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Muslim and Christian Understanding Theory and Application of “A Common Word” Muslim and Christian Understanding Theory and Application of “A Common Word” Edited by Waleed El-Ansary and David K. Linnan MUSLIM AND CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING Copyright © Waleed El-Ansary and David K. Linnan, 2010. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-10370-2 All rights reserved. First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-10442-6 ISBN 978-0-230-11440-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230114401 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Muslim and Christian understanding : theory and application of a common word / edited by Waleed El-Ansary and David K. Linnan. p. cm. 1. Islam—Relations—Christianity. 2. Christianity and other religions— Islam. 3. Dialogue—Religious aspects—Islam. 4. Dialogue—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. El-Ansary, Waleed Adel. II. Linnan, David K., 1953– BP172.M796 2010 297.2(cid:2)83—dc22 2010016025 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: October 2010 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents List of Illustrations vii Foreword ix 1 Narrative Introduction 1 Waleed El-Ansary and David K. Linnan Religious Leaders’ Introductions 2 “A Common Word Between Us and You”: Motives and Applications 15 HE Shaykh Ali Goma‛a 3 “A Common Word” Initiative: Theoria and Praxis 21 Seyyed Hossein Nasr 4 The Power of Finding Common Ground: “A Common Word” and the Invitation to Understanding 29 The Right Reverend William O. Gregg Part I Theory A. Theology 5 Islam, Christianity, the Enlightenment: “A Common Word” and Muslim-Christian Relations 41 Ibrahim Kalin 6 Mutual Theological Hospitality: Doing Theology in the Presence of the “Other” 57 Daniel A. Madigan B. Mysticism 7 Spirituality and Other Religions: Meditations upon Some Deeper Dimensions of “A Common Word Between Us and You” 69 Caner Dagli 8 Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Interfaith Dialogue: Mystical Principles, Practical Initiatives 81 John Chryssavgis vi Contents C. Metaphysics 9 What of the Word Is Common? 93 Joseph Lumbard 10 Disagreeing to Agree: A Christian Response to “A Common Word” 111 James S. Cutsinger 11 T heological Parallels and Metaphysical Meeting Points: Christ and the Word in Christianity and Islam 131 Maria M. Dakake Part II Applications A. Environment and Climate Change 12 I slamic Environmental Economics and the Three Dimensions of Islam: “A Common Word” on the Environment as Neighbor 143 Waleed El-Ansary 13 Reassessing the Role of Religion in Western Climate Change Decision-Making 159 Cinnamon P. Carlarne B. Human Rights and Ethics 14 In Pursuit of a “New Secular”: Human Rights and “A Common Word” 175 Nicholas Adams 15 Multiculturalism in Indonesia: Human Rights in Practice 189 Harkristuti Harkrisnowo 16 The “Common Word,” Development, and Human Rights: African and Catholic Perspectives 201 Joseph M. Isanga C. Development 17 An Islamic Perspective on Economic Development 221 Zamir Iqbal and Abbas Mirakhor 18 A Common View of Development: Richer Versus Better, and Who Decides? 235 David K. Linnan Bibliography 259 Contributors 279 Index 283 Illustrations Map 1.1 2008 World Bank Country Income Groups and Islamic Zones Map. Mixed cultural areas are indicated by dotted lines and are present in Africa (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Camaroon, Central African Republic, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania), and in Asia (Kazakhstan, China, and India) 2 Figures 18.1 D ecrease in Infant Mortality Rate since 1960 by Country/Region. World Bank regional indices are: Subsaharan Africa (SSA), Middle East and North Africa (MENA), South Asia (SA), East Asia and Pacific (EAP), Latin America and Caribbean (LAC), and Central and Eastern Europe/CIS (CEE/CIS) 241 18.2 D ecrease in Under Five Mortality Rate since 1960 by Country/Region. World Bank regional indices are: Subsaharan Africa (SSA), Middle East and North Africa (MENA), South Asia (SA), East Asia and Pacific (EAP), Latin America and Caribbean (LAC), and Central and Eastern Europe/CIS (CEE/CIS) 242 18.3 Decrease in Under Five Mortality, Matlab Bangladesh 1974–2000 243 18.4 D rowning Deaths in 1–4 Year Olds, Matlab Bangladesh 1983–2000 244 18.5 Leading Causes of Fatal Child Injury in Bangladesh 2003 244 18.6 I ncrease in Life Expectancy since 1960 by Country/Region. World Bank regional indices are: Subsaharan Africa (SSA), Middle East and North Africa (MENA), South Asia (SA), East Asia and Pacific (EAP), Latin America and Caribbean (LAC), and Central and Eastern Europe/CIS (CEE/CIS) 245 Table 16.1 Religions in Africa, by regions 202 Foreword This work represents the latest fruit of A Common Word Between Us and You (http://www. acommonword.com), a high-level Christian-Muslim dialogue that provides the focus of our exploration of commonalities, differences, and shared interests between the Western and Islamic worlds. We would like to thank the chief