Islam and Global Dialogue

Abstract

Edited by Dr Roger Boase with Foreword by HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal. Essays by John Bowden, Diana Eck, Muhammad Legenhausen, Francis Robinson, William Dalrymple, Akbar Ahmed, Fred Halliday, Jonathan Sacks, Antony Sullivan, Robert Crane, Khaled Abou El Fadl, Tony Bayfield, Norman Solomon, Marcus Braybrooke, Frank Gelli, Murad Hofmann, Roger Boase, Jeremy Henzell-Thomas, Mahmud Ayoub, Wendell Berry. SPEAKERS Roger Boase: The question that we are discussing this evening is “What role can religion play in promoting peace instead of war and other forms of violence?” This is the one of the main questions that my book Islam and Global Dialogue seeks to answer. I began the book in October 2001 after participating in a conference organised by the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, entitled “Unity and Diversity: Islam, Muslims, and the Challenge of Pluralism.” Already before 11 September 2001 Islam was widely portrayed in the media as a belligerent and intolerant religion, incompatible with democracy and civilised values. Half of those who responded to an opinion poll in the United States in the year 2000 thought that Islam supported terrorism. There was, and still is, much discussion about holy war, as if war can ever be holy! I do not now intend to define jihad. That would take too long ...