✍️ Feim Xhafer DRAGUSHA

MÜNSTER THE CITY OF 8 UNIVERSITIES
MÜNSTER THE CITY OF 55.000 STUDENTS
MÜNSTER THE CITY OF 9 MOSQUES

Friday was a very busy day for me. My aim was to visit the Center for Islamic Theology and the Library as well which is full of Islamic books including old and recent published books. In the city of Münster there are around 9 Mosques where Muslims from different parts of the world perform their daily prayers. In the majority of the Mosques (Mesajid) and prayer rooms the Imams deliver the khutbah in german language, which is something new in the recent years.
The city is very beautiful and old as well. According to the historians Münster officially came into existence in 793 when Frisian missionary Liudger founded the so called Monasterium. Münster remains an active centre of the Roman-Catholic church.

Two events which took place in Münster are destined to remain forever etched on the world’s historic memory. John of Leiden founded the Anabaptist theocracy in Münster in 1534, and declared himself king. The reign of the Anabaptists, a radical Christian reform movement, met a bloody end when soldiers in the employ of Prince-Bishop Franz von Waldeck suppressed the faction’s adherents.
Three wrought-iron cages, in which the bodies of the publicly executed Anabaptists were displayed as a warning to the crowds, hang in the tower of St. Lambert’s Church to this day. In 1648, Münster (and its neighbouring city Osnabrück) was the site of the Peace of Westphalia. This effectively ended the Thirty Years’ War and resulted in state sovereignty for the Netherlands and Switzerland.
In 1773, the foundation stone of one of Germany’s most significant university cities was laid with the establishment of the Regional University. Today, the city is home to around 55,000 students who study at its eight universities.

In 1816, Münster was declared the capital of the new province of Westphalia in the kingdom of Prussia. The provincial capital became the “desk of Westphalia“ and with it the seat of many authorities and institutions. After the Second World War, the Prussian provinces of Westphalia and Rhineland were included in the new Federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
However, the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe, with headquarters in Münster, continues to be responsible for many cultural and social duties in the Westphalian province. Münster is also the seat of a regional district authority.
The Old Town, which was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War, was the subject of an extensive historical reconstruction after 1945.

It was enhanced by new buildings which made international headlines: the municipal theatre (1956), the municipal library (1993), the diocesan library (2005) and the Stubengasse shopping mall (adorned with the German Urban Development Award 2010 and the National Award for Integrated Urban Development 2012). Münster has developed from an administrative city to the economic, scientific and service industry hub of a region with 1.5 million inhabitants.
Since October 2011 in the City of Münster was founded the Centre for Islamic Theology (CIT), housed at Münster University (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster). It represents a university department dedicated to faith-oriented Islamic theology and Islamic religious education, making the CIT Münster the only Islamic theological-academic institution in all of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous federal state. In 10 years the number of students who are studying at the Islamic Center have increased to 1000 students.
Among these students are also non-muslims who have shown so much interest to study and understand the teachings of Islam.
I am looking forward to give my own contribution in Islamic studies here in Münster for the students who are learning about islam.