise is suddenly equally appreciated by the Foreign Office, security services, political consultants and the media.

The boom of what was previously considered an exotic minority subject and the pressure on universities to modernise are reason enough to investigate the tasks of contemporary Islamic studies and research. In a world in which different cultures collide directly with one another as a result of millions of immigrants and the global interweaving of trade and communication, we need Islamic studies. We need it in particular for that which is known as cultural translation. Experts in Islamic studies also take part in the ‘dialogue with Islam’. One important task is to tackle differences on issues like human rights. After all, the trend towards superficial agreement is a more serious obstacle to communication than the open discussion of actual problems.

Focus on the Middle East

Unlike Islamic studies in the UK or USA, the discipline of Islamic studies in post-war Germany long shied away from meeting this need for public instruction or even dealing with questions that are relevant to present times. Instead, the preference was to focus on classic Islamic theology and history, preferably the time before the Mongolian storming of Baghdad in 1258, which signified the end of the Arab dominance of the Islamic world.

Modern Islamic studies should combine Arabic Studiesin other words language, literature, religion and historywith an openness for social science issues. This would result in a science that would not primarily focus on teaching Islam but rather on the study of societies and literature shaped by Islam. A training such as this should also involve contact with the inhabitants of the regions being studied at the earliest possible stage. Ideally, this contact should take the form of a period of study abroad that allows students to familiarise themselves with local approaches and questions relating to the subject that interests them most.

The discipline of Islamic studies has already undergone comprehensive modernisation. Islamic studies’ theoretical questions and comparative approaches are more open to history or literary studies than these subjects are to ‘non-European’ history or literature. Nevertheless, there are areas in which a lot of catching up remains to be done in Germany in particular.

As a result of the discipline’s traditional philological and theological orientation and its regional scientific traditions, the focus is still on the Arab Middle East. Turkey and Iran are the only other ‘recognised’ areas of activity for experts in Islamic studies. The four most densely populated Islamic states (Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India) do not belong to this region; nor do the Islamic states of Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Of course, we must first ask ourselves to what extent ‘Islam’ must be seen as a uniform, shaping force and to what extent local traditions and history have changed it. This can only be established by comparative study and for this we need experts in Islamic studies who have studied Islamic societies outside the Middle East.

The al-Qaida network

The study of Islam, however, is not the main focus of South-East Asian, South Asian and African Studies. This is why there remains a lot of catching up to do in this area. The history of the relations between Islamic regions, such as those being researched at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies in Berlin, can provide important starting points in terms of understanding current developments. The links between Indonesia, Afghanistan, Saudi-Arabia and East Africa that are used by al-Qaida are not the onlybut probably the most strikingexample of this.

However open the discipline must be to the needs of society and the labour market, Islamic studies must avoid being used for political ends. Nor must it be guided exclusively by current economic trends. By following these simple rules, one particular error that has been made at many British and American institutions can be avoided: the neglect of philological and theological basics, which have long constituted the central element of this discipline. In view of the current attempts at rationalising university courses and the associated demand-oriented approach to university teaching, it is essential that this is not allowed to happen. Without a profound knowledge of the language and basic theological and legal principles, statements made by experts in Islamic studies would lose the depth of perspective that separates them from commentators of contemporary politics.

© Ulrike Freitag

Source: Ulrike Freitag, ‘The headscarf and the crucifix. The state of play (15): Why contemporary Islamic studies must translate cultures’, Der Tagesspiegel, 24 June 2003, p. 24

Publication by kind permission of Tagesspiegel