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Jesus is important for both Muslims and Christians, and this has led some in both groups to search for common ground concerning him. Nevertheless, two important points of disagreement concern the Christian claims that Jesus is the Son of God, and that Jesus was put to death on the cross. The present article focuses on the last point, noting four key qur'anic passages (Q 3.55; 4.157–8; 5.117; and 19.33). Muslim commentators have mostly denied thehistoricalaspect of Jesus' crucifixion, advocating some version of a substitutionist theory whereby the Jews crucified someone other than Jesus, while Jesus himself was taken alive by God into heaven. Muslim–Christian dialogue on this issue remains problematic. The present article encourages mutual exploration of atheologicaldimension of the end of Jesus' mission, that of thehonor of God. Both Muslims and Christians affirm that God maintained his honor by thwarting the Jews' attempt to get rid of Jesus. The usual Muslim belief is that God rescued him alive to heaven before the crucifixion, while the Christian understanding is that God vindicated Jesus through the resurrection and ascension. Similar views of God's honor through his intervention regarding Jesus can contribute to positive Muslim–Christian dialogue.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article sheds light on relations between Muslim and Christian Arabs in Israel in day-to-day life from 1967 until 2010. This period is characterized by significant ideological and socio-economic changes, with Islamization being particularly evident. The article is based on a field study of 91 in-depth interviews, as well as field surveys and documents from private collections. Findings indicate a deterioration in Muslim–Christian relations among Arabs in Israel during the research period. The two populations drew apart and tensions arose between them, sometimes escalating into violence. Socio-economic changes played an important role in the escalation, among them, privatization and commercialization, both of which increased economic competition. The demographic growth and urbanization in the Arab municipalities increased alienation between these two Arab subgroups and in so doing exacerbated the deterioration in relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The accumulation of exegetical discoveries (i.e., the similarity between the conciliar texts and his own position), testimonies, and respected opinions points to the probability that it is Louis Massignon's vision that dominates the Roman Catholic Church's statements regarding Islam in Lumen gentium and Nostra aetate. Although many commentators agree with that assessment, the concrete historical connections between Massignon and the conciliar pronouncements are not yet explained in sufficient detail. Building especially on the work of Robert Caspar, Maurice Borrmans, Michael Fitzgerald, Christian Troll, Anthony O'Mahony, and Andrew Unsworth, but other authors as well, this article begins to do just that, first by reading the Vatican II statements on Islam in the light of Massignon's work, and then by organizing the human connections between Massignon and the conciliar statements according to the degree of probability that said connections had real influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of whether Christians and Muslims mean the same thing when they speak of humility and the role that attitude might play in Christian–Muslim dialogue. To restrict the focus, current scholarly reflection on humility and its role in dialogue is analyzed in relation to ‘classic’ accounts of the attitude from each tradition, namely Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī's and Bernard of Clairvaux's. On the basis of the analysis and argument, two conclusions are advanced: first, there is an underlying structure common to Christian and Muslim accounts of humility, while there are also differences resulting from theological emphases; second, Christian and Muslim humility have valuable roles to play in Christian–Muslim dialogue, though they are different from the roles envisioned by prominent Christian and Muslim advocates of dialogue. A particular example of confusion in contemporary discussions, it is suggested, is the putative necessary connection between humility and an inclusivist attitude of acceptance toward the religious ‘other’. The article argues that humility can be exemplified by religious exclusivists and that, while it is an aid to better negotiating debates over exclusivism and inclusivism, it cannot resolve them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islamic philosophy emerged and has been developed in a particular political and theological context, and its historical and present role cannot be examined independently of political and theological discourse. It is characteristic that some of the same questions that Muslims discussed in the early Middle Ages – the limits of human knowledge, the relationship between the divine and the human, the relationship between falsafa, kalām and fiqh, the role of political philosophy – have been taken up again, but in a new context. As in the past, relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, and especially inter-philosophical relationships, play a crucial role in present-day discussions too. This article seeks to shed light on the (post) modern possibilities and perspectives for Islamic philosophy within Islam and relating to contemporary Islamic discourse. It includes reference to the views of modern Muslim thinkers, including Arkoun, Soroush, al-Attas and Wadud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the subjective personal and national wellbeing of a purpose-selected sample of Muslims (n = 509 for PW and n = 544 for NW) living in New South Wales and Victoria over 2007 and 2008, using the Personal Wellbeing (PWI) and National Wellbeing (NWI) indices from the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index (AUWI) survey. The PWI looks at satisfaction with life across seven proximal domains: health, personal relationships, safety, standard of living, achieving, community connectedness, and future security, whereas the NWI deals with national satisfaction across six distal domains: the economy, the environment, social conditions, governance, business, and national security. Thus, this article asks: What is the state of subjective wellbeing among Muslims in Australia, particularly in comparison to the general population? It confirms that average Muslim personal wellbeing is comparable to that of the general Australian population, and that national wellbeing of Muslims averages lower than the general population, but still within normative ranges. It nevertheless finds there are differences between