Religious Studies

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Jewish-Muslim relations, globalization, and the Judeo-Islamic legacy
(Creighton University, 2015) Khalil, Atif
Since World War II, Jewish-Muslim relations have almost entirely been mired in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. One of the results of this heavy politicization has been the curtailment of any serious or fruitful dialogue between the mainstream, established Jewish and Muslim communities of the West. This article brackets out the political issues that have been a cause of mutual distrust and consternation to explore the theological, juridical and mystical affinities between two strikingly similar traditions. It was these affinities that led to the creation, in the medieval past, of a Judeo-Islamic tradition – a tradition which in the words of one scholar was “parallel to and no less real – perhaps in fact even more real – than that of the Judeo-Christian tradition.” The article demonstrates how the Judeo-Islamic tradition offers some valuable resources for promoting not only dialogue but congenial relations between Jewish and Muslim communities. It ends with a brief overview of the shared (Jewish/Muslim) experience of otherness in the West by drawing on the insights of Edward Said (vis-à-vis European representations of Semites) to examine the views of Hegel, Ernest Renan and Abraham Kuenon. The shared experience or otherness offers yet another vantage point from which to approach Jewish-Muslim dialogue.