Sustainability and continuity are key aspects of the Religious Pluralism project. Therefore every workshop held in Erfurt is followed up by a workshop to be organised by the madrasa-participants of Erfurt workshops in their own institutions in Pakistan. This exercise in cultural translation is of immense importance, as these follow-up workshops bear the potential to put into praxis the knowledge acquired in Germany. The follow-up workshops encourage madrasa students (who have attended the Erfurt University workshops) to organise the venues and decide upon the resource persons and trainers, in collaboration with the principals of their host institutions. The organisers not only improve their interpersonal, organizational and leadership skills by shaping a professional workshop but also extend benefit to their peer groups by sharing the experiences made in Germany, discussing cultural and social similarities and dissimilarities and above all education standards, learning methodologies and didactics pursued in western academic tradition. The medium of instruction in all follow-up workshops is Urdu language in order to ensure and encourage the maximum participation and student outreach. The Chair of Muslim Cultural & Religious History, University of Erfurt (CMCRH) extends its full support in organising these workshops. Preparatory sessions held during the workshops in Erfurt, thus, provided vital organisational details help prepare students to conduct a follow-up workshop. Similarly, all organisers were required to regularly inform about their preparatory progress with the project’s steering committee and regional resource persons. The first follow-up workshop on the topic of Historiography were held from 2-7 October, 2016.
The two day follow-up workshops was on the topic of 'Human Rights & Contribution of Religions' took place from 21-29 October, 2017 in three Pakistani madrasas namely:
These four follow-up workshops were held under the aegis and auspices of the CMCRH as an integral and extended part of the Summer School "Human Rights & Contribution of Religions" held in Erfurt from 09-18 July, 2017. The workshop conducted in Erfurt focused on how “world religions” have influenced and inspired values of social justice, human rights and peace ethics. Different theoretical perspectives were discussed to study the entanglement of cultural, historical, political, ethnic and of course religious factors that contribute to the recognition and implementation of universal human rights. With the help of comparative religious narratives, this workshop attempted to go beyond the time, when Christianity, Judaism and Islam predominantly defined and promulgated the ethical and moral fabric (also) in post-colonial societies in order to expound the problem of the validity of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, adopted by the United Nations in 1948).
To encourage and incentivize the organisers (madrasa students) of follow-up workshops, all four events were professionally evaluated in order to decide the best performance. A professional consultant from Pakistan with expertise in monitoring and evaluation was tasked to conduct the evaluation of all the four workshops at the above-mentioned cities. The evaluator attended a day each in every workshop in order to conduct pre- and post-evaluations in those madrasas.
Based on careful assessment by the monitoring and evaluation expert, following positions were given to the participating institutions.
Monitoring and Evaluation Considerations
While compiling the results, the monitoring and evaluation expert considered following aspects:
Topics Covered
Topics Covered
Topics Covered
Topics Covered
It was among the first instances that madrasa students who attended academic workshops in a western education system, in this case the CMCRH, had an opportunity to conduct similar workshops in their own institutions by their own. Most of the participating students experienced the event as extremely helpful and considered such an exercise as academically and socially stimulating. For most of the madrasa students it was also the first time to co-interact with academicians of mainstream universities in their own madrasas. Similarly, the one-on-one interactive discussion with the CMCRH, Prof. Dr. Jamal Malik also provided them with a unique opportunity of learning among others, religious and Islamic studies through a different academic tradition.
![[Translate to English:] facebook icon](/fileadmin/SocialMediaIcons/iconfinder_06-facebook_white.svg)
![[Translate to English:] twitter icon](/fileadmin/SocialMediaIcons/iconfinder_03-twitter_white.svg)
![[Translate to English:] instagram icon](/fileadmin/SocialMediaIcons/iconfinder_38-instagram_white.svg)
![[Translate to English:] YouTube icon](/fileadmin/SocialMediaIcons/iconfinder_18-youtube_white.svg)
![[Translate to English:] xing icon](/fileadmin/SocialMediaIcons/iconfinder_xing_white.svg)
University of Erfurt (Campus)
Nordhäuser Str. 63
99089 Erfurt