the general population and Muslims in some of the specific domains used to assess personal and national wellbeing, namely those of safety, future security, and satisfaction with government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relations between Muslims and Christians in Syria are as heterogeneous and complex as the country itself. They differ from region to region, from city to city and from village to village. They are also linked to class and urban–rural divisions. It can be argued that it is meaningless to try to categorize relationships between Christians and Muslims in Syria in terms of ‘Christian’ and ‘Muslim’. It is a country where all citizens are constitutionally equal before the law and where the co-existence of Christians and Muslims is lauded officially and – generally speaking – among citizens at large in everyday life. But in personal status law Muslims and Christians are firmly categorized, and there is no escape from the way law divides and categorizes individuals. In these categorizations and in the practice of law, gender is crucial. In this article the complexity and fluidity of relations between Christians and Muslims in Syria is explored, as well as the plurilegal Syrian personal status law, which is based on a mandatory religious affiliation. The article shows how gender and religion interact to create an ambiguous situation of ‘same but different’ for Syria's Christian citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phrases such as ‘the only difference is one of faith’ construct Copts and Muslims in Egypt as, although different, mainly the same as each other. Similar constructions of sameness are also dominant in historical and current Egyptian narratives on national unity. However, as a result of the privileging of sameness and the underplaying of differences, the interaction between narratives of sameness and difference has been left unexplored and partly ignored, not only by national movements, but also by research. Thus, the main issue examined in this article is how current Orthodox Christian practices in Egypt take shape under the influence of hegemonic narratives of sameness and difference. Supported by data collected from ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Egypt, the argument is that the Copts, by positioning themselves as Christians in specific locations and situations, are mediating the antithetical potentialities of being the same as or different from the national Muslim majority. In other words, Christianity not only makes a difference as a sign of the Copts’ minority position, but also simultaneously offers Copts a way out of their marginal position as a minority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the representation of Muslim–Coptic relations in the Al-Ahrām newspaper between 2005 and 2010. The primary goal is to assess the strategies and discourses used by this newspaper to represent sectarianism. As scholars note, negative representations of the ‘other’ in the media can contribute to shaping and prolonging conflict. Therefore, Al-Ahrām's representation of sectarian incidents is significant for the analysis both of the dynamics of Muslim–Christian relations in Egypt, and of state and church policies towards communal violence. Three are three central discourses. (1) The use of selective narratives of history to construct a collective understanding of national unity as a natural state of relations between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. (2) Displacement of blame, which means constructing inter-religious conflict as alien and external through the use of an ‘us versus them’ paradigm in order to shift responsibility for Egypt's sectarian incidents to ‘outsiders’. (3) The control of extreme religious views through a discourse of ‘extremists versus moderates’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political participation of Christians in the Arab world highlights the difficulties of reconciling the principles of equality and full rights based on citizenship with maintaining the public role of the religion of the majority of the population – Islam. Christian strategies have focused upon both Arab and state nationalism as well as pursuing individual ambition. The political context of these efforts is also significant. First, Christians are not immune to the political environment in the region, which has been characterized by a tradition of authoritarianism and limited political opportunity. Second, the Islamic environment provides the framework for discussing the political role of non-Muslims in Muslim-majority states. Christian political participation has also been shaped by the strategies pursued by the ruling regimes. These are: the treatment of Christians as the same or indistinct, the notion of ‘loyal’ citizens, and the institutionalization of differences through quotas. Yet irrespective of what strategy is employed, religious identity continues to be the crucial factor in determining the type of political participation accessed by Christians in the region, thus challenging the notion of national unity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In much of Western society it remains regrettably the case that contemporary perception – or the imaging – of Islam is dominated by misrepresentation and distortion that derive, by and large, from misunderstanding and ignorance. Fear of the ‘other’, when the ‘other’ is Muslim, is fear of Muslims per se, and also often of their religion, Islam – so Islamophobia. In this article I shall examine what is meant by and what is the effect of, such ignorance and outline an analysis of the process of imaging Islam – a process that arguably lies at the heart of Islamophobia. I shall also address the question of identity, specifically the issue of ‘exclusive identity’ and problems that relate thereto. I shall conclude with a discussion of dialogical ‘interaction’ as a relational modality that may yet challenge and ameliorate the rising tide of Islamophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years a heightened awareness of global risks has produced an unprecedented interest in global peace and security initiatives. This article discusses the impact of international crisis events on religiously diverse communities in Australia, in particular rising Islamophobia, migrantophobia and attacks on multiculturalism. Religious communities have been far from passive in their responses to the impact of these events, initiating dialogue and educational activities to dispel negative stereotypes and attitudes. In addition, state actors, including police, have prioritized engagement with religious leaders, and this has resulted in a rise of state supported multifaith peacebuilding activities. The article argues that, in response to global risks of