Religion and belief
About a third of the population in Germany is Christian, another quarter has no religious affiliation, seven percent identify as Muslim and 0.3 percent as Jewish. It is especially the adherents of non-Christian religions that experience discrimination: Within the EU, up to 39 percent of the Muslim population has experienced discrimination based on their ethnic background, including complexion and religious affiliation, and a quarter of the Jewish population has experienced harassment based on religion over the course of a year.
In the 2019 survey "Diversity at HU", 26 percent of respondents reported they had experienced or witnessed discrimination based on religion or belief at HU at least once. Members of the university who experience such discriminiation may contact the officer for complaints in accordance with AGG, the students body counselling service on non-discrimination or the central women's representative.
Religious diversity at HU
As in broader society, anti-Muslim racism and antisemitism exist at German universities as well. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin strongly objects to any form of discrimination based on religion or belief. In fact, religious diversity forms an integral part of research and teaching at HU. In adddition to the study programmes on Christian theologies offered by the Department for Theology, the year 2019 saw the inauguration of the Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology. Since the beginning of 2020, the institute has established chairs on the Islamic foundations of faith, philosophy and ethics, as well as Islamic history of ideas. The institute offers a BA study programme on Islamic theology and is planning to establish a consecutive MA programme in the future.
At the same time, researchers from Humboldt-Universität have formed a part of Selma Stern Centre for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg since its foundation in 2012.
Further resources at HU
Department of Theology [German]
www.theologie.hu-berlin.de/de
Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology [English]
www.islamische-theologie.hu-berlin.de/en
Selma Stern Centre for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg [German]
www.selma-stern-zentrum.de/zentrum/profil/index.html
Student body counselling on non-discrimination [German // English on request]
www.refrat.de/adb.html