Love, Justice and Courtesy

COMMON GROUND: ISLAM, CHRISTIANITY, AND RELIGIOUS PLURALISM. By Paul L. Heck. Washinton, D.C. Georgetown University Press, 2009. Pp. 240. ISBN: 9781589015074.

JUSTICE AND RIGHTS: CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM PERSPECTIVES. By Michael Ipgrave (ed.). Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press, 2009. Pp. 181. ISBN: 9781589014893.

A COMMON WORD: MUSLIM AND CHRISTIAN ON LOVING GOD AND NEIGHBOUR. Miroslav Volf, Ghazi bin Muhammad and Melissa Yarrington (eds.). Grand Rapids, Michigan, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2010. Pp. 242. ISBN: 9780802863805.

NOSTRA AETAE AND THE ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE OF INTER- RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE. By Fatmir Mehdi Shehu. Kuala Lumpur, International Islamic University Malaysia, 2008. Pp. xix + 277. ISBN: 9789833855506.

The dialogue between Christians and Muslims, suggest Professor Jonathan Magone, largely exists at the borderland. The dialogue that involves meeting others, by its very nature, demands moving away from the centre to the margin of respective traditions. While the dialogue is conducted at the borderland, participants are not only able to see others as “people like themselves”, but also to see from this vintage-point over the border, observe differences and similarities and compare and contrast their respective traditions, as well as scrutinize issues and challenges. Christian-Muslim dialogue, with a few exceptions, is largely conducted within such a borderland.

There is also another type of ‘dialogue’ conducted over the years, away from the border: the megaphone dialogue of the agitated fringe brigade that conducts a perpetual monologue under the guise of dialogue. For them borders are there to be demolished, and the other side needs to be conquered. This is not the area one will venture into here.