terror and exclusion, multifaith movements and multi-actor networks, including religious leaders, state actors, educators and the media, have the potential to advance common security. In response to conflicts both local and global, these examples of cooperation between religious and non-religious actors in Australia can be instructive to other increasingly multifaith societies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The twenty-first century has seen Australia affected by terrorism in an unprecedented way, with attacks specifically targeting its citizens in Indonesia, as well as its involvement in the ‘war on terror’. At the same time, Muslims have been increasing as a proportion of the Australian population, due both to immigration and to local births. Muslim communities in Australia have faced many challenges in relating to older-established Australian society in this context. This article examines current attitudes to Muslims in Anglo-Celtic Australia and traces the historical precedents for ethno-religious hostility. It explores, in particular, the parallels between current attitudes to Muslims and historical Anglo-Protestant attitudes to Irish Catholics and asks what lessons can be learned from this history. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the critical factors shaping any understanding of the reception of Islam and Muslims in the West is an overarching anti-Islam and anti-Muslim discourse. This article takes Islamophobia to refer to a discourse that reifies and essentializes negative images of Islam, Muslims and their cultures, resulting in unfounded fear of actual Muslims. This article briefly discusses this discourse and demonstrates its effects in the West and in particular in Australia. It then describes the Australian context, and the emergence of Muslim communities and of policies and practices of inclusion rather than exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Studies of Australian perceptions of Muslims and Islam tend to be based on research into media representations of these themes. Additionally, most research on attitudes pertaining to social cohesion and security in the post-9/11 environment concentrates on the opinions of minority groups on these matters. The following study is drawn from materials extracted from focus group discussions relating to Islam, multiculturalism and security that took place with 119 Australians from so-called ethnic and religious majority groups (European descended, and identifying with Judaeo-Christian traditions or having no religious affiliation) in selected metropolitan and rural/regional centres of the state of Victoria in 2007–2008. This article is guided by the following research questions: How can ‘mainstream’ Australian attitudes towards Muslims be categorized? What concerns ‘mainstream’ Australians most about Muslims? Can these attitudes be considered to be Islamophobic? If not, how else may we classify these attitudes? Although some participants voiced very strong, critical and at times unflattering and potentially antagonistic opinions of Muslims, most contributors were guardedly optimistic that current tensions with and controversies surrounding Australia's Muslims would subside, and that Muslims would soon become well established within Australian society, as previous generations of migrants have since World War II. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The miʿraj (Ascent) of the Prophet Muhammad was a foundational event in his life that established him as a major prophet who not only met the major previous prophets who had come before him but also arrived at the very throne of God. This article presents this narrative in the development of Islamic spirituality in the Middle Ages and shows how medieval Muslims interpreted it in relation to Muhammad's prophethood and his derived insight into the heavenly world (Paradise) that awaits the faithful. The main contribution of the article is to show how medieval Christians, especially those of the fifteenth century (Alonso de Espina, Pope Pius II, and Roberto da Lecce), viewed this narrative in light of Christian teaching. These Christian authors knew that this event in the life of Muhammad gave him religious authority and they therefore discredited it in their polemical works. Their polemical attack was not simply about the differences between the Muslim and Christian visions of Paradise, but also about the person and mission of Muhammad, the vision of God, other basic theological beliefs, and the role of spirituality, especially prayer, in religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the engagement of Islam by a certain family of religious movements, which I term 'Scientific Religion', that developed in the United States during the nineteenth century. Not only was Scientific Religion a religious matrix in which Islam was regularly portrayed in a positive light, but also more Scientific Religionists took on an Islamic identity than any other group of Muslim sympathizers. This was due to the fact that, unlike many of the more mainstream liberal religions, Scientific Religion did not rule out the possibility that exclusive commitment to one specific traditional religious identity could be used to promote Scientific Religion values. In fact, the largest and most prominent US Islamic-identity convert groups of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were significantly influenced by Scientific Religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Arabic term jihad has become equated with Islamic radicalism and violence. It is well known, however, that the interpretation of the qur'anic term has been multi-faceted. While Muslims have written much about the occurrence of the term jihad in the Qur'an and its usage, little attention has been given to the Arab Christian understanding of jihad. This article seeks to explore the interpretation of jihad in the Arabic Al-ʿahd al-jadīd bi-al-khalfiyyat al-tawḍīḥiyya (New Testament with study notes) published by the Egyptian Bible Society. This recent edition of the Bible provides explanations of words and terms for the Arab Christian reader. Through an examination of these notes, we hope to provide insight into how modern-day Arab Christians have been shaped by the current Islamic understanding of revelation, and how they are attempting to define the term jihad on the basis of its usage in their own scriptures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two earliest extant Muslim works containing comprehensive lists of biblical predictions of the Prophet Muhammad from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament are the Kitab al-dīn wa-al-dawla by the Nestorian convert to Islam ʿAlī Ibn Rabban al-Ṭabarī (b. ca. 194/810, d. 251/865) and the Aʿlam al-nubuwwa by Ibn Rabban's