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Following the death of Pope Benedict (formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) on 31 December 2022, many reflected on his legacy and impact. This article aims to examine his contribution to and impact on Islamic-Christian dialogue by examining his writings, most notably the Regensburg address, as well as Dominus Iesus. The essay will also examine the approach to Muslim-Christian dialogue of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, and his successor, Pope Francis, in the process showing how these three pontiffs' approaches to Islamic-Christian dialogue both build on and differ from one another. It will also consider how Catholic-Muslim dialogue continues to develop and how the papacy continues to adapt to changing contexts that shape its relations with Islam. It will look in particular at how Muslim-Catholic dialogue during the pontificate of John Paul II was shaped by Cold War concerns and, in contrast, how Benedict's comments about Islam were shaped by and fed into the War on Terror discourse. It will then briefly make the argument that Francis, through his visits, most notably to Iraq in March of 2021, seems to be engaged in building a post-War on Terror phase of Muslim-Christian relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on research that presents Jews and Muslims as an integral part of Genoese history, this article analyses the development of Genoese-Muslim interaction in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to understand the challenges of interreligious communication in the pre-modern Mediterranean. It treats the Annals of Genoa as a collective psychogramme that provides insight into the commune's shifting attitudes towards Muslims. While acknowledging the Annals' obvious biases, the article argues that the multiple authors of this work of historiography faithfully depicted the problems encountered by the Genoese in their communication with Muslim interlocutors from the perspective of those in power. Consequently, the Annals allow us to trace how Genoa established cooperative relations with Muslim-ruled North Africa in the wake of the First Crusade and how it successfully weathered turbulences caused by political shifts in the Mediterranean of the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. The Annals suggest that the destabilization of the western Mediterranean and intensifying inner-Christian strife began to jeopardize Genoese communication with Muslim-ruled societies in the 1230s. During the remainder of the thirteenth century, it seems, the commune was torn between different loyalties and thus unable to pursue a coherent communicative approach to Muslim-ruled societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous Christian assessments of the Prophet Muḥammad generally fall within two categories. The first asks whether or how he may be considered a post-canonical prophet. In the second, both Christians and Muslims sidestep the inquiry and advocate for the 'two Words' analogy (comparing Muḥammad to Mary and the Qur'an to Jesus the incarnate Word). However, attending to Muslim lived religion in postcolonial and diasporic contexts reveals an alternative, emic account of the meaning of prophecy and revelation in Islam: the embodied, emplaced and enacted experience of Muḥammad through poetry in praise of the Prophet and Prophetic beauty. Theological aesthetics prepares us for decolonizing Christian assessments of the Prophet Muḥammad through Muslim popular piety and vernacular traditions. A decolonial understanding of the experience of the Prophet suggests that his place in the experience of Muslims is unlike the way Christians relate to prophets, generally, and more akin to how Christians relate to Jesus--in both lived religion and elite discourse. While the 'two Words' analogy still has an important role to play, Christians would do well to rethink and decolonize their assessments of the Prophet Muḥammad through the lived religion--and elite discourses--of poetry in praise of the Prophet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A passage in the Qur'an's fifth sura (verses 112–15) relates that Jesus's disciples asked him if God could send them a table or meal (māʾida) from heaven. The precise referent of this story and its significance have been the subject of debate in Qur'an scholarship. This study first argues that Q 5.112–5 refers to the institution of the Eucharist, by showing that worship is a central concern of Q 5 and that this passage is connected to earlier verses of the sura that refer to Christian worship. Second, the study provides a brief discussion of Christian conceptions of the Eucharist and of the prayers recited during this ritual in Late Antiquity, suggesting that the qur'anic account and its surrounding verses address critically three main issues: the affirmation of the Christian creed during the Eucharist, the capacity of this rite to bring about forgiveness and salvation, and the related idea of Christ as the prime mediator between God (the Father) and humanity. This critical engagement with Christian worship seems to be a reaction to Christian criticism of the Believers' way of worship, which is referenced earlier in the sura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ambrosian Library in Milan has preserved thirteen very interesting folios written in an archaic semi-Kūfī Arabic script, describing an encounter between the second caliph of Islam ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and an unnamed monk. We demonstrate how the anonymous author of this manuscript was familiar with the ṣulḥ agreements, the covenants of the Prophet Muḥammad, and historical and anecdotal accounts of encounters between ʿUmar and ecclesiastical authorities. We postulate that our author composed his narrative on the basis of his own historical imagination from sources that probably belonged to monastic archives to which he had access. The author aimed to deliver a subtle political message, highlighting the archetypal relationship between a Muslim ruler and a Christian subject living under Islam. Two adaptations of our text have been found in Islamic sources, the first in al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī's Al-zuhd wa- al-raqāʾiq, and the second in Ibn ʿAsākir's Tārīkh madīnat Dimashq, which we argue reflect a later re-working of the original narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Often, interreligious and political engagements by religious communities are hampered by internal disunity. This article examines efforts by the Ghanaian Muslim community to establish umbrella bodies to facilitate religious and socio-political engagement on behalf of the national umma. Focus is given to the inter-sectarian Office of the National Chief Imam (ONCI) and the role of the National Chief Imam, Sheik Osman Nuhu Sharubutu. The article first sets out the nature of fragmentation within the Muslim community and the religion– state relational context that inspires the establishment of such multiple bridge-building and advocacy groups. Whereas rapid failure was a prominent feature of previous Muslim councils, the Sheik Sharubutu led ONCI has been relatively successful at mediating intra– and