Academic literature on the topic 'Christian-Muslim polemic'

This article argues that on-line polemical discourse between Muslims and Christians deserves not to be dismissed but rather careful examination and analysis. To this end, it engages in the process of describing, categorizing and characterizing online polemical sources dealing with the Quran and the Bible in relation to each other. After a brief consideration of the nature of polemic, and of the themes of past Muslim-Christian polemic, three particular cases are examined in some detail: the suffering servant passage in Isaiah 53, the quranic story of the angels prostrating to Adam, and the meanings of surah 112. In conclusion, some effects of the existence and use of on-line polemic on teaching and scholarship on the Bible and the Quran are considered.

Abstract Muslim anti-Christian and anti-Jewish polemics from Christian Iberia often include references and quotations from the Qurʾān, the Torah, and the Gospels. Even when they are composed in Romance, the script used in their writing is often Arabic. This article discusses the conversion narrative of “the lines of the Torah,” in which translation is halfway between the faithful rendering of the original and its interpretation by its Muslim scribe. I show in this paper that the ability to convey, or so to speak, to “unveil,” new meanings makes translation a powerful means to convert the opponent and to strengthen the faith in Islam. The analysis aims to shed light on the intellectual and social milieus of “the lines of the Torah,” and deals with translation in other anti-Jewish Muslim writings from the Christian territories: the “Jewish Confession,” or Ashamnu; the chronology in Seder Olam; and the lengthy Muslim anti-Jewish polemic of Taʾyīd al-milla (The Fortification of the Faith or Community).

The article deals with the Muslim reaction to the Russian Orthodox missionaries’ challenge in the polemic work by Hasan ‘Ata Gabashi “Nur al-haqiqa” (1886). The author explores the internal mechanism of Islamic discourse, which works to protect the sphere of Muslim dogmatic (‘aqida) from the “alien” influence and is realized through the delineation of protective boundaries. As a defence tactic, Gabashi uses the strategy of refuting “false idea” or “false teaching” from ‘Ilm al-Kalam. The paper analyses the development of the narrative, the argumentation used by Gabashi and the behavior of those involved in the polemics. As he implements his “protective project,” Gabashi explores and criticizes Christian ideas in terms of his own discourse. As the Muslim author, Gabashi does not reject the entire Christian doctrine or the entire Bible, but selectively criticizes “distortions” that are contrary to Islam.

This paper analyses major examples of some of the earliest Christian theological texts written in Arabic, authored within two centuries of the first Christian contact with Islam. These texts also comprise the first systematic Christian theological critiques of Islam written in Arabic. As with many later Christian polemical engagements with Islam, these texts attempt to associate Islam with violence and sensuality. This paper analyses this highly influential theological and rhetorical strategy and shows that it in fact reveals some of the key theological differences between Christian and Muslim theological paradigms. This analysis suggests that Christian and Muslim theological misunderstanding may be discursively located within differing theologies of the body and materiality.

The intellectual heritage in British–India includes literature of Christian missionaries which focusses missionary perspective and the literature of Muslim missionary in response. In this Case, literature based on polemic method from both sides has become quite important. Specialists of Muslim Christian relations and religious students should be aware of debates of this ere. The criticism on Quran seems quite abundance on social media from opponents and enemies as well as their efforts are quite evident on minds of habitual valiance to precariousness and skepticism. That’s why, the preacher and student of Islamic religion should bring in light the effort being made by Muslim scholars in response to their claims. One of selected flowers in the caravan of Muslim scholars is Abu Mansoor Dehlvi (1902 AD). Tabjil al Tanzil is one of the prominent Quranic Interpretation which focuses on the replies to objections raised against Islam and Quran by Christians in Sub continent. In this paper, author tried to find out this un-published interpretation (as it is supposed) and analyzed its first part containing on surah al fatiha (manuscript). In the result, he finds that polemic method is prevailed. And objections against Islam has been silently condemned.