contemporary Abu Muḥammad ʿAbd Allah ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba (b. 213/828, d. 276/889). Ibn Qutayba's Aʿlam al-nubuwwa clearly eclipsed Ibn Rabban's Kitab al-dīn wa-al-dawla in popularity - the text was used over the following centuries by various authors as a reference text for the biblical material it contained. An incomplete and (as it seems) unique manuscript of Ibn Qutayba's work, which is preserved in the Dar al-Kutub al-Ẓahiriyya in Damascus, has mostly escaped scholars' attention until now. This article contains a critical edition of the first eight sections of the text, which contain biblical materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relations between the Polish state and Muslims living in its territory have a long history dating back to the fourteenth century, when a Muslim presence was first established in the area. The first Muslims to arrive in Poland were Tatars from the Golden Horde. Their influx continued for a few centuries and they were granted land in exchange for military service. The nature of mutual relations changed with time, along with changes in the structure of the state. Initially, there was a Polish-Lithuanian monarchy, but after 1795 the area inhabited by the Tatars fell under the rule of the Russian Empire. In 1918-1939, the reborn Polish state granted its inhabitants religious freedom and, even though Catholicism was privileged, Islam was officially recognized in 1936. The socialist state, in existence between 1944 and 1989, took an ideological stance against all religions. Since 1989, Poland has been a democratic state under the rule of law characterized by separation of state and religion. Thanks to the centuries-long presence of Tatars in Poland, Islam is an officially recognized denomination and the position of Muslims is much better than that of other religious minorities. This article details the historical development of relations between the Polish state and Muslims. The section on the twentieth century provides an analysis of relations between the state and religion and a description of Islam-related legislation in the Constitution and religious law, focusing on regulations concerning religious practices including marriage, dress code, ritual slaughter and religious instruction in school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Any invitation to probe the relationship between the nature of God and human violence done in God's name would seem to be welcome, whether extended by Muslims or by Christians. Medieval Muslim scholar Fakhr al-Dīn al-Razī considered this question along with several other themes relevant to Christian-Muslim conversation in his massive commentary on the Qur'an. Analysis of his treatment of these themes reveals the unique patterns of al-Razī's exegetical method, along with both the freedom and the limitations of his rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material culture, particularly that belonging to the assumed category of 'Islamic' art with Christian scenes, forms the focus of this article. This is undertaken through consideration of a ceramic object from medieval Iran now in Berlin, a mould with the scene of the Deesis, which is signed by a Muslim craftsman, also a coppersmith. A central issue is that of cultural ambiguity, which can be pursued though analogies with twelfth-thirteenth-century metalwork. Metalwork with Christian scenes is invariably considered as 'Islamic' art with the emphasis on style rather than iconographic content; in other words, the medium rather than the message is often prioritized. This article seeks to redress the balance by suggesting a more substantive role for the Christian imagery employed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elias of Nisibis, an eleventh-century bishop of the 'Nestorian' Church of the East, was a Christian author fluent in Syriac and Arabic. Elias composed works on a variety of topics including theology, history, grammar, and lexicography. His Arabic work the Book of sessions (Kitab al-majalis) relates discussions that he had with the Muslim vizier Abu al-Qasim al-Maghribī on seven different occasions. The sixth discussion focuses on the merits of Arab and Syriac sciences and compares their languages with reference to syntax, lexicography, and written script. This article contextualizes and outlines the sixth dialogue, arguing that the text does not accurately reflect Elias' understanding of Syriac and Arabic grammar and sciences. Rather, the discourse has three purposes: to recognize scientific achievements by Syriac scholars, to strengthen the rational arguments for the Christian faith, and to recommend that Muslims should evaluate matters, including their interpretation of the Qur'an, through the use of scientific knowledge. The article offers conclusions on Elias' understanding of the relationship between reason and revelation, his views on language, and scientific learning in the Syriac tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslim views on the corruption of the Bible are commonly divided into two categories: those that allege corruption of the text (taḥrīf lafẓī) and those that allege corruption of the interpretation (taḥrīf ma'nawī) of a sound text. Al-radd al-jamīl, sometimes attributed to al-Ghazalī, and the works of Ibn Khaldun, have been cited as exemplifying taḥrīf ma'nawī, an approach assumed to accept the biblical text as authentic, albeit misinterpreted by its followers. Approaches to the Bible in Al-radd and by Ibn Khaldun are examined, and it is argued that Al-radd employs biblical texts for tactical purposes, with no explicit or implicit indication that the text is accepted as authentic. Ibn Khaldun makes positive general statements about the Bible, but this does not impact his rejection of a specific biblical teaching, namely the crucifixion. The article presents a detailed case study illuminating a wider question: is the concept of taḥrīf ma'nawī useful in approaching Muslim views of the Bible? Neither author studied here accepts the biblical text where it conflicts with the teachings of Islam. It is proposed that different classifications of Muslim views of the Bible would be more fruitful, distinguishing, for example between those that regard the Bible as deliberately corrupted and those that see it as accidentally affected by scribal errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article pursues a close examination of the biblical narrative in Saʽīd Ibn Baṭrīq's (Eutychius of Alexandria, d. 940) historiographic work, the Annales, to reveal a wide range of sources that were available either to the patriarch himself or to an intermediate source on which he relied. These include not only a rich Judaeo-Christian lore but also a rather significant segment of Muslim