The Centre for Islamic Thought and History focuses on the study of Arabic and Islamic thought and history, in all its different expressions, periods, and manifestations.

Islam and human rights research

Arnold Mol’s research revolves mainly around Islamic studies, and broad subjects surrounding the humanities and scholastics i.e., theology, philosophy, intellectual history, philosophy of religions and worldviews, religious studies, hermeneutics, and ethics and human rights discourse.

Research fields

• Islamic intellectual history, Islamic humanities, Islamic theology and philosophy (ʿilm al-kalām/falsafa/ḥikma), Ḥanafī-Māturīdī theology, Ottoman thought
• Islamic hermeneutics, Islamic exegetical history (tafsīr studies), Qurʾānic studies, ḥadith studies
• Islamic ethics, Islamic ethical literature (akhlāq/adāb), Islam and human rights discourse, Islamic jurisprudence and philosophy of law (uṣūl al-fiqh), Islam and political thought, Islamic political theology, Islamic international law (siyar)
• Islamic comparative religion (firqa/milal), Muslim concepts of the Other, Islam and non-Muslim minorities (aḥkām al-dhimma, millet system), Sunnī-Shīʿī engagements
• Islamic studies, Islam in the West, Muslim minorities, Islamic contemporary thought, Islamic reformism and modernism, Islamic fundamentalism and (anti-)extremism 
• Religious studies, comparative religion, religion in Late Antiquity and Middle Ages, conversion theory, religion and secularism, religion and science, religion and psychology
• Comparative theology, theological anthropology, theology of care, Christian theology
• Medieval philosophy, Arabic philosophy, Christian philosophy, Thomism, scholasticism
• Philosophy of religions and worldviews, global philosophy of religion, philosophy of action, ethics of belief, theodicy, the concept of evil, hermeneutics, epistemology, metaphysics
• Comparative ethics, metaethics, moral philosophy, moral psychology, religious ethics, religion and human rights discourse
• Political religion, otherization and dehumanization, religion and violence, beliefs and extremism, fundamentalism and totalitarianism, terrorism and radicalization studies.