The Bible in early Muslim anti‐Christian polemic

During the early centuries of Islam, the Bible did not usually receive specific attention from Muslim polemicists. Among those who did refer to it, some rejected the text on the grounds that it was corrupt, and developed accounts of how the original injil had been lost and replaced by the canonical Gospels. The majority, however, have left no expressed view, but do not appear to have experienced difficulty in employing suitable verses in their arguments as illustrations and proofs. A few scholars were in a position to use the Biblical texts to good effect in their arguments. The Christian convert ^cAli b. Rabban al‐Tabari employed a distinctively Muslim method of exegesis, and demonstrated how predictions of the coming of Muhammad and Islam are scattered throughout the biblical books. The Zaydi theologian al‐Qasim ibn Ibrahim al‐Rassi followed a more radical method in translating parts of Matthew's Gospel into Arabic, and altering words and phrases and omitting sections in order to make the original conform to Islamic beliefs. This Islamicization of the Gospel is symptomatic of the confident early third/ninth‐century belief that Islam provided the criteria for true teachings.     

Mahometans on the Edge of Colonial Empire: Antipodean Experiences

ABSTRACT

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.     

Methodists and Muslims in the Gambia

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.     

Muslim‐Christian polemics in Indonesian Islamic literature

As Indonesian Muslim depictions of Christianity have varied over time and according to the receptivity of particular regions, this study provides a brief survey of the Muslim attitudes towards Christianity from the seventeenth to the twentieth century in Indonesia. In this article, Nuruddin al‐Raniri and Hasbullah Bakry are taken as the prototype of Indonesian Muslims’ depictions of Christianity in the early and modem eras. In Bakry's works, as the main concern of this study, we find greater familiarity with the Bible which is quoted in an almost literal fashion. The biblical verses are quoted for the purpose of convincing a Muslim audience that Islam is the last religion and that Muhammad is the last messenger; they are used to defend Islam from the misrepresentations of Christians who had wielded the Bible as one of their chief weapons in the effort of Christianize Indonesia.     

Between daʿwa and Dialogue: Religious Engagement in Muslim-minority Environments

ABSTRACT

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 da?wa, 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 da?wa. This essay focuses on four pioneering figures, two from the indigenous context of India – the modernist Asghar Ali Engineer and the reformist ?ālim 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.     

Walking a Tightrope: The Jesuit Robert Bütler and Muslim–Christian Dialogue in Pakistan

This article deals with the Swiss Jesuit Robert Andreas Bütler (1915–1996) and his attempts to develop Muslim–Christian dialogue in Pakistan between the 1960s and 1980s. It focuses especially on his correspondence with the Islamist ideologue Sayyid Abu ’l-A?la Mawdudi (1903–1979), one of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the twentieth century and a major figure in South Asian Islam. On the basis of their written exchange, the article identifies challenges to Muslim–Christian rapprochement against the backdrop of state-funded Islamization and rising political tensions in Pakistan. It demonstrates how Bütler’s efforts became entangled in postcolonial struggles for a national identity, thereby revealing the limits of Vatican II-inspired approaches to Muslim–Christian dialogue.     

SUSANNA AND THE PRE‐CHRISTIAN BOOK OF DANIEL: STRUCTURE AND MEANING1

The structure of the pre‐Christian book of Daniel as newly edited in Palestine in the first century B.C. is coherent, often symmetrical, and meaningful and was the version used by Jesus and the early Christians. Origen's and Jerome's reordering of the fourteen‐chapter book in conformity with the extant Hebrew, however, vitiated that structure. Susanna's account opened the pre‐Christian Palestinian version. That account inaugurates the themes of wisdom and judgment and provides the restoration of right order within the community in exile, a restoration essential for what transpires thereafter. Her experience is the first of four holy ordeals placed symmetrically in the first half of the book and framing the book as a whole. Significantly, the two chapters of Daniel most quoted in the Gospels are the ones that open the two halves of the book: Susanna, and the first vision of Daniel. Those two chapters are linked thematically and by diction, including the pair of unique phrases ‘[one grown] ancient of evil days' and ‘Ancient of Days’. Susanna exemplifies the experiences of the saints – suffering and then vindicated – and also, for the writers of the synoptic Gospels – the experiences of Jesus in his passion.     

Religious Requirement: The case for Roman Catholic schools in the 1940s and Muslim schools in the 1990s

This article sets out the four principles which underlay Catholic schooling in the 1940s. Similar principles were expressed by Muslim leaders in the 1990s. The origins of Catholic schools in the 19th century are described, as is the 1870 Act which led to a great increase in their number. Twentieth-century Catholic writers set out the rights and duties of parents and the obligation of the state to fund Catholic schools. The stance of the church in the 1940s is examined in detail. Some characteristics of Islam are then described. Religious observance brings conflict for children attending maintained schools. Parents may campaign for change in these schools, or opt for independent Islamic schools. The conclusions of the Swann Report (1985) regarding separate schooling are set out, followed by the change in government policy after 1997. In conclusion, the article asks whether we may expect an increase in Muslim voluntary aided schools parallel to the earlier increase of Catholic schools.     

