Hansjörg Schmid
Born in 1972, Hansjörg Schmid is professor of interreligious ethics and director of the Swiss Center for Islam and Society (CSIS) at the University of Fribourg. A theologian by training, he studied in Freiburg im Breisgau, Jerusalem, and Basel before teaching in Stuttgart, Munich, and Salzburg.
Since 2015, he has established the CSIS, coordinating its fundamental and applied research activities, teaching, and continuing education, in collaboration with numerous partners. His work focuses on Islam in Europe and Switzerland, social ethics, and practical fields of action such as spiritual support or the prevention of radicalization.
A promoter of interdisciplinary work, he chaired the Board of the Institute of the Center for European Studies and the Environmental Sciences and Humanities Institute in Fribourg. From 2003 to 2014, he founded and directed the first network of Muslim and Christian researchers in the German-speaking world. His habilitation thesis, published in 2013, is titled “Islam in the European House.”
Resources of this researcher
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publication
Professionalising Muslim Spiritual Care in Plural Societies: Swiss and Bosnian Experiences
- Hansjörg Schmid
Published as Professionalising Muslim Spiritual Care in Plural Societies. Swiss and Bosnian Experiences (SZIG/CSIS-Studies 15, December 2025), this volume is the outcome of a collaboration between ...
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publication
Anti-Muslim Racism in Switzerland: A Baseline Study
- Noemi Trucco
- Amir Dziri
- Hansjörg Schmid
Commissioned by the Swiss Confederation’s Service for Combating Racism (SLR), this study (SZIG/CSIS-Studies 12, 2025) is the first comprehensive baseline survey of anti-Muslim racism in Switz...
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publication
Religious Diversity, Interreligious Perspectives, and Islamic Religious Education in Switzerland: Current Situation and Room for Maneuver
- Hansjörg Schmid
Twenty years ago, the first pilot projects of Islamic religious education (IRE) in public schools in Switzerland caused a stir in some parts of the country. From a pedagogical perspective, the rati...
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publication
Exploring Islamic Social Work. Between Community and the Common Good
- Hansjörg Schmid
This open access book addresses, for the first time, Islamic social work as an emerging concept at the interface of Islamic thought and social sciences. Applying a multidisciplinary approach it exp...
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publication
A Response to Public Discourse? Intracultural Islamic Social Work in a Plural Society
- Hansjörg Schmid
- Baptiste Brodard
As the public discourse on Islam is strongly influenced by the issue of radicalisation, the topic of prevention is gaining in importance and legitimacy. While the Swiss welfare state leaves little ...
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publication
Islam in the European Home: Towards an Interreligious Social Ethic.
- Hansjörg Schmid
Presentation by the publisher The integration of Islam in Western European immigration countries presupposes an understanding of the fundamental issues of coexistence. The relationship between reli...
Resources related to
Ethics
videos
“War and peace”, by Adrien Candiard
On Wednesday 20 May 2026, the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies (IDEO) hosted in Cairo a lecture by Brother Adrien Candiard, Dominican and Islamologist, on the theme "War and peace". Faced w...
article
Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas and the Pluriel working group on AI-assisted interreligious dialogue
- Wael Saleh
Text by Wael Saleh, researcher at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and member of the Pluriel coordination committee. The simultaneous appearance of Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Human...
videos
Opening address of the Cordoba congress
- Michel Younès
On Tuesday 10 February 2026 in Cordoba, Michel Younès, general coordinator of Pluriel and dean of the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Lyon (UCLy), delivered the opening address of...
publication
Islam and Muslims. Doctrines, Schools of Thought, and Current Trends
- Michel Younès
Publication date: April 16, 2026. Islam, as a historical, religious, and civilizational reality, is difficult to define. It can be perceived as a form of political governance, an expression of fait...
videos
“Welcome to Hell”: eschatology in the literary work of Dževad Karahasan
Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme "Ethics and Aesthetics in Is...
videos
Hospitality, power and interreligious dialogue in Naguib Mahfouz’s “Children of the Alley”
- Gabriel Khairallah
Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme "Ethics and Aesthetics in Is...
videos
Landscape and architecture as occasions of contemplation and of interreligious dialogue in the travel narratives of the Sufi ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī
Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme "Ethics and Aesthetics in Is...
videos
Spiritual eroticism and erotic spirituality in Sufi mystical thought
Paper presented at the 5th international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme "Ethics and Aesthetics in Isla...