No protests outside, no security guards, no headlines about alleged racism or Islamophobia: with a conference on Islamism, the Center for Global Islam at Frankfurt’s Goethe University has bid farewell – after years of public controversy and internal strife.
The calm, however, came at a price. For its final event, the center dispensed with security for financial reasons and kept publicity to a minimum. It was a stark contrast to previous years, when conferences were often accompanied by loud demonstrations. “One could only talk about Islamism under police protection,” reflects director Susanne Schröter, who retires this month.
Schröter and her institute repeatedly found themselves in the crossfire. Activists accused them of racism and Islamophobia, while parts of the university kept their distance. At the same time, the center enjoyed strong backing from secular groups and civil society organizations. The battles turned its work into a test case for academic freedom in Germany.
The closing conference once again covered a wide range of issues: from the structures of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist networks in Jordan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to the role of Western universities. Speakers described the Brotherhood as a strategic movement aiming at the long-term transformation of Western democracies into theocracies – at times disguising this goal under a tactical renunciation of violence. Other contributions focused on the financing of Islamist networks or on the question of whether democracies can remain stable without a shared set of values.
The subject of Islamism remains highly sensitive – yet research on it in Germany is marginalized. Schröter pointed to cases such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, who was disinvited from a book event in Canada over alleged “Islamophobia,” even though she herself had been enslaved and abused by the so-called Islamic State. “There is an astonishing willingness to accept this perverted logic of victimhood,” Schröter remarked.
With the dissolution of the center, Germany’s research on Islamism loses one of its most prominent institutions. Whether its work will be continued elsewhere remains unclear. Schröter herself is leaving a university where, by her own account, she endured years of defamation. What remains is a sobering conclusion: one of the central challenges for democracy and society can scarcely be discussed on German campuses in a sober, scholarly way.
Much can be criticized about Susanne Schröter – her sharp tone, her limited patience with critics. But the fact that she insisted on confronting an issue that many preferred to ignore deserves recognition. Her departure leaves a significant void.
Democracy is not defended at the far-right fringe or in talk shows, but also in lecture halls and research institutes. That Goethe University no longer can – or will – provide the space for such debate is a damning indictment.