inter-religious dialogue as well as socio- political engagement of Ghanaian Muslims for over three decades since 1989. Whilst highlighting the legacies and success factors of Sheik Sharubutu in this regard, the article also critiques the institutional weaknesses of the ONCI and discusses the feasibility of adopting for the ONCI the structures of a Christian ecumenical body as proposed by some of the Muslim leaders interviewed. The discussion is then broadened to generally examine some essentials for an effective Islamic umbrella body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iranian Revolution, the 9/11 attacks, the Arab Spring, the appearance of the Islamic State movement and other similar events have caused a shift in inter-faith engagements such that inter-religious dialogue, maintaining a balanced politico-religious discourse, has become imperative in international relations. This imperative is reshaping world politics. We observe that inter-religious engagements in response to such political events have had a steady katechontic character. The katechon, originally a biblical concept, refers to political institutions and cultural mechanisms used by sovereign actors, be they religious bodies, churches or states, to restrain [apocalyptic] chaos. Katechontic mechanisms essentially diffuse messianic zeal within a given community while redrawing how its members imagine the shape of things to come. Given the current trends in global culture, the katechontic character of inter-faith dialogue makes it most likely that, in the future, the world will be mainly animated by numerous simultaneous inter-cultural and inter-faith relations and modes of engagement, while the major political players seek to formulate a new vision for the future of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to explain the existence of a large indigenous Muslim population in Bosnia have resulted in two main academic trends, both subject to politicized and biased representations of the area's history. The first, originating mostly in Serbian nationalist historiography, claims that Bosnian Christians were forcibly converted and has been used since the nineteenth century to galvanize support for Serbian expansionist ambitions in the shape of its 'Greater Serbia' project. The second and long the most popular view holds that the majority of Bosnian Christians who converted to Islam belonged to a heretical 'Bogomil' institution of the Bosnian Church. Although this theory has been questioned over time, one of its central premises – that there are similarities between the theology and practice of Bogomilism and those of Islam – has never undergone any scrutiny. This article examines both this crucial premise of the Bogomil Theory, and the theory's provenance, and argues that, just as we should dismiss the Serbian (and Croatian) nationalist theories on the subject, we should also recognize the Bogomil Theory as a mythicized account of history, motived by both the personal prejudice and imperialist-colonialist agendas of its nineteenth-century authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its inception in 1920s British India, the Tablighi Jama'at (TJ) has grown into a global movement of faith renewal, animating grassroots Muslim communities around the world. Based on sustained ethnographic fieldwork with the British branch of the movement, this article proposes a concept of 'intra-religious conversion' to capture a key modality of its impact in everyday Muslim lives. By this is denoted a shift from a nominal form of Islamic practice to one of passionate devotion. Multiple interview narratives are presented to dissect the conversion experience through a series of precipitating push and pull factors, of which 'affective ties' and 'intensive interaction' emerge as key. Three key reasons for TJ's enduring appeal to British-born male Muslims are suggested: (1) its propensity to transform the individual's relationship with his religion from a 'passive consumer' to an 'active purveyor'; (2) its fostering of strong bonds of belonging and brotherhood; (3) its ability to offer certainty in a world of flux. The findings challenge previous scholarship on British TJ by demonstrating its ongoing popularity among successive generations of Muslims, though reasons why followers may drift away from the movement after undergoing life-changing intra-religious conversion experiences are also explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is an attempt to think about, and think with, liberal critiques of Muslim religious commitments. Through an analysis of Akeel Bilgrami's critique of Muslim identity, together with a consideration of the virtue of open-mindedness, the article turns to the qur'anic parable about the companions of the cave in chapter 18 of the Qur'an (The Cave) to find the lineaments of a temporal conception of Muslim subjectivity, a conception that allows for a theologically informed possibility, or rather imperative, of the virtue of open-mindedness and also hope. The essay uncovers the theological-ethical implications implicit in the qur'anic pericope about the companions of the cave and models how religious ethics can help recover resources within religious traditions (in a qur'anic parable in the present case and especially the apparently puzzling verses of Q 18.23–4) that can allow for more humane possibilities of living authentically Muslim lives in liberal, secular contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a critique of the descriptive power of subjectivity in studies of contemporary Muslim ethics. After Saba Mahmood and others, subjectivity has become perhaps the dominant analytical tool for the description of the ethical qualities of modern religious life. It is responsive to both the reflexivity held to be newly characteristic of modernity, and to the need to allow for the sheer diversity of modern religious life. However, through a multisite ethnographic study of the Shi'i Muslim khums, an obligatory 20% 'tithe' or tax on annual income, the article argues that approaches to ethics in terms of subjectivity have been insufficiently attentive to the ethical gravity of the thing itself. The special characteristics of khums payment, administration and disbursement between fieldsites in Australia and Iran, serve to foreground issues neglected in a literature that has focused almost entirely on a Sunni 'orthopraxy'. Methodologically, the article argues for a greater attentiveness to the materiality of the things of ethics and, conceptually, for a shift towards relations between persons and things as the locus of ethical investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the use of Islamic sources in a fragmentary text, the Tathlīth al-waḥdāniyya ('Trebling the Oneness'), written by an anonymous Jewish convert to Christianity. The author's aim was to demonstrate – using an ontological approach – the inconsistent nature of the arguments employed by his Muslim opponents, and at the same time to highlight the unacceptable practices of Muslims with regard to divorce and adultery. The fragments have survived thanks to their being quoted in a text by a Muslim author, who sought to counter each of the theological views expressed therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medieval