How Real is Virtual? Being Human In and With Digital Worlds

On October 30, 2024, the interreligious conference “How Real is Virtual? Being Human In and With Digital Worlds” took place at Goethe University Frankfurt. Supported by the Hessian Ministry of Education, Culture, and Opportunities, the conference was organized by the Center for Ecumenism of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, the Center for Islamic Studies Frankfurt/Gießen (ZEFIS), and the Catholic Adult Education of the Diocese of Limburg. In addition to theoretical keynotes and discussion forums, the event featured practice-oriented workshops.

Our project “Islam and Digitality” was represented at the conference by Prof. Armina Omerika and Lale Diklitaş. In her lecture, Prof. Omerika addressed how digital transformation challenges Islamic ethics, particularly in relation to topics such as privacy, ritual purity, and the perception of sacredness and authenticity. In her workshop, Lale Diklitaş demonstrated how Muslim content creators on Instagram reconstruct historical narratives and make marginalized figures in Islamic history more visible.

A concluding panel discussion on spirituality and practice highlighted both the opportunities and the challenges of the digital world, especially in the context of interreligious engagement.