The Nation and the Nun: Mother Teresa,Albania's Muslim Majority and the Secular State

In Albania, a religiously pluralist country with a secular constitution, an atheist past and a Muslim majority, the authorities have since the end of Communism promoted Mother Teresa as the “Mother of Albanians” and an emblem of the state. The name, statues and portraits of this ethnic Albanian Catholic nun have become a prominent feature in the public sphere. Based on fieldwork material, Albanian texts and unique statistical data, this article discusses the “motherteresification” of Albania in the period after her beatification in 2003, particularly during the Democratic government (2005–13). It also explores alternative Christian and Muslim interpretations of the symbol in Albania. Both the top-down construction of “Mother Teresa” as a national symbol and the arguments against it demonstrate that secularism remains a core value. By fronting a Christian Nobel Laureate, this EU-aspiring country signals that it is peaceful and belongs to Europe and the West, a recurrent national concern for over a century and acute after 9/11. Making an ethnic Albanian nun a symbol of a Muslim majority nation thus makes sense.     

Pentecostal Movements,Islam and the Contest for Public Space in Northern Nigeria

The article considers the changing relationship between independent Pentecostal and charismatic groups and radical Islamic movements in Northern Nigeria between the 1970s and the early years of the twenty-first century. All these groups, be they Christian or Muslim, represent a new dimension in religious fundamentalism in contemporary Nigeria. In spite of being internal revivalist groups within their respective religious traditions, they reflect negative attitudes toward each other. Their relationship has been marked by continuous competition for public space. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the demonization of Islamic groups was a feature of Pentecostal discourse. Through their involvement in political activities under the umbrella of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), evangelicals and Pentecostals developed a common front in the face of Muslim fundamentalism.     

An exploration of ethos in Irish Muslim schools: ethnographic insights and perspectives from parents and teachers

Islam is the fastest growing faith in the Republic of Ireland, with the number of adherents reported in 2012 at 50,000. However, despite this number there are only three Muslim primary schools. Empirical research on Muslim schools in Ireland is currently very limited. This article aims to provide insight and understanding into the role of ethos as a lived experience among children in Muslim primary schools in contemporary twenty-first century Ireland. The data for this ethnographic study were based on observations and interviews with Muslim parents and religion teachers in two Muslim Irish state-funded schools. This study revealed both similarities and variations between the schools, despite being under the same patronage. These were significantly notable in how the ethos was manifested and experienced by Muslim pupils, in terms of prayer, dress code and physical environment. The article concludes with some implications for the research.     

The Ottoman approach to Christians and Christianity in sixteenth‐century Jerusalem

The Ottoman Empire was a Muslim state not only by definition; in many fields it actually implemented Islamic policies. In Ottoman Palestine these policies could be discerned from the early sixteenth century onwards, and they were applied particularly in Jerusalem. Laden with memories of religious conflicts, encompassing a Christian (as well as Jewish) population and their holy sites, it would hardly be surprising to find anti‐Christian acts and perhaps even policies in Jerusalem. The sixteenth‐century formative Ottoman years witnessed several anti‐Christian incidents: expulsion of the Franciscan monks from their convent on Mount Zion in 1551, Muslim attempts to legally seize parts of the Monastery of the Cross near Jerusalem from the Georgians in the early sixties, and during the same years similar threats to the Coptic Dayr al‐Khadr monastery in town. These incidents should not be construed as part of an overall policy, but should rather be seen as illustrations of pressures exerted on the Ottoman authorities by local Muslim zealots. Official policies of the Sultan, and in most cases his actual orders, sought to protect and uphold the Christian presence in Jerusalem. The expulsion from Mount Zion was an exception to the general rule, and even in that case the local authorities provided the Franciscans with an alternative building within the larger Christian complex.     

Being an Intelligent Slave of God

How did premodern Muslim thinkers talk about living authentically as a Muslim in the world? How, in their view, could selves transform themselves into ideal religious subjects or slaves of God? Which virtues, technologies of the self and intersubjective relations did they see implicated in inhabiting or attaining what I shall call ?abdī subjectivity? In this paper, I make explicit how various discursive, ethical strategies formed, informed, and transformed Muslim subjectivity in early Muslim thought by focusing on the writings of an important ninth century Muslim moral pedagogue, al‐Mu?āsibī (d. 857). This study illustrates the advantages of approaching early Muslim texts and discourses through the tools and methods made available by comparative religious ethics in order to reexamine our understanding of Muslim subject formation and the role of ethical and theological discourses in the same.     

