http://blogs.najah.edu/author/zafer1973 An-Najah Blogs :: Book Review en-us Sat, 20 Apr 2024 09:37:50 IDT Sat, 20 Apr 2024 09:37:50 IDT [email protected] [email protected] http://blogs.najah.edu/staff/zafer1973/article/Intellectual-Responses-to-Religious-Pluralism-Published ArticlesThe scope of this essay is twofold First this essay is a study of religious pluralism By pluralism I refer not to the fact there is a plurality of religions in the world but to the intellectual responses to this plurality in the field of religious studies For some scholars it is a response asserting some measure of equal standing between the major religious traditions They maintain that God or the Absolute is speaking uniquely to each religious tradition and it is through the ecumenical efforts of each tradition that the others will come to hear the unique word that God or the Absolute has spoken to it The question of truth becomes a question of the reliability of our ideas and assumptions Correspondingly they deny types of uniqueness and absoluteness claimed for one religion or another For others religious pluralism refers to an ideological or normative belief that there should be mutual respect between different religious systems and freedom for all http://blogs.najah.edu/staff/zafer1973/article/Western-MuslimsGeneral PostsTariq Ramadan is a Western Muslim scholar and theologian living in Switzerland who has been genuinely seeking to address these dilemmas and concerns of Western Muslims His theology responds to challenges and issues facing Western Muslims in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks In his book Western Muslims and the Future of Islam he seeks to provide answers to the multifaceted challenges and concerns of Western Muslims Ramadan points out that his book is mainly written to a Western Muslim audience that is struggling on a daily basis with the many challenges of integration engagement absorption and assimilation Many of these Western Muslims also want to maintain a sincere faithfulness and commitment to their Islamic traditions and values The daunting questions for these Western Muslims are: What is their identity as Western Muslims? How can they maintain two identities of being both Western and Muslim which seems to be contradictory and conflicting?