Muslim scholars wrote substantial apologetic and polemical treatises to present and defend the truth of their religion and to invite people of different faiths to Islam. These texts belong to the so-called radd ('refutation') literature. It is still interesting today in so far as many radd authors avoided rhetorical polemics and sought serious rational arguments that provide deep insights in the dogmatic differences and peculiarities of various religions. An outstanding, because strongly argumentational, example is Kitāb al-radd ʿalā al-Naṣārā ('Book of refutation of the Christians') by Ṣāliḥ ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Jaʿfarī (d. 668/1270). This article introduces al-Jaʿfarī's life and work, outlines methodological premises for a critical analysis of radd arguments, gives an overview of al-Jaʿfarī's most important arguments and an example of the analysis of such arguments, and indicates what the examination of these old texts can contribute to today's interreligious discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past several decades, the phenomenon of conversion to Islam in Western societies has received a significant amount of attention, both in academia and in the mass media. Much of this attention has focused on the motives and experiences of female converts, a likely result of suggestions that higher numbers of Western women than men are converting to Islam, as well as pervasive views of Islam as a religion that mistreats women. Yet despite this fixation on conversion and gender, understanding of the compared experiences of male and female converts remains limited. This article seeks to address this key gap in the existing literature by examining the differences and commonalities in the experiences, beliefs and identities of male and female converts to Islam in Australia. It is hoped that this research will contribute to a greater understanding of the complex relationships between gender, conversion and identity, while encouraging further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to research about Muslim communities in Wales by exploring some of the ways in which Muslims identify with Wales and have brought their faith and traditions into conversation with Welsh cultural, religious and civic life. This occurs through strategic use of the Welsh language, especially on occasions that 'celebrate the nation', recognition and identification with features of the landscape and geography of Wales, and the continuity of leadership of Muslim communities. In addition, the vibrancy of Welsh Muslim institutions suggests that they have a significant role to play in the contemporary religious landscape of Wales. I suggest that they are responsible for sustaining some of the characteristic features of historic Welsh religious culture, in a context where the main denominations of the Christian churches are struggling to maintain active congregations. The energy and activism of Welsh Muslims suggests that they are taking on some responsibility for 'keeping faith' in Wales and creating new post-secular spaces and practices in the urban public sphere that engage in a dialogical and reflexive relationship with aspects of Welsh tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the changing reception of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya's (d. 751/1350) Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma between the fourteenth century and modern times. I argue that the book had little influence on legal discourse about Christian and Jewish subjects under Muslim rule when it was written and during the following centuries. However, after the publication of a printed edition in 1961 and particularly from the 1990s, Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma has become an important resource for discussions of non-Muslim minorities in a Muslim state. I attribute the altered reception to a number of factors, including the now changed status of the author and the Ḥanbalite school to which he belonged, and the new relationship between the character of the book and the expectations of its readers. Consideration of the trajectory of Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century is revealing for the insights that it offers into the changing status of Ibn al-Qayyim and the Ḥanbalite legal tradition, and the approach to non-Muslim subjecthood in Islamic legal discourse. It should also encourage caution when using this book as a source for understanding the social or legal history of relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in the fourteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines in detail for the first time the later life and work of the Orientalist G. W. Leitner (1840–1899), who retired from Indian government service and settled permanently in England in the 1880s. It explains why Leitner devoted the last years of his life to creating an ambitious Oriental Institute in Woking, Surrey, which included the first purpose-built mosque in Britain. It also considers why and how Leitner went against convention to publicly explain and defend aspects of Islam and Muslim culture, most famously in his 1889 lecture and pamphlet entitled 'Muhammadanism'. It reveals, however, that Leitner's imperialist outlook and preoccupation with class and caste drew him into conflict with some of the leading Muslims in late-Victorian Britain, and argues that his interaction with them exposed the limitations of his Christian charity and benevolence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides examples of how some young Muslims in Norway reconfigure Islamic norms and doctrines in the direction of contemporary spirituality. These young Muslims' beliefs include elements of 'objective' Islamic dogma, while simultaneously sacralizing the significance and authority of subjective life to the degree that it challenges established orthodoxy. Their interpretations of Islam may be described as a synthesis of two fundamentally different approaches to the sacred, namely 'life-as-religion' and 'subjective-life spirituality', as described in the work of Linda Woodhead and Paul Heelas. An emphasis on the symbolic, abstract and ambiguous character of religious dogma allows for not only a high degree of subjective interpretation, but also a pluralist attitude towards other religions and worldviews. Aspects of the interviewees' life-stories suggest that spiritualization of Islam is linked to concerns with inclusion in liberal-secular and pluralistic social settings. It is argued that the tendency towards spiritualization represents a trajectory among young European Muslims that is distinct from the already well-defined tendencies of secularization and Islamic revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to investigate the way in which converts contribute to the redefinition of Shi'ism in Italy and to show how that contribution is reshaping Shi'ism in the peninsula. In order to do so, it first provides an overview of the conversion trajectories that undeniably impact converts' relationship with the new religion, with Italian society, and with born Shi'is. It then presents two principal factors that affect converts' approach to Shi'ism. The first is Iran's interest in presenting Shi'ism as a