Pope's call for dialogue: One Muslim's response

Affirm commonalities – and set the record straight on Islam.

In a famous historical work, Masudi wrote that the Byzantine Christians of his time were suffering civilizational decline because they had rejected the pagan Greek sciences as incompatible with Christianity. In contrast, he wrote that Muslim civilization was prospering because it had assimilated ancient learning and built on it.

Pope's call for dialogue Two faiths respond 10/30/06 One Christian's view One Muslim's view

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Some of the best-known philosophers of the medieval period - Avicenna, Averroes, al-Farabi - were Muslims, and their thought was influential in medieval Europe, too. Without the diffusion of this intellectual and cultural legacy, there may well have been no European Renaissance!

In other words, it was the Muslims who had successfully blended faith with reason - and left the Christians behind.

As such, it is highly ironic that the pope would use the words of a 14th- century Byzantine emperor to redirect the same accusation at Muslims in the 21st century.

There is a danger when any person argues that his own religion and civilization have a monopoly on reason and have effected the best synthesis between faith and reason. Such triumphalism is a serious impediment to dialogue and any kind of sustained civil discourse. If dialogue is what the pope sought, implying the superiority of Western civilization and its supposedly unique values is a nonstarter.

Dialogue is better served through the humble acknowledgment of commonalities, of one's own sins, and of one's connectedness to the other.

It is also served by setting the record straight. Muslims have subscribed to a variety of views on the relationship between faith and reason.

Two main trends remain influential within Sunni Muslim theology today. One is represented by the Ashari school of thought, which maintains that faith or revelation always trumps reason. The other is represented by the Maturidi school, which holds that reason, independent of revelation, can arrive at the same truths. Both camps are considered orthodox within Sunni Islam, with Maturidi thought gaining ground.

In an earlier period, the Mutazilis (known as the Rationalists) claimed that there was no incompatibility between faith and reason. Shiites have also historically emphasized the rational basis of their school of thought.

One cannot, therefore, simplistically and reductively portray Islam as preferring faith over reason or vice versa. Nor can one portray Christianity, or perhaps any other faith tradition, in this manner, either.

The key to getting along is to learn the truth about one another and avoid trading in pernicious stereotypes. Prof. Richard Bulliet of Columbia University has recently coined the term "Islamo-Christian civilization" to describe our shared heritage. This concept deserves to gain broader currency.

Religious groups can limit extremism by uniting on common social causes: eradicating global poverty, promoting human dignity, reinserting moral and ethi- cal values in the public sphere and in international diplomacy, and holding our leaders accountable to such values.

It is on such common ground, constructed on universal ethical principles, that diverse groups of people, faith-based and secular, can come together.

• Asma Afsaruddin is a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Notre Dame and the author of the forthcoming book "The First Muslims: History and Memory." This article first appeared at Common Ground News Service ( www.commongroundnews.org ).

Read another perspective. Pope's call for dialogue: One Christian's response