Interfaith Relations and Coexistence: The Islamic Perspective
By
Eric Schinkel, New Age Islam
4 June 2022
Islam’s
History Has at Certain Points Intersected with That of Other Faiths
Main
Points:
1. Islam's
history demonstrates the capacity for considerable flexibility in its
interactions with other faiths.
2. Islamic
societies across history are notable for their thoughtful consideration and
integration of diverse populations to allow for peaceful coexistence.
3. Despite
emerging socio-political obstacles, Muslims across history and into the
present-day have been able to transcend religious boundaries to maintain a
productive dialogue with other faiths.
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As one of
several major world religions, Islam’s history has at certain points
intersected with that of other faiths. Even from the time of the Prophet
Muhammad’s Qur’anic revelations, thoughtful consideration was given to how the
future ‘Islamic movement’ would approach interactions with other faiths, with
the Qur’an often acknowledging the other monotheistic Abrahamic faiths as the
basis for The Prophet’s new revelations and encouraged a certain collectivism,
celebration and collaboration with other faiths owing to this shared heritage:
"Indeed, those who believed and those who
were Jews or Christians or Sabeans [before Prophet Muhammad] - those [among
them] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness - will have
their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor
will they grieve."
Given the
extensive diversity of religious faiths and the high percentages of the
population that adhere to them – with
over 1.5 billion, in 2010, aligning themselves with Islam, 2.1 billion with
Christianity, and 1 billion with Hinduism, to name a few – this is an important area of study if we wish
to understand the complex social dynamics in interactions between Islam and
other faiths.
This
article will examine a selection of key interactions of interest between
individuals and empires of Islamic faith and other religions, in order to
evaluate how past interfaith correspondence have influenced those successive,
so that we might come to a conclusion about how interfaith relations will
evolve into the future.
The
Pre-Qur’anic Context
Given that
the topic of “Islamic interfaith relations” depends on the presence of an
established Islamic religion or movement, there is little to mention in this
section regarding “Islamic” interactions with other faiths. However, there are
certain points of interest regarding the religious demographics of Arabia
before the Islam movement as it was established by The Prophet emerged. These
pre-Islam demographics provide an important context for the understanding of
future cross-religious interactions.
For
religions specifically of Arab origin, polytheism dominated the pre-Islamic
scene. Its population
organising themselves as a nomadic society composed of a mix of several,
disconnected tribes interspersed with a select few sedentary settlements, the culture of polytheism that
pervaded the region exacerbated this division through a characteristic “lack of
conviction” stemming from fatalistic attitudes promoted by the pagan religions,
which severely undermined the notion of unity between Arabians (in contrast to Islam, which would
promote strong values of shared community and the unity of Arabs under the
banner of monotheistic devotion to Allah). The Qur’an, in part acting as a
record or account of the history of the region, describes such attitudes:
“And they (the Pagans) say: "There is
nothing but only our life in this world. Some of us die, while others continue
to live; and nothing causes us to perish but Time (the processes of decline and
decay). " But they have no (sure and true) knowledge about this (the real
nature and meaning of life and death, and the life after it). They merely
follow their conjectures.”
While these
Paganistic religions would eventually be made largely obsolete by the emergence
of Islam and the unity of the Arabian peninsula under the Caliphates, they are
important to mention in considering past influences on Islam’s approach to
organising itself and the people of Arabian peninsula, as well as its future
interactions with other religions.
Christianity
and Judaism are perhaps the most important of these “other religions”.
Christian and Jewish communities had a significant presence (considering their
status as migrants) in certain parts of Arabia before the emergence of Islam, ,
with Christianity spreading at some point around 324 CE after Constantinople
conquered Byzantium and its influence being further exacerbated by missionaries
from the Roman Empire in the northwest regions, while Judaism a foothold as
early as the 2nd century CE in the area that would become Medina as its ruling
tribes adopted the religion.
Of particular importance here is the Jewish-dominated Medina, which becomes a
centrepiece of Islamic interfaith relations in the years to come.