universally compelling religion. The second is the fact that Italian traditionalist intellectuals are attracted to Shi'ism, whose values converge with the ideals of the Italian political far right. We shall see how the synergy between these two factors facilitates the attenuation, or even removal, of the folk and sectarian aspects of Shi'ism in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the public reactions to a billboard with the message: 'I love Jesus because Jesus is Moslem'. A radical Islamic group placed the billboard in the Indonesian town of Cilacap in 2018 with the goal of discouraging Muslims from attending events celebrating Christmas and New Year. We place the inter-religious debates resulting from the billboard incident within the larger context of Muslim opinions on the figure of Jesus in Islam and Christianity. We furthermore ask how the Indonesian state negotiates Muslim–Christian interreligious dialogues and how its intervention influences the opinions of individual religious and community leaders. Our main conclusion is that, in spite of the fact that deeper engagement between the two communities could yield stronger forms of cooperation or reconciliation when incidents of interreligious strife occur, all involved prefer to avoid it. Instead, they aim to maintain an equilibrium that represents the status quo. Most Muslim and Christian leaders, for various reasons, remain averse to engaging in deeper conversations, especially when it concerns the role of Jesus in their respective religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines interreligious marriage from a legal perspective and analyses the historical and empirical evidence for it from the eastern Indonesian island of Lombok. It situates interfaith marriage at the centre of a discursive battle between religion, law, and custom (adat) and as a locus of contestation and negotiation between state, community, and religious leaders, as well as the couples involved and their extended families and communities. Building on Charles Collier's theory of 'institutional authority' and Saba Mahmood's 'personal autonomy', the article argues that issues related to interfaith marriage can be resolved through institutional authority and personal autonomy. Institutional authority constitutes an established structure of power and representation created by the state to manage its people and to serve their interests. Such authority works for, and is contested in, resolving tensions over interreligious interactions, including traditional interfaith marital elopement practised by Muslim and Hindu communities. Although Muslim–Christian relations have occasionally been unstable, interfaith unions rarely become an issue since those marriages reflect more interpersonal than intercommunal relationships, whose settlement is contingent upon personal autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

British mosques are growing, both numerically and in terms of their capacity. While there is a burgeoning body of literature that examines mosques for their historical significance, their symbolic resonance, or as sites of conflict and contestation, no studies have yet explored the congregation and the mosque. This article argues that there is value in thinking congregationally about British Muslims and contends that the congregation is emerging as the primary means of doing religion together amongst Muslims in diaspora, replacing older and historical means of association amongst Muslims. Seeking a better understanding of the operation of congregations provides a project that can unite textual and sociological scholars, 'insiders' and 'outsiders', and which will potentially have an impact on policy for authorities, and benefit for academic understanding, as well as for mosques and Muslims themselves. Before considering the Muslim congregation, however, the article reviews the field of congregational studies, which has been predominantly focused on churches, and identifies the tools and approaches that can be utilized by scholars wishing to research Muslim congregations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslims and Christians in Cameroon have coexisted for decades within a shared context, but there are no studies that seek to understand the nature of Christian–Muslim intergroup relations within the Cameroonian context. Based on a sample of (n = 501) young people, this study examines how young people who identify as Christians feel towards Muslims, and the extent to which the perception of threat from Muslims predicts feelings of prejudice towards them. This study particularly utilizes the integrated threat theory (ITT) of prejudice as a suitable theoretical framework for understanding intergroup attitudes. The basic assumption of ITT is that the perception of threat leads to prejudicial feelings towards outgroups. In addition, this study explores the relationship between contact with Muslims, threat perception and prejudice. The findings reveal that Cameroonian Christian youths perceive Muslims as a threat and have some feelings of prejudice towards them. In addition, the perception of threat was a significant predictor of prejudice towards Muslims. Contrary to our expectation, contact with Muslims was positively related to perceived threat and prejudice towards Muslims. Implications and directions for future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief reflection treats the reactive relation between the dispersions of (post-)migration and the integralism of religion in selected cases of European Shiism. It reconsiders reports on Twelver Shiism and Shiite Muslims in Europe in order to discern the main institutional and demographic tendencies in Shiites' European settlement history in Britain, France and Germany, and to explore such settlement in light of mega-theorizations of European Islam that juxtapose 'integration' and 'separation'. The presentation focuses on Iranians in Britain and argues for the centrality of two complicating variations on the pattern: Integration-Retention (as in the case of blood donation practice) and Separation-Appropriation (as in the case of reformist Islamism in the Ettehādiye Society). Each type stems from heightened Self–Other reflection, triggered by migration and defined more precisely in terms of boundary setting. Such thought is double-scaled for differentiation (d) and reciprocation (r), contrasting jurisprudential treatments 'there' (+d/-r) and organizational engagement 'here' (-d/+r). Identity formation in European Shiism often involves the rebalancing of these elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, the Borough of Brent, in north-west London, has been a major global hub of transnational Twelver Shiism. With the influx of Iraqi refugees, many clerical leaders of Twelver Shia Islam established their European headquarters in Brent, and, in addition to Damascus and Tehran, London became a major centre of Iraqi diaspora politics during Saddam Hussein's regime. The transnational networks and organizations based in Brent engage in an Islamic 'transnational public space', which Bowen defines as a globally operating discursive 'field of Islamic reference and debate'. Based on ethnographic research in London, the article provides novel insights into the Twelver Shia Muslim organizational field in Britain and its engagement in 'an alternative diasporic public sphere' that articulates issues and contestations specific to Shia Muslims living in Britain: what does displacement and migration mean for Shia Muslims who have often escaped oppression, war and civil conflict; how do Shia Muslims in Britain define their relationship to Sunnis in the context of rising sectarianism in the post-Arab Spring Middle East; how do Shia Muslims position themselves towards Iran and its aspiration to be the political leader of global Shiism? