Like Christianity, Islam insists on God’s sovereign claim on all human beings. This implies that all human rights must be grounded in God’s right to sovereignty over human life, dignity, freedom, property and the future.
The image of the stubbornly dogmatic Muslim is as foolish a cliché as it is a fatal one. There can be no peace among nations without peace among religions. Peace is indivisible!
Malaysia is an authentically Muslim state that is religiously and culturally diverse, economically successful, educationally advanced, democratically governed and politically moderate. Thus Christianity might have a peaceful appointment with this kind of Islamic future.
Paul Griffiths discusses the letter Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, wrote to President Bush in the Fall of 2006, and was largely overlooked by the media. The lack of response indicates that in our loyalties, citizenship takes priority over our Christian commitments.
Different religious traditions give various responses to the ecological crises. Dialogue between these traditions not only helps us to live peacefully with the rest of creation but also helps us to live peacefully with people of other faiths. The author examines ecology from the point of view of the Koran (Qur’an ) and Islam.
The God of Islam and the God of the church and synagogue appear to look enough like God to make dialogue possible, but also different enough to make for an interesting conversation.
The author reviews three books, which he describes as "variations on a theme," that being the response of Muslims to the ascendancy of the West and the West's attempt to annex or assimilate the Muslim worldview.
What is the connection between Islam and the events of September 11? The only connection that ever exists between a religious tradition and the actions of believers is the one those believers create in their own minds. In the case of Osama bin Laden and his colleagues, it was the result of impudence and a lack of grounding in the Islamic tradition.
A major figure in the conversations between Christians and Muslims talks about the possibilities of dialogue and the problems that confront Islam in the modern world.
One would presume that if Christians can accept partnership with Jews as worshiping the same God, they should have no insurmountable problems with Muslims, who historically have seen themselves as occupying the theological middle ground between Jews and Christians.
We may think of god differently, believe about God differently, but God listens to the prayers of all people, for God cannot do otherwise. Happily no one has a monopoly on God.
The author discusses differences in the concept of God between Christian and Muslim, but suggests there is enough in common to make a productive comparison.
The author writes of similar descriptions of God for Christians and Muslims, and concludes that they are not always as similar as they may at first appear.
Muslims and Christians both agree that it is the one God about whom they differ so strongly, yet they are within range of each other so that they may engage in mutual scrutiny.
Many Muslims around the world are unimpressed by presidential speeches extolling our virtues as freedom-loving, peaceful people. They see U.S. support for many repressive regimes. They see the pervasive influence of hedonistic Western culture on their traditional societies. Add in the frustration over the plight of the Palestinians and of civilians in Iraq and you’ve got a volatile mix.
The Regensburg lecture of Pope Benedict XVI is critiqued by professor Gaffney. An isolated and remote quote about using the sword to spread Islam is contrasted with the many statements similar in the Christian tradition and contextually analyzed.
The author believes that militant Muslims are not accurately labeled as "fundamentalists." Most American Christian fundamentalists are quite nationalistic ("superpatriots"), while Islamic "fundamentalist" violently reject nationalism as a Western virus designed to divide Muslims from each other and pervert their minds.
(ENTIRE BOOK) A collection of essays written by Islamic leaders for Western readers. Chapters describe Islam's origin, ideas, movements and beliefs, and its different manifestations in Africa, Turkey, Pakistan, India, China and Indonesia.
For Muslims, establishing Islamic schools today takes precedence over building mosques. You can have a huge decorative and expensive mosque, but lose your children and end up having no one in the mosque to pray.
After meeting with Muslim scholars the author has a better understanding that in times of uncertainty it may be easier for people to trust a learned religious leader than a democratically elected elite put in place by dubiously motivated political constituencies.
There is a large body of material in both Muslim and Christian sources that supports a public role for religion without making territoriality a condition of faith. Westerners must keep abreast of moderate Muslim counsels.
The author examines evidence of widespread Muslim prejudice against Christians in Pakistan.
The conflict between Christians and Muslims is historic in that it goes back to the times of Muhammad with the Christians of his time. The nature of the conflict unlike in the case of the Jews-Muslim conflict was not political but dogmatic. It concerned the nature of God.
Professor Kimball lays out the basics of Islam:, including the Qur’an, Islam in political context, contemporary Islamic reform, and suggests several helpful books. Too often we are led toward the most sensational and simplistic images of Islam.
An examination of the cross-cultural encounter dramatized in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses -- and the furor the novel created in the Islamic world and the West.
Three authors give different view about how we are to speak about Islam. Lewis see the Islamics as people alienated from the West. Esposito puts Usama bin Laden and his type on the margins of Islam. Kepel sees Muslim militants as forging coalitions that can alter the balance of power in specific societies.
A study of the strong reaction, particularly in the Islamic world, against Salman Rushdie’s novel.
Since 9/11, if the world is to be made safe, moderate Muslims, militant Muslims and Christians must struggle together to make the world a safer place for communities and families who see things differently from one another.
African-Americans have found in Islam a new sense of personal empowerment and a rigorous call to discipline.
The Shi’a’s branch of Muslim belief, most prominent in Iran, expects the return of the Mahdi, a savior who, along with Jesus, is expected to bring justice and peace to the world at the end of this age. Because of their respect for Jesus as a great prophet, (though nothing more) there is hope for future dialogue with the Iranians.
(ENTIRE BOOK) A short, concise and helpful explanation of Islam -- its founder, scripture and theology, as well as its presence in the modern world.