In this paper, we translate and study the 9th section of the Kitab muyadalat ma' al-mutakallimin al-muslimin fi maylis al-Jalifa al-Ma'mun, atributed to Theodorus Abo Qurrah (c. 750-820), a Melkite from Edessa and later Bishop of Harran. This section includes a «debate» that occured between Abu Qurrah and the Caliph al-Ma'mun concerning the crucifixion of the Messiah, in which the Christian polemist applies and develops a series of apologetic and polemic discursive resources through he defends against the attacks of the Muslim author.

AbstractMuslim tradition forbids the prostration before men (secular prostration). The utterances of the Prophet Muhammad highlight this prohibition, contrasting it to the customs in use among Christians and Jews in the regions surrounding the peninsula. This precept is not stated in the Qur¸ān where, instead, the cases of the prostration of Joseph before his father and of Adam before the angels arc mentioned. After the advent of Islam, Christian and Jewish authors tried to give response to Muslim polemical attitudes. John of Damascus and Abū Qurra above all rejected the Muslim accusations, relying upon biblical references, drawing a distinction between prostration to God and prostration before men. The same direction is taken by the Jewish Qirqisānī in a long passage in his Kitāb al-anwār.

This essay questions the thesis of the supposed syncretic nature of the religion of Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, an idea still espoused in Bulgarian ethnography and popular among the Rhodope Christian population. It examines the Muslim motivations for attending Christian holy places in the Rhodopes, particularly the Monastery of St George in Hadzhidimovo, to gather evidence from the actual participants. It shows that the local Muslims and Christians offer incompatible interpretations of the Muslim practice. Furthermore, it takes into account Muslim and Christian testimonies on how Muslims behave in the monastery of St George, and how their gestures are interpreted by both groups. Although the Muslim narratives betray a rather anti-syncretic attitude to Christianity, the Christians sometimes tend to see them as actual crypto-Christians. In my conclusions I stake out a position in the recent polemic between Glenn Bowman and Robert Hayden concerning the specificity of interactions between dissenters at sacred shrines.

Muslims and Christians Face to Face is an academic research work thatobserves the various response of Muslims to Christianity and Christians toIslam. It is written by Kate Zebiri, who is a lecturer in Arabic and IslamicStudies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.In the first chapter, "Factors Influencing Muslim-Christian Relations," Zebiridiscusses the four factors that affect Mu Jim and Christian perceptions of eachother.The first factor is what the Qur'an says about Christians and Christianity, andthe way in which the Qur'anic material has been interpreted. With regards to thisfactor the author discusses the Qur'anic awareness of religious plurality, theQur'anic perception of Jesus, the earthly end of Jesus in the Qur'an, and what theQur'anic verses say about the salvation of the People of the Book in the hereafter.Moreover, Zebiri tries to draw attention to the difference between what theQur'an says about Christians and Christianity, and the way in which the Qur'anicmaterial has been interpreted, and the difference between the commentators' andjurists' positions toward Christianity, in both the classic and contemporary periods.The second factor is the history of Muslim-Christian relations and the affectof historical memory. Here the author describes the relation between the ArabMuslim conquest and the Byzantine Christian Empire; the situation ofChristians under Muslim rule; the affect of the Crusades on the Muslims' attitudesto Christianity; the development of the Christian attitude to Islam fromignorance during the European Christendom, to anti-Muslim polemic attitude toconduct studies on Islam based on reliable sources after the Renaissance, tousing Islam as a theme in internal Christian polemic during the time of theReformation, to admiring Islam for its own sake in the Enlightenment; and finally,the attitude of both liberal and conservative Christians to Islam today.The third factor is the relationship between Christian missions and imperialismand the influence this has on the Muslim attitude toward Christianity today.With regards to this factor, the author explores the interrelationship betweenColonialism and Christian missions, and how it has been implanted in theMuslim consciousness and become part of the anti-Western discourse.The fourth factor is Christian and Muslim views on dialogue. In this pare theauthor shows the Christian acknowledgment of Islam as a result of the Christianecumenical movement She states that Muslims have been slow to initiate andparticipate in organized dialogue. In addition, she mentions that many Christiansand Muslims see dialogue as antithetical to their mission or da'wah, believingthat one compromises the other ...