Blasphemy and Protection of the Faith: Legal Perspectives from the Middle Ages

ABSTRACT

Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legal traditions have all attempted to define and prohibit blasphemy: insult or verbal attack against their religion, against its rites and symbols, against God and his human representatives. Such laws could be internal (prohibiting blasphemy by members of the faith group) or external (prohibiting insult by those outside the faith). This article will first briefly trace the former, looking at how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legal traditions from Antiquity and the Middle Ages define and prohibit blasphemy. The second part of the article will then focus on the second issue, looking at how Christian and Muslim legal traditions attempted to prohibit insults to the faith by adherents of other religions. We shall look, for example, at various Christian laws dealing with what was perceived as Jewish mockery of Christian ritual and sacred objects: from mock crucifixions allegedly practiced by Jews as part of Purim celebrations in the fifth-century Roman Empire to Jews who supposedly derided the Eucharist during thirteenth-century Corpus Christi processions. We shall in parallel examine prohibitions in Muslim legal texts (including the so-called Pact of ?‘Umar) of dhimmīs insulting the Prophet Muhammad or the Qur'an. This comparison will show that, while blasphemy was illegal and could be harshly sanctioned and there were lines that religious minorities must not cross, these lines were often not clearly delimited, and became the object of conflict and negotiation.     

Modern Pakistani and Indian Muslim perceptions of Christianity

In a forthcoming book,¹ I have examined the development of Muslim perceptions of Christianity over the centuries, with particular reference to contemporary Egyptian views. In the early modern period, the nineteenth century in particular, together with Egypt it was the Indian sub‐continent which was the point of genesis of much of the new Muslim thinking which emerged on the subject of Christianity.² This article will investigate the more recent development of this tradition, in both Pakistan and India, since they achieved their independence in 1947.     

The Christian experience and interpretation of the early Muslim conquest and rule

The Christian experience of the Muslim conquest and early rule is described in the writings of contemporary historians, church leaders and other writers. These writings provide a range of perspectives and interpretations of that era, determined to some extent by the political situation and the sectarian affiliation of the writer. A survey of these interpretations demonstrates a general lack of awareness of the religious nature of Islam in the early Umayyad period in the seventh century CE. The Arabs are initially seen as looting and plundering invaders and then as a political force demanding taxes but also dispensing justice and protection. While they are seen to have religious links to the Jews, their major religious significance lies in the Christian interpretation of their invasion as a divine punishment for the sins of the Christian communities. Christian writings reflect a growing awareness of Islam as a religion towards the end of this period during the first half of the eighth century, with specific references to the Qur'an and Muslim beliefs.     

ISLAMIC BIOETHICS IN THE TWENTY‐FIRST CENTURY

Islamic bioethics is in good health, this article argues. During the twentieth century, academic researchers had to deal with a number of difficulties including the scarcity of available Islamic sources. However, the twenty‐first century witnessed significant breakthroughs in the field of Islamic bioethics. A growing number of normative works authored by Muslim religious scholars and studies conducted by academic researchers have been published. This nascent field also proved to be appealing for research‐funding institutions in the Muslim world and also in the West, such as the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). On the other hand, the article argues that contemporary Islamic bioethics is in need of addressing news issues and adopting new approaches for the sake of maintaining and improving this good health in the future.     

MEDICAL MANAGEMENT OF INFANT INTERSEX: THE JURIDICO‐ETHICAL DILEMMA OF CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC LEGAL RESPONSE

Technological advances in the field of medicine and health sciences not only manipulate the normal human body and sex but also provide for surgical and hormonal management of hermaphroditism (intersexuality). Consequently, sex assignment surgery has not only become a standard care for babies born with genital abnormalities in the West but even in some Muslim states. On the positive side, it goes a long way in saving children born with abnormal genitalia from numerous legal interdictions of the pre‐sex corrective surgery. Nevertheless, the larger ethical and legal questions that medical management of genital abnormality raises to some extent have not been adequately appreciated by contemporary Muslim responses. This article, therefore, in principle argues against surgical management of intersexuality during early infancy from the Islamic legal perspective.     

Mystics and Sufi masters: Thomas Merton and dialogue between Christians and Muslims

The Cistercian, Trappist monk Thomas Merton (1915–1968), author of numerous books on Christian spirituality, monasticism and social commentary, was a forerunner in popular inter‐religious dialogue in the twentieth century. In this connection, he is best known for his sympathetic explorations of themes from Asian religions, particularly Zen and other forms of Buddhism. This article calls attention to his studies in Islam, initially under the guidance of Louis Massignon (1883–1962), and particularly in Sufism. It highlights his interactions with a number of contemporary Muslim thinkers, and describes his decade‐long correspondence with a Pakistani Muslim student of Sufi texts, a unique instance of a sustained dialogue in letters on religious themes between a Muslim and a Christian in modern times. The article also calls attention to the ways in which Merton took inspiration from Islamic sources in the development of his own spiritual teaching.