Mohammed Khallouk

Mohammed Khallouk

Mohammed Khallouk (born October 7, 1971 in Salé , Morocco ) is a political scientist , Arabist and Islamic scholar .

life and work

After graduating from university, Khallouk studied Arabic and Islamic studies from 1993 to 1997 at the Mohammed V University in Rabat . The admiration for Nietzsche motivated him to emigrate to Germany. At the Studienkolleg in Marburg he became familiar with German culture, German history, politics and literature. He decided to stay in Marburg and began studying political science at the Philipps University there in 1999 , with a particular focus on conflicts in the Arab-Islamic area and cultural exchange between Europe and the Islamic world.

For his master's thesis on the Middle East conflict, published in 2003, he was awarded the DAAD Prize of the Philipps University of Marburg for outstanding achievements by foreign students. In March 2004 he and 15 other award winners were received by Federal Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in Berlin . Funded by a scholarship from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung , Khallouk completed his doctorate with Hans Karl Rupp in Marburg from 2004 to 2007 on Islamic fundamentalism in his country of origin, Morocco. His habilitation project on the role of Morocco during the Middle Eastern peace process from Camp David I to the present has existed since 2009 . From 2008 to 2011 he also taught political science and international relations at the Philipps University of Marburg and from 2010 to 2011 at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich .

Khallouk writes articles and essays and participates in debates on political and contemporary issues. His main focus is on the coexistence of Western and Islamic civilization as well as a cultural dialogue between Orient and Occident based on shared values. He conducted several dialogues, which were subsequently written down, on issues relating to the Western-Islamic relationship with the former director of the Hamburg Orient Institute, Udo Steinbach , including the future of German oriental studies and political Islam.

Khallouk also debated with former advisor to US President Richard Nixon and former American ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Robert Crane about the political present and future prospects of the Arab world.

He has processed the confrontation and mutual appreciation of Western and Arab-Islamic culture in a literary way. For this he used the city of Marburg an der Lahn, where after his immigration to Germany himself found the center of his life, as an example. In 76 prosaic fragments, he portrayed the city and life in Marburg from the perspective of a Muslim immigrant. This resulted in the 2013 book “Arrived in Germany - Marburg”, about which the former German ambassador to Morocco and Algeria, Murad Wilfried Hofmann, wrote : "Can a true Muslim" fall in love with a strange city "? Not only can he, as Khallouk proves. Happy are city fathers who can fall back on such a declaration of love for advertising."

In addition to writing his own literature in German, Khallouk is committed to the dissemination of contemporary German literature in the Arab-speaking world, especially in his country of origin, Morocco. He tries to make a contribution to this through his own translation work from German into Arabic. After translating speeches and essays by the Nobel Prize laureate Günter Grass, he turned primarily to German-language prose literature dealing specifically with Morocco. He translated prose works by the two authors Reinhard Kiefer and Christoph Leisten about Morocco. He founded the "Moroccan World" project at the Rimbaud Verlag in Aachen.

Khallouk dealt with Jewish thinkers from different epochs who were looking for a peaceful dialogue with Muslims as well as Christians or who formulated an ethical basis for a peaceful coexistence of religions from their Judaism. His encounters with Jews in Morocco and Germany encouraged him to travel to Jerusalem and seek direct confrontation with Jewish society and the coexistence of Jews and Muslim Arabs in a confined space. He then wrote a literary travel report, which was published in 2015 by Rimbaud Verlag under the title "Salam Jerusalem".

The changes in his image of the Jews, caused by the numerous encounters with Jews in and outside Jerusalem, he described in an essay in the Jerusalem Post. According to his statement, he was particularly influenced by the encounter with a Jewish trader named Abraham, whom he talked to in the Jewish Journal wrote a letter in Boston, Massachusetts.

Since 2010, Khallouk has been the representative for scientific expertise of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD). From this position he was proposed in 2012 as a member of the denominational advisory board for Islamic theology of the Westphalian Wilhelms-Universität Münster , which at that time was unable to constitute itself due to differences between the state and university on the one hand and Islamic associations on the other. In 2016, the Advisory Board for Islamic Theology at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster was constituted after all, in which Khallouk has represented the ZMD ever since. In the spring of 2016, Khallouk was elected Deputy Chairman of the Central Council.

