He has been head of the Department of Islamic Religious Education at the University of Education in Freiburg (Baden-Württemberg) for ten years, has written the standard work “Introduction to Islamic Religious Education” – and is now no longer to be allowed to train Islamic religious teachers: Abdel-Hakim Ourghi was denied the Idschaza (authorisation to teach) by the “Sunni School Board Foundation”.
Two years ago, the state government led by the Greens had given this foundation supreme authority over Islamic religious education, which is why Ourghi had to reapply for his teaching licence. The application was recently rejected.
The reason given was that Ourghi’s academic training did not meet the Foundation’s expectations. The dismissed person does not want to accept this and has appealed against the decision. In addition to his relevant experience as head of the department of religious education, he points to academic degrees: In his country of origin, Algeria, he had a degree in philosophy in 1991, and in 2006, in Germany, he earned a doctorate in Islamic Studies at the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg.
Ourghi is convinced that it is not even about the formal requirements for a teaching position, but about the content of his teaching.
For the 53-year-old is fighting for a reform of Islam in the spirit of the Enlightenment. In 2016, he was one of the first signatories of the “Freiburg Declaration” of secular Muslims from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, a year later he published “40 Theses for a Reformed Islam” and became co-founder of the liberal Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque in Berlin, whose imamin Seyran Ates is under police protection because of many death threats.
In 2018, his book “Ihr müsst kein Kopftuch tragen – Aufklären statt verschleiern” (You don’t have to wear a headscarf – enlightenment instead of veiling) was published. Most recently, he had also approached the topic of anti-Semitism in a way that not all Muslims like: “At the age of 23, I came to Germany as an indoctrinated anti-Semite. Our socialisation in our countries of origin wanted to put us in a state of undying hatred against the Jews.” It took me years “to learn that the Jews are not the enemies of the Muslims”.
Ourghi sees himself as a victim of conservative Islamic associations, which also set the tone in the Baden-Württemberg foundation. He sees state cooperation with such umbrella organisations as “a threat to our peaceful coexistence”. Addendum: This also applies to Austria.”
By the way, there is an Austrian on the board of the foundation: Zekirija Sejdini, an Islamic theologian who teaches in Innsbruck and Vienna, does not want to comment on the case and refers to the ongoing proceedings. This is also the case with Amin Rochdi, the managing director of the foundation, who does not want to make a statement “for reasons of data protection and personal rights”.