architect of the “Common Word” initiative, HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, for his encouragement in exploring the initiative’s wide-ranging implications in an academic setting. His leadership in promoting interfaith relations has been both visionary and inspirational. We are also grateful to Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates for its sup- port in bringing together senior Muslim and Christian figures from throughout the Middle East to discuss various themes of the book, which have enriched it greatly. In particular, we would like to thank HE Shaykh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, UAE Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and President of Zayed University, for his support. We are also grateful to HE Shaykh Ali Goma‛a, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, who not only contributed an essay to the volume, but was a catalyst for the book itself. Finally, we would like to thank Dr. Sulaiman Al Jassim, Vice President of Zayed University, Dr. Nasr Arif, Professor of Political Science of Zayed University, and Ms. Marlys Berg, Director, Administration of Zayed University, for all their encouragement and efforts. On the Christian side, we are most grateful to Rudolph C. Barnes, Jr., whose family endowed the Barnes Symposium at the University of South Carolina that provided a forum to engage in serious academic inquiry on pressing issues of law and morality understood in the broadest sense. His commitment to in- terfaith dialogue between Christianity and Islam helped make this book pos- sible. We also wish to thank the Right Reverend William O. Gregg, Episcopal Bishop of Charlotte, for his warm engagement. Once your appetite is whetted by this book, the reader can watch more at http://www.lfip.org/barnes/2009/ videopage.htm. We thank, of course, our families (especially Eman) for patience during all the late nights involved in producing scholarship, and to whom this work is dedicated. We also acknowledge our colleagues and contributors in Indonesia and elsewhere, who spent their own late nights on the work. We close by thanking God, for by x Foreword grace everything fell into place so well in our efforts that it all seemed preor- dained, and, on a human level, thanks to the people of good will who thought it was high time to do something. Hopefully things continue. July, 2010 CE; Sha‘bān, 1431 AH Waleed El-Ansary, Cairo David K. Linnan, Columbia 1 Narrative Introduction Waleed El-Ansary and David K. Linnan In October 2007, 138 leading Muslim scholars and intellectuals from all corners of the globe representing every Islamic denomination and school of thought—including such figures as the Grand Muftis of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Oman, Bosnia, Russia, and Istanbul—issued an open letter to leaders of Christian churches and denominations throughout the world entitled “A Common Word Between Us and You.” The initiative brings to the fore, in the interest of develop- ing a meaningful peace, how the Muslim and Christian communities representing well over half of the world’s population might agree on love of God and love of neighbor as common beliefs. How did this all come about? The title of the initiative itself derives from a Qur’ānic verse that enjoins Muslims to issue the following call to Christians (and to Jews—the “People of Scripture,” as they are known in the Qur’ān): “Say: ‘O People of Scripture! Come to a common word between us and you: that we shall worship none but God, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside God’ ” (Q 3:64). In fact, this initiative followed another open letter exactly one year earlier addressed to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI that was designed to point out politely factual mistakes in the Pope’s controversial 2006 Regensburg lecture perceived from differing viewpoints as an attack on Islam itself as a religion condoning violence, versus a call to control all religious intolerance.1 The response to “A Common Word” has been profound, finding resonance in the senior levels of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox branches of Christianity.2 It is now the most important theological exchange between Christianity and Islam in the world, and provides a framework to address the most pressing issues be- tween the two world communities. The original initiative and profound response thus grew in part out of a sense at the highest level of religious communities that something was wrong that had to be addressed and, ultimately, changed. What Is the Islamic World? As a point of departure, we need first to explain what the Islamic world is. Many Westerners equate Islam and Islamic civilization with the Arab zone of the Islamic world, since this was the birthplace of Islam and was for centuries the only part of the Islamic world that the West knew. But only 20% of Muslims today are Arab, as the accompanying map illustrates. The Arab world as the initial zone of Islamic

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