Abstract
We are witnessing two seemingly contradictory trends in the relations between religious communities. On the one hand, there has never been a time like this in history when there is so much exchange and interaction among followers of different faiths in so many different parts of the world. On the other hand, a great deal of tension, conflict, and violence—violence perpetrated in the name of religion that has led to the massacre of tens of thousands of human beings—also characterizes this interface. People are reaching out to one another, and yet people are rejecting one another.
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Notes
The importance of moving on to other concerns was raised in my “InterReligious Communication: The Five Tasks,” in One God, Many Paths, ed. Gan Teik Chee (Penang, Malaysia; Aliran, 1980).
An example would be Sandy and Jael Bharat, A Global Guide to Interfaith: Reflections from around the World (Winchester, UK: O Books, 2007).
This is discussed in Tariq Ramadan, To Be a European Muslim (Leicester, UK: The Islamic Foundation, 1999).
For a broader understanding of the conflict, see various essays in Understanding Conflict and Approaching Peace in Southern Thailand, ed. Dr. Imtiyaz Yusuf and Dr. Lars Peter Schmidt(Bangkok, Thailand: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 2006).
The realities of communal violence are studied in The Other India: Realities of an Emerging Power, ed. Rajesh Chakrabarti (New Delhi, India: Sage, 2009), especially Section 111.
A more elaborate analysis of the causes can be found in my “Religious Conflict in Asia: Probing the Causes, Seeking Solutions,” in Bridge or Barrier: Religion, Violence and Visions for Peace, ed. Gerrie ter Haar and James J. Busuttil (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2005).
This point is made in John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, The Israel Lobby and U. S. Foreign Policy (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007).
For a comprehensive examination of the phenomenon of resistance in contemporary Muslim societies see Alastair Crooke, Resistance The Essence of the Islamist Revolution (London, UK: Pluto Press, 2009).
How American militarism has led to the decline of U.S. hegemony is discussed in James Petras, Zionism, Militarism, and the Decline of US Power (Atlanta, GA: Clarity Press, 2008).
See Muhammad Umer Chapra, ‘The Global Financial Crisis: Can Islamic Finance Help Minimise the Severity and Frequency of Such a Crisis in the Future?’ Islam and Civilisational Renewal 1, no. 2 (December 2009) (International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies [IAIS], Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), p. 235.
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© 2011 Luca Anceschi, Joseph A. Camilleri, Ruwan Palapathwala, and Andrew Wicking
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Muzaffar, C. (2011). Conclusion Interfaith Interaction: Contradictions and Conflicts. In: Anceschi, L., Camilleri, J.A., Palapathwala, R., Wicking, A. (eds) Religion and Ethics in a Globalizing World. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230117686_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230117686_13
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