In Early
Islam
The
importance of Islam as a continuation of previous monotheistic traditions, and
not a competitor, was stressed from the very beginning of The Prophet
Muhammad’s Qur’anic revelations in 610 CE. The impacts of this on Islam’s
relations with other faiths, ignoring socio-political relations and considering
only the religious context, are varied. On the one hand, it acts as an opening
and encouragement for dialogue between believers of this new movement and the
existing faiths, especially as the Qur’an is inclusive of followers of the
other monotheistic religions as
Ahl al-Kitāb (“people of the book”) On the other hand, this creates
certain logistical issues regarding inconsistencies in what each “branch” of
this monotheistic tradition believes, with significant potential for conflict.
Perhaps the best example of the Qur’an’s
recognition of Jesus Christ as a prophet, but not as the son of God or as part of the trinity of “Father, Son,
and the Holy Spirit” that constitute “God” in the Christian view – which is a
belief held with strong conviction by Christians. This also conflicts with the
Jewish view, which tends to disregard Christ as both the son of God and a
prophet. Ideological tolerance or consistency between the faiths is also
dependent on the other monotheistic religions accepting The Prophet Muhammad’s
claim that the Qur’an is the direct word of God – which
is a contentious point of view for many Jews and Christians. Hence, while Islam’s acknowledgement
of other traditions opens the door for peace and tolerance between them, it
also inadvertently sets the foundations for ideological conflict.
In terms of
the socio-political aspect of interfaith relations, Islam and the other
monotheistic traditions tended to coexist peacefully in the early days of
movement. Extensive efforts were made on the part of individuals such as The
Prophet Muhammad himself to ensure peace in the region and ease concerns of the
potential persecution of non-Muslims in what was fast-becoming an
Islam-dominated region. Perhaps the most notable of these efforts is the
Constitution of Medina, which reportedly included such tenets as the belief
that “the security
(dhimmah) of God is one: the granting of ‘neighbourly protection’ (yujir) by
the least of them (the believers) is binding on them” and that “the peace
(silm) of the believers is one; no believer makes peace apart from another
believer”. Another
significant charter is the Ashtiname of Muhammad, which extends similar
promises of protection to a Christian monastery in Sinai. These charters are
regarded as being demonstrative of “the
Islamic approach to conflict resolution” and of The Prophet Muhammad’s commendable character which
Muslims are often encouraged to emulate.
Hence, the
Early Islamic period saw considerable peace and cooperation across faiths,
thanks to the efforts made by the emerging Muslims to integrate the believers
of other monotheistic traditions into both the religion itself (especially
through their acknowledgement in the Qur’an) and into the Caliphates that were
established after the death of The Prophet. However, the seeds for future
conflict were planted via inconsistencies across the specific content of the
religions, which at times caused outrage and an unwillingness to cooperate – or
else, a willingness to use these ideological differences as a justification for
wars waged with ulterior motives in mind.
In
Classical Islam
Such a
situation occurred at the turn of the millennium as Pope Urban II incited the
Crusades. Islamic expansion under the Abbasid Caliphate threatened the
Christian powers in Europe, and the conquer Jerusalem gave the Christian forces
sufficient reason to wage a war motivated by other factors; “Not
all of them, indeed, were there on behalf of the Lord”. The Crusades spanned nearly 200 years and
severely “damaged
inter-Christian relations”, worsening the divide between the perceived
“Western” and “Middle-Eastern” cultures and setting a precedent for future
Christian-Muslim interactions being characterised by “aggression, intolerance,
and misunderstanding” Such
strained relations emerged not only as a result of the Crusades themselves but
also due to the Christians’ and Muslims’ demonisation of each other: with
Christians being encouraged
to base their view of Islam on misrepresented, malicious distortions of the
religion’s tenets,while
Muslims obviously had their perception of Christians coloured by their
incitement of the conflict. The impacts of the conflict and the division it
created between Christians and Muslims are still relevant in the present-day.
One of the
motivating factors for the Crusades was the increasing influence of the Islamic
world – its traditions, technologies, and innovations – over other cultures.
The Classical era of Islam saw significant intercultural exchange and
correspondence as the empire expanded under the Abbasid Caliphate. Islam
thrived in this era, pioneering revolutionary
advances in medicine, agriculture and scholarly practices. With the increased capacity for trade and the
establishment of new trade routes, these advancements were spread far from the
Caliphate and were able to influence and inspire similar developments in
Western regions.