From autumn 2013 to autumn 2016, Khallouk was also deputy chairman and press spokesman of the German-Islamic Association Rhein-Main e. V. (DIV), an umbrella association of mosque communities and Islamic cultural associations of members of Arab origin in the Rhine-Main area. He was particularly involved in educational work and also made his contribution to the “I choose recognition” project, for which the DIV was awarded the “Active for Democracy and Tolerance” award from the Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance (BfDT) in 2015. This public recognition enabled the DIV to be included in the funding of the “Live Democracy” program at the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs for its project “Actions against radicalization of Muslim youth”, which was launched in November 2015. In August 2016, a few weeks before Khallouk's handover, the DIV was classified as "influenced by extremists" by the Hessian Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The Federal Ministry of Family Affairs had already suspended the promotion of the DIV a month before and ended completely after the classification by the Hessian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

In summer 2014 Khallouk was appointed Associated Professor at the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University in Doha / Qatar , where he taught until 2015. In 2015 he was accepted as a member of the Advisory Board of the World Security Network Foundation, which consists of international experts on foreign and security policy. Since 2016 he has been chairman of the Double Critique eV association in Marburg, which is dedicated to intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

According to Khallouk, his work aims to show the beneficial nature of religion for modern society as a whole. With reference to the fact that the humanistic ethics has its spiritual roots in all three book religions, he turns against a secularity that tries to push religious symbolism out of the public eye completely. In an article for the Jerusalem Post, he points out that religion, like secular ideologies, can be instrumentalized for violence against those who think differently, but with a context-bound understanding it makes a valuable contribution to peaceful coexistence in a heterogeneous society.

The Marrakech Declaration, which was adopted in Arabic and English in 2016, also opposes the instrumentalization of religion for intolerance and violence. Khallouk translated them into German for the first time. The declaration was adopted by leaders and scholars in Marrakech on the 1400th anniversary of the Charter of Medina under the auspices of the Moroccan Ministry of Religions and the Forum for Peace in Muslim Societies. The translation was carried out on behalf of both the ZMD and the Center Oekumene of the two large churches.

Khallouk presented himself in publications as a staunch advocate of a denomination-oriented Islamic theological discourse at German universities. In 2008 he contradicted the doubts about the existence of the Prophet Mohammed publicly expressed by the Münster-based Islam theologian Sven Kalisch . In an article for the website of the ZMD "islam.de", Khallouk accused Kalisch of his lack of commitment to a denomination and of poor methodological foundation for his thesis. As a result, Kalisch was dismissed from the Chair of Islam Theology in 2010. As one of the selected representatives of the Coordination Council of Muslims (KRM), Khallouk also participated in the report published in December 2013 on the controversial theology of mercy by Kalisch's successor, Mouhanad Khorchide , which also called for his dismissal from the confessional chair. However, the methodology of the expert opinion aroused critical echo in circles of university theologians.

Awards

• 2003 DAAD prize for exceptional achievements by foreign students at the Philipps University of Marburg
• 2009 Culture Prize of the Euro-Mediterrenean Association of Cooperation and Development (EMA)

Fonts

• The Middle East at a crossroads. Do Israelis and Palestinians still have a chance of peaceful coexistence? Lit, Münster 2003. ISBN 3825871673
• Islamic fundamentalism at the gates of Europe. Morocco between relapse into the Middle Ages and western modernity. VS, Wiesbaden 2008. ISBN 9783531159492
• Islamic fundamentalism at the gates of Europe - Morocco between relapse into the Middle Ages and western modernity. (2nd edition) Springer, Wiesbaden 2016, softcover ISBN 9783658120481 , e-book ISBN 9783658120498 .
• Arrived in Germany: Marburg. Rimbaud, Aachen 2013. ISBN 9783890864389 .
• An Islam without a prophet. EPubli 2013. ISBN 9783844272017 .
• Salam Jerusalem. Rimbaud, Aachen 2015. ISBN 9783890864006 .
• Salam, Gerusalemme: Un diario del Dr. Mohammed Khallouk, tradotto e introdotto dalla Dr. phil. Milena Rampoldi (Italian Edition) EPubli 2015.

Translations into Arabic

• Günter Grass : The injustice of the fittest. A collection of political speeches and essays. Dubai 2008. ISBN 9789948152071
• Christoph Leisten : Marrakech, Djemaa el Fna. Baghdad / Beirut 2009. ISBN 9789948152057
• Petra Christine Hardt: Buying, Protecting and Selling Rights. How to acquire, secure, and distribute copyrighted works. Dubai 2011. ISBN 9789948019367
• Reinhard Kiefer : Moroccan Stories. Rabat 2012. ISBN 9789954212639
• Reinhard Kiefer: Café Moka. Additions to Agadir. Casablanca 2013. ISBN 9789954511503
• Reinhard Kiefer: Reinhard Kiefer in front of the mosque (selected poems) Casablanca 2015. ISBN 9789954945988