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslim engagement in interfaith and intercultural dialogue began in earnest after the turn of the twenty-first century in response to the rise of global jihad. Both dialogue and jihad are outgrowths of daʿwa, the call or mission of Islam, the principal mode of modern Islamic activism. The foundations were laid in the later part of the twentieth century by Muslim intellectual-activists living in non-Muslim environments, who played a special role in conceptualizing the new notion of dialogue and its relation to daʿwa. This essay focuses on four pioneering figures, two from the indigenous context of India – the modernist Asghar Ali Engineer and the reformist ʿālim Wahiduddin Khan, and two from the diaspora milieu of the West – the Palestinian-American academic activist Ismail Raji al-Faruqi and the European Muslim spokesman Tariq Ramadan. Each represents a distinct religious orientation that also reflects a different phase in the evolution of modern Islamic discourse. Taken together, these intellectual-activists chart the trajectory of modern Islam from the early pre-Islamist liberal hopes to the present post- and neo-Islamist efforts to navigate between Western-dominated globalization and Islamist jihadism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the American Protestant Mission in Syria entered the educational arena of nineteenth-century Tripoli, its administrators founded long-lasting educational institutions primarily for the purpose of converting souls to Protestant Christianity. Secondarily, missionaries sought to impose ideas of gender and class on their students. Through previously unexamined memoirs, school records, and missionary writings, this article offers a microhistorical analysis of the Tripoli Girls' School (est. 1873) and the Tripoli Boys' Boarding School (est. 1904). This study begins by situating the schools within the broader context of an increasingly peripheralized and predominantly Sunni Muslim city, showing that the geographical, social, and educational environment of Tripoli shaped and was shaped by the boarding schools. It explores two trends within the Tripoli schools, namely, the 'professionalization' of female students, and the reification of class divisions, as Tripoli was integrated into a system of global capitalism. Finally, it moves beyond narratives of 'secularization' and argues that students played a significant role in shifting the emphasis of missionary education away from religious conversion to an educational model of interreligious cooperation that saw Muslims and Christians as partners in a syncretic endeavour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, a very small Muslim community in the Republic of Ireland has expanded rapidly and become increasingly diverse. For all that research has identified growing expressions of anti-Muslim racism, mainstream Irish political discourse and political responses to Ireland's Muslim communities have not reflected the antipathy towards Islam that is identifiable in a number of other European countries. The response of the Irish state towards Muslims has been one of apparent neglect, benign and otherwise, whilst Muslims, for their part, appear to have lived unobtrusively. We examine the position of Muslims in Ireland through the lens of three issues that have been debated within Muslim communities in recent years: the alleged threat of terrorist activity within Muslim communities; calls for regulation of Muslim/Islamic activities; and a 2018 controversy relating to comments made by a leading Islamic figure in Ireland on the topic of female genital mutilation. Our analysis, framed by Steven Vertovec's concept of super-diversity, emphasizes the need for policymakers to avoid presumptions of homogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the idea of 'Milah Abraham', a term used and advocated by Ahmad Mushaddeq and Mahful Muis, the founders of Gafatar (Gerakan Fajar Nusantara/Archipelagic Dawn Movement). Mahful Muis, a prominent companion of Mushaddeq, has written many works about the idea of the religion of Abraham. This article answers the questions of how the idea of Milah Abraham emerged, and what are the implications of its emergence in the context of plural Indonesian Islam. Based on interviews and the written works of both Gafatar leaders, this study explores the idea of the religion of Abraham and how it can go beyond Judaism, Christianity and Islam to a new spirituality that combines the three religious traditions. The idea of Milah Abraham not only offers a new syncretism in the context of plural Indonesian Islam, but also challenges the establishment of Islamic orthodoxy in the country. Since the 1970s, the idea of returning to the religion of Abraham has contributed to the discussion of pluralism among many Indonesian Muslim intellectuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Qur'an's use of 'covenant' (Arabic ʿahd and mīthāq). Recent scholarly attention to covenants in the Qur'an has hitherto largely hinged on modern questions of inclusivism, pluralism, or notions of Islamic salvation history. Most studies have focused on Q 7.172 (and its interpretations), which is usually treated as the most important covenantal verse in the Qur'an. The analysis here is intended to be not an exhaustive study of covenant in the Qur'an, but an attempt to re-orient the discussion in terms of the qur'anic usage as distinct from later categories, and to move away from the tendency to prioritize Q 7.172 as the central covenant verse. The article pays particular attention to the way in which the Qur'an re-contextualizes 'covenant' for its own theological ends, and argues that the Qur'an uses this motif for a multiplicity of purposes. To this end it highlights three elements of the Qur'an's covenant theology: (1) its prophetological connotations, (2) its association with legal injunctions and the Decalogue, and (3) its eschatological implications. All three components often serve polemical functions. The article also makes some brief observations concerning the relationship between the Qur'an's use of covenant and its Late Antique context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What do we understand by the study of Islamic theology within the European academic framework? In this issue of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, scholars of Christian and Islamic theology and of religious studies debate how to construct theoretical and empirical contexts around 'Islamic theology' as an academic discipline that is profoundly etic, and for doing theology as an emic praxis. The question concerns how we design course programmes, curricula