Table Of ContentWiener Beiträge zur Islamforschung
Ednan Aslan · Ranja Ebrahim
Marcia Hermansen Editors
Islam, Religions,
and Pluralism
in Europe
Wiener Beiträge zur Islamforschung
Herausgegeben von
E. Aslan, Wien, Austria
Die Buchreihe „Wiener Beiträge zur Islamforschung“ beschäftigt sich mit interdis-
ziplinären Studien aus den Fachbereich der Islamischen Theologie und Religions-
pädagogik sowie der Religionswissenschaft und Philosophie. Die Forschungs-
schwerpunkte des Herausgebers, Professor Ednan Aslan, liegen auf Themen wie
Islam in Europa, der Theorie der islamischen Erziehung in Europa sowie Fragen
zu Muslime an öffentlichen Schulen und Islamischer Theologie mit europäischer
Prägung.
Herausgegeben von
Ednan Aslan
Institut für Islamische Studien
Universität Wien
Wien, Österreich
Ednan Aslan · Ranja Ebrahim
Marcia Hermansen (Eds.)
Islam, Religions,
and Pluralism
in Europe
Editors
Ednan Aslan Marcia Hermansen
Institut für Islamische Studien Theology Department
Universität Wien Loyola University Chicago
Wien, Austria Chicago, USA
Ranja Ebrahim
Institut für Islamische Religionspädagogik
Universität Wien
Wien, Austria
Wiener Beiträge zur Islamforschung
ISBN 978-3-658-12961-3 ISBN 978-3-658-12962-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-12962-0
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Foreword
Religious pluralism has become a central challenge of our time. According to the
latest statistical data, religious diversity in Europe is on the rise due to growing
globalization incuding fl ows of migrants and of information at an unprecedented
level. As a result, religion has become a topic of public discussion both in Europe
and elsewhere worldwide. Any serious discussion of pluralism today must take re-
ligion into account. This process has resulted in a debate regarding to what extent a
particular society can tolerate religious diversity and how much religious pluralism
each society is willing to allow and accommodate. Thus, religious issues seem to
be particularly crucial in discussing the means for fostering social pluralism and
the coexistence of diverse communities.
It is obvious that religious plurality needs to be taken into consideration in all
areas of society today. The issues and challenges that societies face with regard to
pluralism go far beyond phenomena related to migration, since pluralism can no
longer be understood only as a result of migration. In light of the complexity of the
problem and the signifi cant regional differences, and even more so in light of what
is at stake with regard to society, its individual citizens, and their religious under-
standings, it is not surprising that in the current situation no unilinear, straightfor-
ward, and generally consensual solutions exist in Europe.
Therefore, it is all the more important in this process to create plausible pat-
terns of interpretation and stable forms of order that can allow the diverse tensions
which are emerging, on the one hand, between religions and, on the other hand, in
the relationship between religion, politics, and culture, to be resolved.
VI Foreword
This volume is the result of a conference on Religion and Pluralism in Europe,
which took place in October 2014 in Montenegro. It attempts to address the chal-
lenge of determining how diverse models and strategies can deal with religious
pluralism in Europe. The theme of the conference recognizes that the challenges
currently facing religions under the new circumstances in Europe were previously
virtually unknown in its history. These challenges encompass not only the need
to scrutinize theological stances toward other religions, but also for religious and
political leadership to redefi ne patterns and forms of religiosity in relation to new
social realities.
Without restricting the treatment of religious pluralism to a theological task in
the process, the Abrahamic religions, which largely shape the religious landscape
in Europe, bear a special responsibility for dealing with religious pluralism in
relation to their theologies in such a way that they can succeed in living together
in peace without giving up the unique religious identities of their respective ad-
herents.
The central question for religions is therefore: What is the relationship between
the plurality of religions and the truth claims of particular religions? The answer to
this question can potentially lead religions to recognize the diversity of truth, but
might also lead to division and confl ict in the name of God. In this regard, the main
task ahead for the religions is to discover a way to highlight their common under-
standings and promote social solidarity regardless of any theological debates.
The Bible describes God’s message as a light: “And that is the message that we
heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and that in Him is no dark-
ness” (1 John: 1: 5). Even Jesus is presented as the light of the world: “Jesus spoke
to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk
in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8: 12).
Likewise, in the Qur’an, God describes himself as the light which leads people
from darkness to liberation and enlightenment, as follows:
God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His light is, as it were,
that of a niche containing a lamp; the lamp is [enclosed] in glass, the glass [shining]
like a radiant star: [a lamp] lit from a blessed tree – an olive tree that is neither of
the east nor of the west – the oil whereof [is so bright that it] would well-nigh give
light [of itself] even though fi re had not touched it: light upon light! (Qur’an 24:35).
Similar images can be found in almost all religions, i. e., that God wants to lead
people out of chaos, oppression, and defi ciency. Out of their awareness of this
divine mandate, people further have the task of leading one another from the dark-
ness to light.
Foreword VII
The ways of structuring this process may differ and even repeatedly lead to the
emergence of contradictions, dissimilar attributions, and divergent interpretations.
Despite this potential for differentiation, it is always possible to fi nd in this godly
devotion a peaceful and common path that can lead people to light. The qur’anic
response would be to fi nd a potential compromise in spite of possible contradic-
tions.
Through the diverse contributions of its scholarly authors, this volume attempts
to investigate the challenges that religious pluralism presents and to highlight the
opportunities that it offers, in order to ultimately underscore the importance of
peace among religions as an essential element of world peace.
Ednan Aslan
Vienna June 2015
Table of contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Islam, Religions, and Pluralism in Europe
Marcia K. Hermansen
Section 1 Theological and Conceptual Refl ections on Pluralism
Plurality as the Will of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
An Islamic Theological Perspective
Ednan Aslan
Classical and Contemporary
Islamic Perspectives on Religious Plurality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Marcia K. Hermansen
Islamic Radicalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
A Result of Frozen Theologies?
Ranja Ebrahim
Roman Catholic Perspectives on Religions and Pluralism in Europe . . . . 73
Andreas Telser
X Table of contents
Confl icting Conceptions of Religious Pluralism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Liberalism and Multiculturalism in Diverse Liberal Democracies
Hanan A. Alexander
Section 2 Western Europe –
Issues of Plurality in Pedagogy and Society
Pluralism of Religions or Pluralism based on Neutrality? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Competing Understandings in Europe
Friedrich Schweitzer
Teaching and Learning about Religion between Religious Plurality
and Secularism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Henning Schluß and Christine Salmen
Accommodating to Swiss Religious Pluralism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Interrogating Muslim Integration and Swiss Citizenship
Matteo Gianni
Muslim as Minorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
New Identity Challenges for Europe
Samim Akgönül
Muslims and Austro-European Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Minela Salkic Joldo
Religious Pluralism, Education,
and Citizenship in Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Bradford A. Anderson, Gareth Byrne, and Sandra Cullen
Challenges of the Institutionalization
of Same Sex Marriage for Religious Pluralism in Denmark . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Niels Valdemar Vinding and Emil Bjørn Hilton Saggau