Web links

Commons : Mohammed Khallouk  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Mohammed Khallouk in the catalog of the German National Library [1]
• Positions and controversies on contemporary Islamic discourse , blog by Mohammed Khallouk
• OP-Online.de: Sensibility of Muslims [2] Offenbacher Post, interview from January 13, 2015
• Diversity moves Frankfurt: Muslims take responsibility? [3] , Interview with the integration portal of the city of Frankfurt, 2015
• Fr-Online.de: More participation for Muslims [4] Frankfurter Rundschau, guest article from May 25, 2015

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Excellent - DAAD award winners introduce themselves , DAAD brochure 2004, p. 16.
2. ↑ Flying visit to the minister ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , DAAD magazine 2004.  
3. ↑ http://www.jcrelations.net/de/?item=3020
4. ↑ Dr. Mohammed Khallouk / Prof. Dr. Udo Steinbach: The German Oriental Studies of the Present - Mediator of Social Knowledge or Instrument of Scientific Confirmation of Islamophobic Resentments? A dialogue A&K 3/2011
5. ↑ Dr Mohammed Khallouk / Prof. Dr. Udo Steinbach: The politicization of Islam - the most important phenomenon of the present or the most important perceived tendency of the Muslim culture? A&K 3/2013, pp. 175-195.
6. ↑ www.globalo.com Mohammed Khallouk: Why 'compassionate justice' is needed in Arab countries December 31, 2015.
7. ↑ Uwe Badouin: A Muslim learns to love Germany , Oberhessische Presse of September 18, 2013.
8. ^ Moroccan World , Rimbaud Verlag.
9. ^ Books and articles by Mohammed Khallouk , KOBV portal.
10. ↑ Thorsten Gerald Schneiders: A Muslim and his reflection on Israel , Deutschlandfunk, September 9, 2015.
11. ↑ Mohammed Khallouk: Can sworn enemies ever become friends? , Jerusalem Post, April 30, 2015.
12. ↑ Mohammed Khallouk: Letter to a Jewish friend ( Memento of the original from October 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Jewish Journal of May 28, 2015. 
13. ↑ WWU News Islam Advisory Board was constituted. Münster, May 5, 2016
14. ↑ Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) elects board for the first time after new structural reform , www.islam.de, May 9, 2016.
15. ↑ Old DIV board remains provisionally in office, DIV press release from October 3, 2016 ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
16. ↑ I choose recognition . www.buendnis-tolerance
17. ^ Action against radicalization of Muslim youth . ( Memento of the original from October 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. www.demokratie-leben.de 
18. ↑ Christoph Kunz: Wiesbaden: German-Islamic Association Rhein-Main in the sights of the protection of the constitution , Allgemeine Zeitung, August 26, 2016
19. ↑ Hanning Vogts: Muslims in Hessen: Church defends Islam Association , Frankfurter Rundschau, August 26, 2016
20. ^ Hanning Voigts: Islam Association under observation, Frankfurter Rundschau, August 25, 2016
21. ↑ Qatar University New Faculty 2014 ( Memento of the original from July 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
22. ↑ World Security Network, author biography, Mohammed Khallouk ( Memento of the original from October 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
23. ↑ www.double-critique.com About us Chairman Prof. Mohammed Khallouk .
24. ^ "Can religion be an opportunity for human progress?" . Jerusalem Post of March 25, 2017
25. ^ "The Marrakech Declaration is coming to Germany" islam.de of May 6, 2017
26. ^ "Marrakech Declaration" . Central Council of Muslims and Center Oekumene, April 2017
27. ↑ islam.de of December 7, 2008 Dr. Mohammed Khallouk: The German Islamic Studies of the Present Between Historical-Critical Claims and the Urge for Public Attention - Statement on the understanding of science of the Münster-based Islamologist Muhammed Kalisch
28. ↑ Opinion of the Coordination Council of Muslims (KRM) on theological theses by Mouhanad Khorchide in his book "Islam ist Barmherzigkeit" ( Memento of the original from April 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
29. ↑ Christian Theologians Defend Islamic Colleagues , Die Welt, Online Edition, Jan. 23, 2014
30. ↑ Werner Kahl: Dispute about Professor Dr. Mouhanad Khorchide
31. ↑ A student from Morocco is a DAAD prize winner, Marburger Uni-Journal from January 2004
32. ↑ Marburg university lecturer honored with international culture prize, Marburger Uni-Journal from January 2010
33. ↑ Portal for Political Science, published January 1, 2006
34. ↑ Sehepunkte Issue 11, 2011, No. 3