Following a series of events organised by the Islamic University Group Kiel (IHG), the management of Kiel University (CAU) has been strongly condemned. The so-called Islam Week took place on university premises at the beginning of May. One of the speakers was Sertac Odabas, chairman of the IMAN organisation, which is classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg as belonging to the Salafist spectrum. As reported by Kieler Nachrichten, visitors were segregated by gender at the entrance. Women and men were told to use different entrances. In the event room, women were instructed to sit at the back and men at the front. Among other things, the content of the event centred on the chastising of women.
The university has so far drawn few conclusions from the outrage – partly because it does not want to recognise the criticism. An employee in the Press and Public Relations department at Kiel University, Ann-Christin Wimber (photo) , said in a video made by YouTuber Tim Schwarz that Islamism is also ‘part of the colour’ of ‘diversity’ and thus defended Islam Week.
Die Uni Kiel nimmt Islamismus als Teil der Vielfalt in Schutz: pic.twitter.com/gQFfMlGQtt
— Anna (@annamarinada11) June 29, 2025
When asked to what extent the employee considers Islamism at the university to be ‘not really conducive’, Wimber replied: “Islamism, why not? It’s also a colour”.
In response to the YouTuber’s statement ‘Well, because it just discriminates against women’, Wimber then said: “Yes, but Islamism is also part of the colour, or isn’t it part of the colour? You’re talking about diversity, isn’t Islamism part of diversity?”, apparently as if she thought a negative answer to the question was an absurd answer.
‘Well, if you marginalise other people and that’s what Islamism does, then it’s just not good,’ the YouTuber replies. ‘Well, I don’t know if that’s right,’ Wimber then replies. Shortly afterwards, she is annoyed by the questions: “I don’t want to, so I’m really not up for it and it’s annoying me a bit that they’re now trying to force me to say things that I might not want to say or that you would like to hear,” says Wimber, who claims to be a journalist.
The university management of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität had already commented on the action week a week ago. In a statement from the Executive Board, it said: “After the Islam Week, however, we received critical information about the content of the event. We clearly distance ourselves from all content that is incompatible with the fundamental values of the university. The CAU is a cosmopolitan university that is committed to democracy and diversity. We condemn all forms of discrimination or violence. There is no place for such behaviour at our university.”
Furthermore, responsibility is denied: “Kiel University (CAU) was neither involved in the selection of speakers nor in the organisation of the content. We had no information about which speakers were to be considered,” the statement reads.
Only the use of premises on campus was authorised, as the use of premises is one of the regular options available to university groups, the Executive Board continued. “For this event, we had the topics that were to be dealt with during Islam Week. These did not appear conspicuous at the time of the application for the use of the rooms,” it added.