Frequently Asked Questions on Muslims and Islam. Author: 1001 Ideas team
Who is a Muslim? What does Umma mean? Which Muslim organizations exist in Germany? Where is the orient? Finding answers to these questions is not always easy. The 1001 Ideas team prepared short answers to 20 frequently asked questions, offering important information and impulses. A quiz, which can easily be printed out, accompanies the answers. [more]
- currently only available in German -

In foreign Earth? Author: Gerdien Jonker
Until today, only few Muslims are buried in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. The majority decrees that, after death, their body be transferred to their family’s native country. Slowly but gradually, however, Muslim burial fields have been installed in Western European cemeteries. This teaching module gives impressions of historical, religious and practical aspects of dying, funeral and commemoration according to Muslim traditions – in Europe and elsewhere. [more]
- currently only available in German - 

Islamism and Political Islam. Author: Jan-Peter Hartung
Policy makers, journalists and also scholars employ a broad variety of terms when they describe political Islamic movements. But what do terms like “(Neo)-Fundamentalism”, “Wahabism”, “Salafism”, “Islamism”, “Political Islam” etc. mean? How can movements like the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e-Islami, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Hisbollah, and al-Qaida be characterised – and where do they differ? In this unit, we try to find some answers to these and other questions. More...

Living Alone. Author:  Barbara Drieskens
Leaving one’s parents and starting an independent household after having finished school has become a normal pattern in young peoples’ existence in Germany. This is different in the Arab world. In the past, marriage was the only reason to leave the parental home. Especially young women were inhibited by moral reasons to live an independent life without being married. This module inquires into the situation in Beirut today. More…

Images in mind: the crusades. Authors: Albrecht Materne and Gerdien Jonker
How do textbooks mould our image of Islam and the Muslim world? This module inquires into the history of European perceptions of Islam while focusing on the narrative of the Crusades in German history textbooks. The selected textbooks mirror the political extremes of the twentieth century: Nazi Germany, British and American occupation, the rift between East and West, Germany as a migration country, and living together in the aftermath of 9/11. The module asks how the history textbooks adapted to changing political regimes, while moulding images of the self (Germans, Europeans) as against others (Muslims, Islam). It thereby offers a tool to trace the continuities and contingencies of the images Germans (and Europeans) have nurtured about Islam and Muslims in history. More…

Islamic cafés in Istanbul. Author: Uğur Kömeçoğlu
Istanbul is the cradle of European coffee house culture. But in the course of the twentieth Century, Istanbul’s traditional coffee houses were superseded by modern style cafés, representing a secular space that religious communities encounter with suspicion and moral doubt. After all, cafés that allow men and women to socialize do not mirror the established moral code. Of late, Islamic cafés try to remedy the gap between the traditional and the modern. Through the stressing of an „Islamic” identity, they developed a profile that borrowed something from coffee houses and modern cafés alike. This module looks into their interior. What makes them „Islamic“? Which influence do they exercise on moral codes dictated by religion? More…