Muslims and Christians Face to Face

Abstract

Muslims and Christians Face to Face is an academic research work thatobserves the various response of Muslims to Christianity and Christians toIslam. It is written by Kate Zebiri, who is a lecturer in Arabic and IslamicStudies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.In the first chapter, "Factors Influencing Muslim-Christian Relations," Zebiridiscusses the four factors that affect Mu Jim and Christian perceptions of eachother.The first factor is what the Qur'an says about Christians and Christianity, andthe way in which the Qur'anic material has been interpreted. With regards to thisfactor the author discusses the Qur'anic awareness of religious plurality, theQur'anic perception of Jesus, the earthly end of Jesus in the Qur'an, and what theQur'anic verses say about the salvation of the People of the Book in the hereafter.Moreover, Zebiri tries to draw attention to the difference between what theQur'an says about Christians and Christianity, and the way in which the Qur'anicmaterial has been interpreted, and the difference between the commentators' andjurists' positions toward Christianity, in both the classic and contemporary periods.The second factor is the history of Muslim-Christian relations and the affectof historical memory. Here the author describes the relation between the ArabMuslim conquest and the Byzantine Christian Empire; the situation ofChristians under Muslim rule; the affect of the Crusades on the Muslims' attitudesto Christianity; the development of the Christian attitude to Islam fromignorance during the European Christendom, to anti-Muslim polemic attitude toconduct studies on Islam based on reliable sources after the Renaissance, tousing Islam as a theme in internal Christian polemic during the time of theReformation, to admiring Islam for its own sake in the Enlightenment; and finally,the attitude of both liberal and conservative Christians to Islam today.The third factor is the relationship between Christian missions and imperialismand the influence this has on the Muslim attitude toward Christianity today.With regards to this factor, the author explores the interrelationship betweenColonialism and Christian missions, and how it has been implanted in theMuslim consciousness and become part of the anti-Western discourse.The fourth factor is Christian and Muslim views on dialogue. In this pare theauthor shows the Christian acknowledgment of Islam as a result of the Christianecumenical movement She states that Muslims have been slow to initiate andparticipate in organized dialogue. In addition, she mentions that many Christiansand Muslims see dialogue as antithetical to their mission or da'wah, believingthat one compromises the other ...