materials, most notably tales of the prophets (qiṣaṣ al-anbiya'). The Muslim trappings of some of the Judaeo-Christian apocrypha found in Ibn Baṭrīq's narrative suggest that we are dealing with a Christian writer who made use of Judaeo-Christian motifs that had undergone a process of Muslim literary adaptation. A comparison of his narrative with that of Christian works of the same period will show that he occupied a unique position among his contemporaries. Yet perhaps more importantly, once we acknowledge the role of the biblical narrative in enhancing the work's credibility in the eyes of its readers, we gain a better sense of the cultural world of that potential Christian readership. By focusing on the biblical narrative of Ibn Baṭrīq's treatise, the article bypasses the question of its apologetic agenda and addresses instead the writer's methodology and, through this, the cultural world of his readership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islam first came to New Zealand with Chinese gold miners in the late nineteenth century. However, it was to be many years before a distinctive Muslim community would emerge with its own forms of organization and purpose-built mosques. This article will review the arrival of Islam and the place of Muslims in New Zealand and discuss the challenges and issues faced by them, as well as considering social responses and perceptions of Islam that have been forged more by external global issues than local factors. Although by no means the full story, it is nevertheless the case that attitudes to the presence of Muslims currently give evidence of a rising diffuse anxiety: Antipodean angst would seem a pervasive feature with respect to the encounter with Islam in this far-flung corner of the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dialogue between religions cannot merely be dialogue between doctrines. As soon as religions are considered not only as abstract systems of beliefs but also as embodied practices of faith, their aesthetic dimension becomes prominent. Dialogue therefore involves the sphere of sensibility. How do believers of different faiths weave the fabric of religious experience? Through which senses, signs, and forms of signification and communication does it find expression? Furthermore, how can different religious aesthetic attitudes be encompassed in the same dialogue? This article does not answer these questions through theoretical investigation. Rather, it offers an example of religious 'aesthetic hospitality'. In one of his poems devoted to Hafez, Goethe invents a metaphor that opens a space of dialogue between Christian and Islamic aesthetic sensibilities. This metaphor, based on the Christian tradition of acheiropoietai (not-made-with-hands) images of Jesus' face, allows Goethe to bridge two religious semiotics: the Christian one, rather centred on the visibility of the sacred, and the Islamic one, rather centred on its invisibility. Through historical contextualization and semiotic analysis, the article retraces the sources of the Christian imaginaire of acheiropoietai images of Jesus in order to pinpoint the semantic efficacy of Goethe's metaphor. In conclusion, quoting and examining a poem by Hafez, the article suggests that Goethe's offer of 'aesthetic hospitality' is actually a reciprocation, since it responds to a similar offer made to Christianity by his 'Oriental twin' in one of his poems several centuries earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes the form of an abridged and annotated version of an affidavit that I wrote in support of Ahmed Zaoui, an Algerian refugee who spent 10 months in solitary confinement in New Zealand. Its central aims are to reflect sociologically on some of the issues that were at stake in this case, within the context of an analysis of Islamic fundamentalism as a specific synthesis of traditionalist and liberal Islam. I observe that fundamentalism is often analysed in terms of a 'failure' to recognize or value the products of modernity and mysticism, even in academic discourses, and that its use is vitiated by a negative evaluation of fundamentalism prior to the point of definition. Furthermore, the understanding of Islamic fundamentalism is central to Western perceptions and fears of Islam, and, specifically, to the allegations of the New Zealand SIS (Security and Intelligence Service) against Zaoui; the case turned around the question of whether or not he was an Islamic fundamentalist. This case therefore shows that the sociological analysis of terms such as Islamic fundamentalism has a real bearing on people's lives, and is not merely a conceptual or theological discussion that occurs within the ivory towers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of personal hygiene and domestic cleanliness occupied Protestant missionaries working in Egypt during the first half of the twentieth century. Remarks on hygiene can be found not only in writings published for the interested public but also in personal documents such as diaries. This article illustrates that, in missionary sources, descriptions of cleanliness appear mainly in the female sphere, implying a deficient domesticity. The causes of this shortcoming were seen in the crisis of the Egyptian - and in particular the Islamic - family, in which, in the missionaries' perception, the husband ruled despotically over his wife and impeded a healthy family life. Missionaries tried to impart a new female role model - their ideal of a competent housewife and wise mother - and thereby aimed to empower women by teaching them habits of cleanliness. This paper examines the missionaries' methods and arguments for spreading ideas and practices related to hygiene and shows how cleanliness was closely linked to values such as orderliness, discipline and punctuality. It also explores the role of cleanliness in missionary accounts of Egyptian converts and examines how conceptions of personal hygiene and domestic cleanliness were linked to moral and religious purity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In countries such as Lebanon, with the historical presence of a variety of large religious communities, particular linguistic expressions may reveal the religious affiliation of the individual using them. This article analyses the opposite phenomenon: the purposeful use of expressions associated with other religious groups in the written discourse of an individual. This case study will explore the novel Buna Anṭun (Father Antun), written in 1937 by the journalist and author Karam Melhem Karam, in which the writer, who was a Maronite, constantly uses expressions associated with Islam. This article suggests that these expressions reflect the well-established multi-religious character of the society and that they are deliberately