An Islamic Perspective in Managing Religious Diversity

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of "diversity" as mentioned in the Qur'an and how commonalities in diverse religions may be used as a model for civilizational dialogue towards achieving harmony. This study reveals that religious and cultural diversity are laws of nature which cannot be changed while the concept of "identity" is a contested issue in modern discourse. Results also show that peace may be established among diverse religions through their commonalities and the best way to exploit these commonalities and to reduce the religious divide is through civilizational dialogue. The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and other methods for changing the nature of religious differences and reaching a consensus-thus arriving at a peaceful co-existence-are also discussed. It was found that people are often misguided or divided in the name of religion and culture, despite the fact that the philosophy of every religion is based on peace and harmony.

A Critical Appraisal of Interreligious Dialogue in Islam

“…An increasingly popular issue in today's world is the dialogue among the followers of different religions (Swidler, 2014a). Human beings are living in a world with diverse ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds (Wani et al, 2015). Every day, we interact with people of other religions in the form of neighbors, classmates, friends, and colleagues.…”

“…Dialogue is not a new concept; it is as old as the history of human beings (Wani et al, 2015). History has recorded many initiatives of interreligious dialogue.…”

“…Islam, being a universal religion, teaches love, tolerance, and sympathy for humanity (Wani et al, 2015). Muslims have played a vital role in promoting interreligious harmony since the time of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam (Peace be upon him) (Karim and Saile, 2009).…”

Muslim Religious Openness and Ilm

“…A critical background assumption of the ISM is that religions have resources for engaging in dialogue (see e.g., Spiegel, 2014;Wani, Abdullah, & Chang, 2015). Otherwise, the development of dialogical perspectives would be impossible because only the social sciences would display the openness to other perspectives that dialogue requires.…”

Untitled

“…'alamin. Hal ini menyetujui apa yang ditegaskan olehWani, Abdullah, & Chang (2015: 653-654) bahwa keragaman adalah kecenderungan alami yang harus diterima oleh semua manusia. Orang dengan perilaku yang saling bertentangan adalah mereka yang tidak memiliki sikap moderasi, toleransi, akomodasi, dan kerja sama.…”