Political Islam and Non-Muslim Religions: A Lesson from Lessing for the Arab Transition
Hardly any region has recently captured the global geopolitical imagination as much as the Arab world after the so-called Arab Spring and very likely no state more so than Egypt. Finally it seemed that democracy was coming to the region, that this would spell the end of radical Islam, and of any loc...
| Published in: | Islam and Christian-Muslim relations |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
[2014]
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| In: |
Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BJ Islam KBL Near East and North Africa TJ Modern history TK Recent history |
| Further subjects: | B
Lessing
B Political Islam B Ring Parable B Arab Transition B Nathan the Wise B Religious Pluralism |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Hardly any region has recently captured the global geopolitical imagination as much as the Arab world after the so-called Arab Spring and very likely no state more so than Egypt. Finally it seemed that democracy was coming to the region, that this would spell the end of radical Islam, and of any local aspirations of creating Islamic states, and mark the beginning of a rapprochement between East and West. This article analyses and links those dynamics, with particular reference to the transition process in the wake of the so-called Arab Revolution, and gauges what may be at stake for members of non-Muslim faiths. It particularly traces the rift between theoretical Muslim discourse about Islamic tolerance towards other faiths and its implementation or the absence thereof in practice. It concludes that so far no real progress has been made and that, for the relationship to evolve, Islam needs to proceed to a state in which it sees itself as no more than an equal to other religions. The recognition of its tradition-based nature and of the consequences that flow from such a realization for the treatment of its fundamental sources, the Qur'an and the Sunna, will be addressed. To evaluate the current situation and the outlook, we shall use the example of the famous eighteenth-century German play by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise, about the occupation of Jerusalem by Saladin. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-9311 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2013.847021 |