and research projects. What are the implications of historical-critical or critical-hermeneutic approaches for the academic study of Islamic theology? What may be the consequences of integrating a critical gender perspective into inter-religious studies? If introducing Islamic theology at European universities turns Christian faculties into multi-religious institutions, will they make space for inter-religious ways of doing theology? May social contexts impact on how Islamic theology is taught and discussed in a Northern European university setting? Will Islamic theology be formatted as 'university theology' in interaction with the lived Islamic religion in the European context? These articles present an invitation to researchers, students and policy-makers, to continue responding to local needs in religiously plural societies and to further stimulate discussions about the study and practice of Islamic theology as a Western academic discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article consists of a critical Arabic edition and English translation of the Third Treatise of Shaykh Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh Ibn al-Ṭayyib. The introduction provides a brief, general orientation to the treatise, discussing its relation to two other treatises by the same author and suggesting a chronology. The translation accompanies an article analysing the treatise titled: ‘Ibn al-Ṭayyib’'s Trinitarian Formulation in the Islamic Milieu’ (Kuhn, M. 2018. “Ibn al-Ṭayyib’s Trinitarian Formulation in the Islamic Milieu.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 29 (2): 123-143). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Christian-Muslim relations in East Asia during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through a description of the lives and journeys of three Roman Catholics - Petro Kasui Kibe (Jesuit), Nicholas the Iruman (Augustinian), and Bento de Góis (Jesuit) - to predominantly Muslim lands. Their journeys display the different ways in which Christian-Muslim relations and communication were viewed at that time, and the varying levels of impact that inter-religious dialogue had. Kibe appears to have placed little importance on Christian-Muslim relations and his journey to Jerusalem remains little more than an interesting historical footnote. Nicholas played a background role in the tale of his superiors and travel partners who helped to establish European-Persian relations. And de Góis, through his journey and interactions with Muslims, was able to contribute to a paradigmal shift in European geographical knowledge that changed contemporary understandings of East Asia. The article illustrates that, although Christian-Muslim relations at that time took an array of forms and had a variety of results, episodes from the East Asian mission field that have often been overlooked were highly influential in shaping the early modern world on a regional and global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the influence of religious factors and values held by local societies, when Muslims develop their personal attitudes and perceived religious norms regarding spousal roles and wife-beating. It is based on qualitative interviews with 59 Muslims in Indonesia (N = 35) and Norway (N = 24). In addition, relevant Indonesian and Norwegian Muslim literature and web pages are examined. According to most Indonesian respondents, Islamic norms prescribe male leadership and allow the husband to beat a disobedient wife. This was regarded as crucial for the wife’s destiny after death. According to most Norwegian respondents, Islamic norms promote gender equality and oppose wife-beating. The sharp contrast between the perceived religious norms of Indonesian and Norwegian respondents may be caused by dissimilar cultural values in the two countries - values that influenced personal attitudes and thus the horizon of understanding where religion and authoritative text were interpreted. The reasoning of the respondents also sheds light on the importance of specific sacred texts when religious norms were developed individually. From a psychological point of view, the implementation of the egalitarian attitudes represented by numerous respondents may have positive effects for Muslim women living in patriarchal societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys contact between Muslims and Anglo-Australian settlers from 1880 to 1939 as observed and reported in English-language press by anonymous writers unfamiliar with Islam. The approach is text-based and discursive, and uses previously unresearched archival material to illustrate how Muslims were engaged with and ‘othered’ on the basis of both their races and religion. Content is organized according to state geography – Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia – rather than chronologically, to better distinguish between Muslim experiences in distinct coastal colonies. Muslim communities clustered around major Australian ports. Ports are boundaries between regions, separated by seas and straits. Their intermediate nature facilitates encounters between persons and groups that are unfamiliar with one another and foreign to each other, who would otherwise not have ongoing contact. Australia may be geographically remote but it is nevertheless a significant theatre for historical encounters between Christians and Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Christians and Muslims have been interacting to varying degrees in Southeast Asia since the fifteenth century. The formative phase of the relationship between the two drew to some extent on attitudes inherited from other regions and other eras. Because of this, narratives of suspicion and hostility have been evident from the earliest interactions up to the present. However, towards the end of the European colonial era, more open and tolerant attitudes were expressed in various literary records, providing the foundations for greater mutual acceptance in the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, two journals stand out as primary sources of information about China.The Chinese RepositoryandThe Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journalwere edited by senior missionary scholars, who recorded observations of Chinese life and the development of the Church in China. While they make only scattered references to the Muslim population in China, these items are nevertheless significant indicators of the size, importance and nature of these Muslim communities. They also portray Christian attitudes to ‘Mohammedans’ and on occasions indicate Christian strategies of engagement with them. There was a particular burst of interest in ‘Mohammedism’ in the 1880s. However, engagement with the Muslim communities was never a priority for the Christian missionary force, as they were a distinct minority of the total Chinese population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Building on entries written forChristian–Muslim Relations: A Bibliographic History, this article explores Christian–Muslim relations in China and Japan in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The first half of the article considers Christian–Muslim relations amongst the Japanese in and outside Japan. Direct, indirect and potential interactions and contemporaneous commentaries are explored in order to build a picture of the sort of Christian–Muslim interactions that took place. However, due to the sparsity of sources, this section seeks more to develop and open potential avenues of enquiry than to provide definitive answers. The second section focuses on Christian–Muslim interactions in the work of Matteo Ricci and suggests that Christian–Muslim interactions in East Asia generally, and in China more specifically, were significant not only to the Jesuit mission itself, but also to the shaping of European knowledge of the East. