Secular Translation of Islam - A Habermasian Analysis of German Islamic Religious Textbooks Kemal İnal

Since 2010, Islamic religious education has officially entered the school curricula in eight German federal states. However, the question of how to teach Islam to Muslim students in the secular, rational and technical German education system, where Islam is seen as exotic, foreign and “Other”, has sparked a huge didactic and pedagogical debate. But, despite all the debates and literature, the question of how to transfer Islam into Western culture has remained largely unanswered. In an attempt to answer this question, Kemal İnal analyzes and discusses whether it is possible to translate the teachings, values and concepts of a religion like Islam into the rational and secular everyday life of the West through Habermas' postmetaphysical and postsecular theory of religion. Inal argues that many liberal values (respect, tolerance, recognition of the “Other”, culture of reconciliation, human rights, pluralism and multiculturalism) are didactically and pedagogically included in the German Islamic religion textbooks he examines, and analyzes how Islam is translated into secular language through some Habermasian categories (acting morally, being a subject, communicative action, representation of the “Other”, self-reflexivity, rational argumentation). On the other hand, the author critically examines the transfer of Islamic values and concepts to the secular mind without subjecting them to interpretation, criticism, and questioning by discussing some points where translation fails or is problematic in the context of various categories (indoctrination, reduction, ideal one-world design, rooted integrity, pedagogical level, two separate worlds).As a result, Inal argues that the transfer of Islamic theses to various rules, values and problems of secular life through rational patterns is possible through translation, but he reveals that this translation is not without problems with a large number of sample texts.
As Töz publishing house, we believe that this study will provide an opportunity to look at the debates on religion and secularism/laicism in Turkey as well as in Germany through pedagogy and from a different perspective. In today's world, where mandate religion classes, optional religious classes, new curricula, as well as the activities of sects and congregations in schools are being discussed intensively, we hope that this study will be useful in producing new ideas about what and how the place, function and scope of religion should be in a democratic and rational system.

(Tanıtım Bülteninden)