used as a way to rebel against an imposed sectarian social system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this article is on the treatment of the resurrection of Jesus in medieval Christian anti-Muslim polemical literature. It will also provide a glimpse of the Muslim perception of Jesus's resurrection or, actually, the 'ascension' of Jesus and the denial by Muslims of the resurrection of Jesus as Christians have understood it. The article will offer a brief review of the issue of the general resurrection of the dead and then focus on how the death and resurrection of Jesus are treated in the Qur'an. Especially important in this article is the presentation of Muslim belief with regard to the resurrection of Jesus in the thought of Pope Pius II, Nicholas of Cusa and Alonso de Espina, all significant Christian writers of the fifteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approaches to multiculturalism as a result of immigration vary substantially within Europe. Education policies are equally diverse. The clothing worn by certain immigrant groups in schools has generated controversy in several European countries. Solutions to the problem vary: sometimes the individual school decides on the dress code, sometimes official regulations exist. The debate about the secular and democratic aspects of this topic with regard to freedom of the individual has been lengthy. Are religious symbols worn by pupils at school incompatible with the secular principle? In France, state education is secular. Law 2004-228 banned conspicuous religious symbols in schools, although discreet ones and symbols of a political nature are permitted. In Spain, each school decides its own approach. The Ley Organica (Fundamental Law), 10/2002 on Quality of Education makes the school governing body responsible for control and management of the school (Art. 81.1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discussion on how a contemporary Islamic school of thought, here referred to as neo-traditional Salafism (NTS) constructs the religious Self and the religious Other on the basis of their approach to the interpretation (manhaj) of relevant Qur'an-Sunna textual indicants forms the subject matter of this article. In the first section, NTS thought and its main proponents are defined in relation to how they conceptualize, engage with and interpret the Islamic tradition (turath). In the second section, NTS is situated in relation to the broader madhhab-based Islamic tradition. In the following part, the delineating features of the NTS manhaj are briefly summarized. The fourth section presents a discussion on some general trends and the context behind the unfolding of Muslim Self identity vis-a-vis the Other. The fifth and the sixth parts investigate how the application of the NTS manhaj to relevant Qur'an and hadith textual indicants results in their particular understanding of the religious Self and the religious Other. In the seventh part, the socio-political ramifications of NTS 'theological boundaries' are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is, arguably, an urgent need today for a critical understanding of Islamic views and ideological stances with respect to Judaism in general and, inter alia, with regard to Israel and Jews in particular. This is necessary in order to seek ways of addressing salient and pressing socio-political and inter-communal, if not directly interreligious, issues. This article identifies and discusses some leading Islamic ideological leitmotifs that have been determinative for the history of Jewish-Muslim relations. They remain critically important with respect to the way in which, broadly speaking, the Islamic world of today perceives and relates to Jews and Judaism. Addressing the impact of negative paradigms of Muslim-Jewish relations, and the identifying and promoting of positive paradigms instead, constitutes a profound and urgent challenge facing contemporary Islam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of their dogmas concerning the Jesus conflict, Muslims and Christians seldom collaborate in examining the actual records of Jesus' and his followers' lives, within and beyond the New Testament, in an atmosphere of respectful, critical discussion. The article summarizes the content of a course at the American University in Cairo that does just that, engaging Muslim and Christian students together in a nuanced analysis of the human, historical Jesus of Second Temple Judaism/early Christianity, applying historical and literary-cultural criteria to the study of, principally, the canonical gospels. The students are thereby also introduced to the major intellectual enterprise known as the 'quest of the historical Jesus'. The article reviews the pedagogical problems and pleasures of teaching the material in this context, noting that most students, regardless of background, are genuinely interested in repositioning Jesus historically in order to gain a fresh apprehension of his person and message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state of relations between Christians and Muslims can be difficult to assess, particularly on a micro scale. Analysing where and why places of worship are located can be an important indicator of the complexities of inter-religious relations. This paper uses examples and case studies from across time and space to demonstrate how changes to the religious landscape can help ascertain degrees of tolerance and intolerance. These changes can come about through such methods as allowing mosques or churches to be built as a sign of tolerance, destroying or converting mosques or churches as a sign of intolerance, building a place of worship adjacent to another place of worship out of either respect or a sense of superiority, and limiting the location in order to keep the minority religious group in its place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To a world experiencing heightened suspicion and distrust between Christians and Muslims, a call for dialogue and understanding between the two faiths may seem a welcome event. Such a call was issued in October of 2007 when 138 Muslims from around the world sent an invitation to Christian leaders to cease their mutual fear and diatribe, find some measure of theological common ground, and work together for world peace. What motivated such an initiative, and how has it been received? In this essay we will examine some of the reasons for the call, the content of the invitation, and the kinds of responses given by Christian individuals, denominations and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explore something of the significance of the notion of necessary non-apodicity as a leitmotif for the reading of sacred text in the context of Christian-Muslim dialogical engagement. Far