Wolf D. A. Aries
Wolf. D. Ahmed Aries is a Professor of religious sciences in Germany. He has taught theology, with a focus on Islam, at the Universities of Paderborn, Kassel and Oldenburg. At the University of Paderborn, he did work on the encounter between Jewish and Islamic curricula. He retired form formal academic work in 1997. In 1998, he worked as the scientific counsellor for the Islamic Council for the Federal Republic of Germany. Currently, Aries is a guest Lecturer with the theological department at the University of Bielefeld.
Some of the ensuing considerations may only be comprehensible to outsiders if they are conscious of the historical developments, which include the history of minorities and of the idea of tolerance in Europe, of the two totalitarisms and the resulting special situation in the Federal Republic of Germany today. When Muslims joined the societal discourse they were not only faced with this development but also with an established dialogue between Christians and Jews. Communication in such a structure will always touch barriers like memory, linguistic expression, limitations caused by the taken point of view and its resulting perceptivity. Thus the process of dialogue does not take place in a gaping void but at certain point of view in mind and within a certain. The conflict of memories between dialogue partners as well as the different levels of dialogue can be explained through this hypothesis.