A Valuable Islam Collection

​​More than 600,000 documents and over 300,000 data entries on the history of Islam—these impressive numbers describe the inventory of the Islam Archive in the Westphalian town of Soest. These figures make the archive unique in Germany. It is also the oldest library of its kind.

The Central Institute was founded in Berlin in 1927 by a student from Syria named Mohammad Nafi Tschelebi. He wanted to build not only a bridge between the Islamic world and Germany, but also a center for religious thought.

During the period of National Socialism and the postwar years of crises that followed, the archive was inactive. In 1956 reconstruction of the archive began in Saarbrücken and in 1982 the rapidly growing archive moved to Soest, where Salim Abdullah has directed it and given it his stamp.

Largest documentation center on Islamic life in Germany

Abdullah, a former journalist and an expert on the Arabic world, was one of the first people who became committed to improving understanding between Christianity and Islam in Germany.

Beginning in the 1960s, he was already engaged in preparing editions of Christian church newspapers for Islamic communities. Later, Abdullah, whose father was Bosnian, became representative of the Islamic World Congress at the United Nations.

For the past twenty years, Abdullah, now age 74, has been director of an archive that boasts the most comprehensive set of documents on Islamic life in Germany: the Central Institute Islam Archive in Soest.

The archive contains 6,000 books on the subjects of Islam in Germany and Europe, intercultural dialogue, questions about foreigners, Islamic theology and history, as well as Christian theology.

To compile its inventory, the archive surveys 150 daily newspapers, magazines, and news agencies, as well as more than a dozen international publications on Islam.

The institute also owns one of the most comprehensive collections of historical German-language Koran editions. In addition to the archive in Soest, the Central Institute also has branches in Bremen, Hamburg, Münster/Osnabrück, and Cologne.

Free access for everyone

The documents at the Islam Archive in Soest are not only available to Islamic organizations for research, but also to all visitors who have a scholarly or journalistic interest in the information compiled there.

Anyone can become a member, regardless of their religious confession. And access is free. This is possible because the institute is non-profit and 50 Muslim staff members volunteer their services, mostly young academics. There is not enough money to support more staff.

For this reason, Salim Abdullah intends to transform the archive, which until now was dependent upon contributions and donations, into a foundation. He hopes that this will enable the institute to continue training for teachers and students. This past year, however, this important function of the archive had to be put on hold due to a lack of funding.

Abdullah says that precisely this kind of work is so important for dialogue between the religions because through personal encounters, religious teachers can learn about the other side of Islam and thereby begin to overcome their reservations.

The institute regularly compiles expert reports for officials and for social institutions. For example, they conduct a political barometer for the government in which 1,200 Muslims are surveyed every year. Or publications on the lives of Muslims in various German-speaking regions ("Muslims between the Elbe and Oder Rivers, 2003).

Abdullah has found that the results of these surveys are more authentic than those of other survey institutes. This is because the employees carrying them out are also Muslims, and thus the answers they get are more honest.

A critical view of the past, and a future EU project

Muslims have been a part of Germany's population for decades. But acceptance of Muslim culture has still not developed: "Germany was an immigrant land for a long time before politicians finally began to use the term," says Abdullah. He himself was born in Germany.

Representatives of Islam had also not been eager to begin a dialogue. But this has been changing since the terrorist attacks of September 11th: "Since then, dialogue has come about under pressure, as a way of signaling: we are not one of them."

Salim Abdullah would like to see the work of the institute spread beyond Germany's borders. Over the next four years, an archive covering all of Europe will bring together materials on various keywords related to "Islam in Europe." A collection has already been started which will serve as a foundation for the new archive.

Petra Tabeling

© Qantara.de 2004

Translation from German: Christina M. White