from being a contentious challenge to received traditions of the status and reception of our respective scriptures, it contends that the notion of an inherent requirement to apply hermeneutic tools and approaches to sacred text is a mark of the mode of divine revelation as such. The absolute word of God was and is spoken into and through multifarious concrete contexts; the apprehension of the divine message throughout changing contexts and differing situations is thus intended to invite interpretive engagement necessarily. Or, put otherwise, the hermeneutical task that necessarily applies to the reading of scripture suggests that the sacred text of divine revelation is marked by necessary non-apodicity. In exploring this idea further, the article addresses some general issues of Christian and Muslim perspectives on sacred text then turns to an examination of the 2007 letter, 'A Common Word', from Muslims to Christians that seeks a renewed emphasis on dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article points to the dimension of waiting in Jewish, Christian and Shi'a Muslim thinking as one particular feature of these traditions. There is a need to distinguish between escapist and productive eschatology. The whole question might also be a feature in a discussion on the interrelationship in international relations of the concepts of realism and idealism and the possible contribution of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authenticity of the Kitab al-dīn wa-al-dawla by the Nestorian convert to Islam, Abu al-[image omitted] asan ʿAlī b. Sahl Rabban al-[image omitted] abarī (d. ca. 251/865), has been discussed since the publication of the text by A. Mingana in 1922/23. A comparison between the chapter of the Twelver Shīʿī Sadīd al-Dīn Ma[image omitted] mud b. ʿAlī al-[image omitted] imma[image omitted] ī al-Razī's (d. after 600/1204) Munqidh min al-taqlīd discussing the biblical predictions of the Prophet Mu[image omitted] ammad and the corresponding sections of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Razī's (d. 606/1209) Mafati[image omitted] al-ghayb reveals a substantial degree of verbal and structural agreement. It becomes evident that Fakhr al-Dīn, like al-[image omitted] imma[image omitted] ī, are using material from Ibn Rabban's Al-dīn wa-al-dawla, although they were both relying on an intermediate source, Abu al-[image omitted] usayn al-Ba[image omitted] rī's (d. 436/1045) Kitab ghurar al-adilla. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has been involved in a variety of inter-religious dialogue projects and initiatives over many years. Dialogue with other religions—or with the peoples of those religions—is of significance and import, not least because of the value placed upon peaceful co-existence and harmonious inter-communal relations. However, of all bi-lateral endeavours, it is arguably the arena of Christian-Muslim relations which has been, and remains, the most challenging, problematic, and pressing for the Christian community at large—and, complementarily, for the Muslim umma also. This article attempts an overview of development in Christian-Muslim dialogue undertaken under the auspices of the WCC since around the mid-twentieth century. Early explorations, when the prospect of dialogue with Muslims was being canvassed, will be discussed. A significant 1972 consultation will be noted, followed by a review of salient features pertaining to the extension of the field of engagement in Christian-Muslim dialogue, and a note on some difficulties and challenges encountered. A comment on a sequence of regional events undertaken during the 80s will precede a discussion of developments in the clarification of issues that took place during the 90s. Finally, issues and challenges that are evident in the opening years of the third millennium of the Common Era will be briefly touched on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gambia (West Africa) is a predominantly Muslim country, with a small Christian community. Christian-Muslim encounters in the Gambia can be traced back as far as the fifteenth century. This article explores part of this long interreligious history of the Gambia. It researches - on the basis of archival materials - the attitudes and perceptions of the Gambian Methodist Church towards Muslims in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The article argues that, although the attitude of the Methodists towards Muslims changed in the middle of the twentieth century from aggressive evangelization towards more irenic relations, Methodism in the Gambia still perceives Christian witness to Muslims to be one of its core callings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the last decade, Indonesia has experienced numerous incidents of communal violence between conservative Muslims, who are the religious majority in the country, and the Christian minority. This has been caused by mutual prejudices and suspicions that have gradually developed between the two groups. This article will explain the origins of such sentiments by looking at the history of Muslim-Christian relations in Indonesia. It argues that the origins of tensions between the two religions date from the Dutch colonial period in Indonesia and persisted throughout Indonesia's post-independence history. First, the article will survey the roots of Kristenisasi suspicions among Indonesian Muslims, from the Dutch colonial period until the New Order regime under Suharto. Next, it will examine government policies designed to appease conservative Muslims and restrict the religious freedom of Indonesian Christians. Finally, it will discuss how these policies helped to create the fear of Islamisasi among Indonesian Christians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of this century, Islam has become the subject of an intensive debate within Europe. Major triggers of this debate were, in the Netherlands, the assassination of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh on 2 November 2004 and, in the UK, the London bombings on 7 July 2005. Both violent actions were committed in the name of Islam. This article examines and analyses the national debate that emerged about Islam in both countries in response to these events. Four differences — with respect to diagnoses, remedies, openness and 'temperature' — are noted between the debates in the two countries. A point of common ground is the weakness of the voice of Muslims and Muslim communities in both the Netherlands and the UK. The differences relate to the balance of power between the pro-assimilation and pro-multiculturalism discourse in the two countries in the period previous to these events and to the attitudes towards Muslims of the Dutch and British people during that period. These attitudes are