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Christian missionaries working in India in the nineteenth century made numerous important contributions to European and North American understandings of Islam. One such contribution was theDictionary of Islamcompiled by the Anglican missionary Thomas Patrick Hughes, who was serving in Peshawar on the border between British India and Afghanistan. Drawing upon sources such as collections of Hadith, he provided both brief definitions and some longer analyses of a wide range of aspects of Muslim beliefs, practices and history. However, his compilation was not entirely based on textual sources, but was also informed by daily contact with Muslims in and around Peshawar, particularly Maulavi Ahmad of Tangi. Hughes combined his interest in defining Islam with a passion for exploring and explaining Afghan culture and politics to his readership in Britain. Although situated on ‘the edges of empire’, Hughes nonetheless found himself at the centre of world events as the intrigue between Britain and Russia resulted in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Although located in what some considered a minor province on the periphery of the Muslim world, he nonetheless produced a major reference work on Islam that is still in print. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The public conceptualization of Muslim immigration and settlement in New Zealand has become synonymous with the comparatively recent influx of Asian and African migrants and refugees over the past two decades. However, a noteworthy minority of Muslim immigrants arrived during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in the colonial period. This article surveys the immigration and settlement of Muslims from the 1850s to the 1950s, focusing on the biographies of the most prominent individuals, broadly tracing their arrival and participation in the Anglo-European Christian society they chose to settle in, through to the creation of the Islamic institutions in this country from the 1950s to 1980s. I will conclude with a brief overview of the significance of this pioneer period in view of more recent immigration and the proliferation of Islam in New Zealand, together with some observations upon the interactions of Muslims with a largely Christian society and what that may indicate for the understanding of relations between Muslims and Christians within New Zealand from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Although the first century of Muslim settlement has been largely overlooked, or marginalized, much can be revealed about the broader Muslim experience at this extremity of the (former) British Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Waqfs provided socio-economic security for the progeny of endowers and for other social welfare causes. Being thus guaranteed socio-economic well-being, these beneficiaries were antithetical to ruling elites in Muslim dynasties and Christian colonial powers, which led to the establishment of policies and institutions to controlwaqfs and check their growing influence. This development was not only counter to normative precepts but also set minority Muslims in predominantly Christian societies at odds with non-Muslim states. To what extent did civil policies and judgements influencewaqfs? How did Muslims negotiate the secular state constructs vis-à-vis waqf practices? How did secular state control ofwaqfs influence the dynamics of Christian–Muslim relations? This discussion, based on ethnographic research in Kenyan coastal areas, employs two theoretical frameworks – Asad's ‘Islam as a discursive tradition’ and Scott’s concept of ‘symbolic (ideological) resistance’. The article draws mainly on the perspective of the Muslim minority in Kenya and argues that state control ofwaqfs in Kenya did not only interfere with normative practices but also partly laid the ground for the present-day economic and political marginalization and exclusion of Muslims, leading to suspicion and ambiguous relations with their Christian compatriots. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates the motivations for female conversion to Islam in Australia. To capture the diverse motivations and individual spiritual transitions of female converts, a descriptive phenomenological methodology was employed. Empirical data are based on two in-depth, semi-structured hour-long interviews with each of six female converts living in South East Queensland and northern New South Wales. Five key motivations and experiences were common to all participants during their pathways to conversion. All of the converts expressed a prior belief in God; were drawn to Islam after meeting Muslims; engaged in a process of individual interpretation, reasoning or investigation of Islam (ijtihād) to arrive at their own understanding of Islamic belief and practice; felt the values, principles and beliefs resonated with their own prior convictions; and experienced challenges that provided resistance to their desire to become a Muslim, mostly connected with family, friends, lifestyle and the public sphere of everyday social interaction. This is the first phenomenological study to investigate female conversion to Islam in Australia and provides unique insight and further depth of understanding regarding female conversion to Islam in the West as well as the dynamics of Islam in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Relations between Jews and Muslims in Amsterdam grew tense after the conflicts between Gaza and Israel in 2014, the violent attacks on Jewish targets in Brussels (2014), Paris (2015) and Copenhagen (2015) and local incidents of online, verbal and sometimes physical discrimination. Nevertheless, these factors also inspired Jews and Muslims to launch cooperation projects and strengthen the bonds already existing between them. Cooperation in turbulent times is not always easy. The data collected for this research show how Jews and Muslims in cooperation projects use to strategies to solve some of the problems confronting them. The three most widely used strategies that were found are ‘searching for similarities’, ‘decategorizing’ and ‘avoidance’. These strategies do not emerge in a vacuum, however, but at a certain moment in time, in specific fields. Therefore, this article, will describe the usage of the three strategies and explain the interaction between strategies and their contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the reasons for the anti-Muslim sentiments held by some South Koreans. The research was motivated by the fact that, although previous studies have paid much attention to this issue in Western regions, such as Europe and the USA, little research has examined the perceptions of Muslims held by people in Asian countries. This empirical study of the nature of anti-Muslim sentiment in South Korea was aided by two theoretical frameworks that relate prejudice to (i) deprivation and (ii) religion. This study analysed data taken from the ‘International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) Topical Module: Religion (2008)’ [ISSP Research Group 2012. ‘International Social Survey Programme: Religion III – ISSP 2008.’ GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA4950 Data file Version 2.2.0, doi:10.4232/1.11334Study No. ZA4950]. The results showed that deprivation did not significantly influence South Korean attitudes toward Muslims, whereas prejudice toward Muslims among South Koreans included a distinctly religious component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against what is perceived as a tacit agreement between Russia’s ‘traditional’ religions (Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism) not to engage in missionary work among each other’s faith communities, Priest Daniil Sysoev (1974–2009) conducted assertive evangelism among Muslims. This article analyses Sysoev’s confrontational discourse on Islam, and his strategies for missionary work. The most important of these strategies were his use of Islamic vernaculars for Orthodox Christian preaching among Muslims, and his active engagement of Islamic authorities in public theological debates. The article argues that, in these strategies, he followed the model of the Kazan Theological Seminary in the nineteenth century, which conducted missionary work among Muslim Tatars; and, also like the Kazan missionaries, Sysoev developed a focus on the Kriashens (Christian Tatars), and even played a role in the elaboration of Tatar Christian terminologies. Sysoev’s assassination in 2009 raises many questions, including how far he was aiming at becoming a martyr. While his parish continues to call for Sysoev’s canonization, the official Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has been ambiguous about his rigorous and confrontational mission, although the sweeping political Orthodox activism of Sysoev’s followers seems to converge with the ROC’s aim to strengthen its position in Russian society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on a number of prominent journalists and experts distinctive for their critical attitudes towards both radical Islam and the Russian official representatives of the Muslim umbrella organizations (muftiates) in the Russian Federation, and implicitly, for what they see as the Kremlin’s lenient policies towards Islam in Russia. As many of these journalists have links to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), and some also to the intelligence community, the central argument of this contribution is that the debate on Islam should be seen within the triangle of state, ROC and Islam. While some of these experts work in Moscow and have access to resources in the centre, others operate in republics such as Tatarstan, where they also criticize the local administration for its pro-Islamic and anti-Orthodox policies. As most of these critics of Islam have academic qualifications (though usually not in Islamic studies), they give academic legitimacy to the view that there is an oppositional dichotomy between ‘traditional Islam’ and ‘non-traditional Islam’, the latter term being used as an umbrella for all trends in Islam that are perceived as being of foreign origin. Similarly, ‘traditional Islam’ is not defined by its Islamic content but simply by its loyalty to the Kremlin. The article also touches upon Muslim responses to these discursive constructions, which reflect the strong competition between the existing muftiates in Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues that Tariq Ramadan’s reform agenda is relatively modest in scope and has not had the wide-ranging impact the more liberal intelligentsia may have wished for. The article is written from the perspective of a convinced and practising Christian. I am not seeking to prove myself right and Ramadan, or anyone else, wrong, but to evaluate Ramadan’s reform process. The article is divided into four main sections. The first outlines Ramadan’s argument that Muslims must move beyond slavish imitation towards a carefully thought out, contextually appropriate expression of Islam in the modern context. The second critiques Ramadan’s arguments for a realistic pluralism and his suggestion that Muslims regard wherever they live asdār al-shahāda. The third outlines two areas where Ramadan directly challenges the majority opinion within Islam, asking whether these challenges are appropriate and effective. These areas are his call for a moratorium on the Islamic penal code and his desire for greater female involvement with mosques. The fourth section briefly examines Ramadan’s critics before reinforcing the conclusion that Ramadan’s reform, while radical in the sense of returning to Islam’s roots, does not seek to bring about the changes that some might expect it to do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how Belgian Muslims of Turkish origin interact with the hajj (pilgrimage) and the meaning of the pilgrimage for Muslims living in Belgium. It focuses upon the space of pilgrimage rituals, identifies the motivations for the practice of the pilgrimage and attempts to explain how the ‘canonical meaning’ of the hajj, which is considered unchanging, is adopted in the new Belgian situation and how pilgrims regard it. The physical practice of pilgrimage constitutes an interesting area through which to depict how Belgian Muslims of Turkish origin experience the sacred journey that shapes their religious understanding and their identity. The article’s findings are based on interviews and observations in 2012 and 2014. The author visited mosques during hajj information sessions and spoke with imams, but the fieldwork was carried out among pilgrims who had visited Mecca for their hajj andʿumra.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia has been introducing Islamization policies since the 1980s and has used Friday khutbas (sermons) to convey government and religious authorities’ ideas and interpretations of Islam. We used content analysis of the texts of khutbas delivered in 2013 and 2014 in six states in Malaysia, all of which were obtained from those states’ Islamic authorities’ websites. This research found that weekly Friday khutbas have been used to announce the Islamic authorities’ commitment to safeguard the integrity of Sunni Islam, to monopolize the interpretation of Islam, to establish the collective mistreatment of minority Muslim groups and to promote the implementation ofhududlaw. Our analysis demonstrates that the control exercised by the government and religious authorities over mosques, covering aspects ranging from a mosque’s administration and appointment of the imam to the preparation of the khutba text has created an ideal opportunity for the government to influence the Muslim society’s understanding and stance on a variety of social, religious and political issues in a multi-ethnic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]