One of the
most interesting (and positive) dynamics between Islam and other religions
during this period is the peaceful coexistence of Islam and Hinduism in India.
Interested in leveraging the attractive opportunities for trade and production
in the Indian basin (something that the pre-Islamic Arabs were also drawn to
the region for), Islamic
influence spread into India from as early as 711 CE with the conquest of Sind,
which after several hundred years advanced Islamic influence in the region such
that the sultanate of Delhi was finally established in the early 1200s. The flow of Muslim migrants into
the region and the economic growth of the region led to exponential rates of
emerging urbanisation, which made day-to-day interactions between Muslims and
Hindus even more likely. The result was a living situation that incentivised
collaboration between the two distinct populations, which
manifested in the exchanging of ideas relating to philosophy, arts,
architecture, literature, and more. Specific arrangements were made by the ruling Muslims of the Delhi
sultanate to ensure that the existing Hindu population would be allowed to
integrate and participate comfortably in society alongside the Muslims – they
often shared places of worship, and there was little pressure from either side
to convert others to a religion, besides one’s own interest in doing so.
A wide
range of outcomes for interfaith interactions are observed during this period,
which demonstrate Islam’s capacity to facilitate both peaceful coexistence and
armed conflict with other religions, both outcomes occurring under the same
dynasty and within a relatively short period of time.
Contemporary
Developments
In the
Classical era, we could identify the beginnings of a complex and increasingly
versatile and varied Islamic tradition capable of taking on several forms at
once. This continues into the present-day, where processes of globalisation
coupled with the vastly expanded spread of Islam across the world have spawned
a wide variety of Muslim approaches to interfaith correspondence.
Of
particular importance in the modern era is not just how Muslim entities
themselves approach interfaith interactions, but also how Muslims generally are
perceived by other those hailing from other cultures and faith. With the
consequences of the Crusades still ingrained in the culture of the West, the
growth of mass-media outlets enabled by technological innovations has led to a
rise in sensationalist depictions of Islam made to elicit fear from Western
populations.
This in
turn feeds into the issue of Islamic sectarianism and the internal divide
between Muslims in the present-day; which itself was one of the motivating
factors for Western sensationalism in the first place. The Iranian revolution “extremely
conditioned U.S. thinking about the violent, anti-American nature of
fundamentalist Islam”, solidifying Islam as a perceived “security threat to
American [and more generally, Western] interests”. Such conflict has led to animosity from both
sides in certain circles, making it difficult for interreligious dialogue
between Muslims and Christians, for example.
However,
there have been efforts to stay true to the original approach towards peaceful
coexistence demonstrated by The Prophet Muhammad, even despite these political
difficulties. An
“interreligious movement” promoting collaboration across religions has emerged
and taken shape in an organised fashion. While globalisation processes have had several negative impacts on
interfaith relations through over-exposure leading to sensationalism, it has
also allowed for easier and more regular interreligious discourse, leading to
more productive and mutually beneficial outcomes. It could be argued that
interreligious understanding and tolerance is at its peak, given the frequency
with which religious leaders meet and the transformation of metropolitan
centres into cosmopolitan societies composed of diverse demographics from all
religious faiths.
In
Summary
Given these
positive developments and their continued escalation, contrasted with the
de-escalation of conflict between extremist entities, perhaps owing to the
increasingly densely-populated cosmopolitan societies in which we are forced to
coexist, the outlook of interfaith relations between Islam and other religions
is promising. Islam in its earliest forms was a strong proponent of peaceful
dialogue and intercultural collaboration. In later years, it demonstrated its
capacity to be versatile in order to overcome challenges. This versatility has
continued to be tested into the modern era, where, despite frequent setbacks,
interfaith relations have still managed to flourish. It can be safely assumed
that the Islamic approach to interfaith issues will continue to facilitate
positive interactions with other religions that will prove beneficial for all
parties involved.
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Eric
Schinkel is studying Education at Griffith University to teach secondary school
students history, including the history of Islam and its role in the
development of the world.
URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/interfaith-coexistence-islamic-perspective/d/127171
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