connected to mechanisms of 'selfing' and 'othering' and are linked to factors of (un)familiarity with and fear of Muslim immigrants and a lack of trust in the national government to overcome the problems associated with these immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life of Pere Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916) epitomized many of the motifs and contradictions of French colonialism in North Africa: a cavalry officer turned incognito explorer of Morocco, he eventually renounced his worldly life and became a deeply ascetic Catholic monk, spending the last fifteen years of his life in the Algerian Sahara, primarily among the Muslim Tuareg population of the Ahaggar region. Foucauld remained close to the French military, but his approach to Christian-Muslim relations changed and matured over his time in Algeria. The present study examines Foucauld's complex relationship with colonialism and with the Tuareg during his lifetime, as well as his unexpected legacies in the present. In the Maghreb today, he is remembered for his work as a lexicographer and grammarian of the Tuareg language and its unique tifinagh alphabet - a contribution that was taken up and expanded upon by later Amazigh cultural revivalists. In addition, the Vatican in recent years has held Foucauld up as a model for interreligious dialogue and as a bridge between the Catholic Church and the Muslim world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the tale (#163, Nights 940-46)) from The Arabian Nights, entitled 'cAbdullah of the Sea and cAbdullah of the Land' encapsulates highly spiritual and symbolical meanings that appear different on land and on sea. It is divided in three parts. The first tackles the view of a simple and clear Islam represented by a fisherman named cAbdullah. Part two deals with a more hermetic Islam embodied by a merman who bears the same name. Part three analyses the complex symbols encoded in the three even numbers, namely, two, four, and 40. The tale as a whole illustrates the difference between exoteric Islam (the Land), characterized by simplicity and clarity, and Sufi Islam, distinctive for its depth and its mystery (the Sea). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a discussion on the interpretational implications of the delineating features of the Qur'an-Sunna hermeneutic of what we here term 'progressive Muslims' on the construction of a 'normative Muslima'. In the first section, the article broadly defines progressive Muslims and their approach to conceptualizing, engaging and interpreting the Islamic tradition (turath). In the second part, the criteria developed by classical scholarship for constructing the distinct religious identity of a Muslima are outlined. In the third section, the delineating features of progressive Muslims' Qur'an-Sunna model of interpretation (manhaj) are sketched out. In the fourth and final part, the interpretational implications of this manhaj are analysed on the basis of relevant Qur'an and Hadith textual evidence in relation to the construction of a normative Muslima image according to the progressive Muslim manhaj. It will be argued that the classical construct of a normative Muslima image is entirely rejected by the progressive Muslim approach. Instead, it will be contended that, on the basis of their contextualist, thematico-holistic and ethico-values- or objectives-based approach to interpretation of Qur'an and Sunna, progressive Muslims subscribe to the concept of a 'normative' Muslima representation which does not impose any social or spatial regulatory mechanisms. Furthermore, it will be proposed that progressive Muslims consider women as fully autonomous human beings, inherently equal to men, whose humanity is judged by their level of taqwa (God consciousness and righteous conduct). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the relevance of the rational-choice approach for understanding female conversion to Islam in the Netherlands. Rational-choice theories are important for focusing on the increasingly pluralistic character of the religious market and the active nature of religious actors. It is argued that women are active actors who make sensible choices. Yet the rational choice conception of rationality is rather limited and the specific characteristics of the commodity 'Islam' are not accounted for in this approach. In addition, the actors are presented as agents without identity and history. By analysing the life stories of three Dutch converts, it is shown how certain Islamic narratives become meaningful in their lives. By using a biographical approach, an attempt is made to bring the history and identity of the actors and the content of their faith into focus without denying the 'rationality' of their choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of tawātur (recurrent transmission of reports) underpins the usual Muslim view that reports that Jesus was the one crucified are not reliably transmitted. This article first outlines Muslim theories regarding tawātur, along with two other classifications of reports, mashhur and āḥād. Second, the writings of al-Ghazāli (d. 505/1111) and Fakhr al-Din al-Rāzi (d. 606/1209) on tawātur and the crucifixion are examined. Third, the wider significance of the concept for Muslim-Christian discussion is explored. The study concludes that the exact place of tawātur in Muslim discussions of the crucifixion is elusive. Its role is secondary to that of the qur'anic text itself (as commonly interpreted) as the decisive element in rejecting Jesus as the one crucified. Yet understanding tawātur helps to clarify the theoretical foundation of the Qur'an's primacy for Muslims, since the scripture of Islam is understood to be the supreme mutawātir text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslims in the cAbbasid period showed three broad attitudes to Christian scripture. First, there was the view of those such as al-Qāsim ibn Ibrāhim (d. 860 CE) and 'Ali al-Ṭabari (d. c. 855 CE), who accepted elements in the gospels that supported the Qur'an. Second, there was the approach of others such as Abu Muḥammad ibn Ḥazm (d. 1064 CE), who rejected the gospels as largely fictitious accounts. A third approach, found in the writing of Abu Bakr al-Bāqillāni (d. 1014 CE) and in A Fitting Refutation of the Divinity of Jesus attributed to Abu Ḥāmid al-Ghazāli (d. 1111 CE), was to regard sayings of Jesus in John's Gospel that seemed to be a claim to divine status as metaphors for a spiritual condition that could be experienced by other believers, and which Muslims could therefore accept as genuine. This Fitting Refutation engaged more perceptively with Christian scripture than any other known Muslim writing in the cAbbasid period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]