Product Description This groundbreaking tome by Sudibyo Markus provides a comprehensive analysis of the history of Muslim-Christian relations, from the early spread of Islam to the present day. The author identifies four historical events that have profoundly affected these relations, beginning with the Crusades War, explained as the catalyst for the ensuing hostilities that persist between Muslims and Christians today. With references to the Qur’an, the work of notable scholars, and relevant statistical data, Markus details the causes and effects of prejudices and makes a case for peace. He points to several successful inter-civilizational dialogues for religious peace in modern history: The Nostra Aetate Declaration of the Second Vatican Council, the open letter to Pope Benedict XVI “A Common Word” (“Kalimantun Sawa”), the 2016 Agenda for Humanity, and the Dubai Declaration on “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” along with the Encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti.” He insists that religious congregations worldwide must transform themselves into instruments for peace, especially in a time where so many people are displaced due to religious and ideological conflict. In addition to a broad discussion of the phases and processes of the global interaction between East and West, the book integrates a case study of Indonesia, the country of Markus’s birth, from the era of colonialism until its independence. He attributes much of his perspective to his years of work with a team of anthropologists in Indonesia. Islam and the West is an important and necessary read for not only religious scholars, practitioners, and workers in religious and civic activities, but anyone who seeks to foster a more peaceful world. Translated by Aditya Pratama Edited by Sally Rother Contents Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 A Reflection for Peace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Life of Sudibyo Markus: A Short Sketch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The Western and Muslim World: An Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 A Light on the Horizon: An Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Executive Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 PART 1 ISLAM AND THE WEST. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 1 Socrates, Jesus and Muhammad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Two Big Problems 45 Long Historical Interaction 46 Subconscious stereotype 47 The Western View of Muhammad in the Past 48 Indonesia’s Case 52 2 The Western-Christian World and Islam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Historical Grudges 55 Gallup Polling Challenges the Clash of Civilizations Theory 57 Shift of the West-Islam Pendulum 59 Three Challenges of Islam Against European-Christianity 63 Five Theories of Philosophy of History 66 3 Toward a Europe-Arab Axis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Is Islam the Fastest-Growing Religion? 68 Growing Number of Muslims in Europe 71 Pew Research Center’s Prediction for 2050 72 Summary 73 4 The Future of The Western World and Muslim World Relations. . . 76 Europe as a Christian Continent 76 Current and Recent Attitudes in the West Toward Muslims 81 Measuring the Future of Western World and Muslim World Relations84 Eurabia: Reviewing the New Beginnings of the West-Islam Relationship 89 Longing for a new spiritual renaissance 91 PART 2 THE STAGES OF RELATIONS BETWEEN THE WEST AND ISLAM. . 95 5 Europe’s Dark Ages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 The Peak of the Roman Empire 97 State’s Church 99 Church in The Dark Ages 101 6 The Encounter of Islam and the Western World. . . . . . . . . . . . 112 The Early Encounter of Islam and the Western World 112 Direct Encounter between Islam and the Western World 119 The Encounter of Two Civilizations 122 Toledo as Europe’s Cultural Center 128 Zero: The Development of Algebra 129 Medical Science Development 130 7 The Crusades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Pre-Crusades 131 Beginning of the Crusades 134 Stages of the Crusades 136 Periodization of the Crusades 141 The Impact of the Crusades on the Muslim World 142 Lessons from the Crusades 144 8 Renaissance and Reformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Renaissance 147 Some Renaissance Figures 148 Reformation 153 Letters of Indulgence 154 The Schism, the Rift of the Church 155 9 Colonialism Era. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Reform and the Rise of Modern Capitalism 163 The Rise of the West and its Invasion of the Muslim World 164 Colonialism in the Indonesian Archipelago 167 Perceptions of Christianity in Dutch East Indies 171 Between Toynbee and Steenbrink 173 10 Orientalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Inaccuracy of Studies 175 Three Dimensions of Orientalism 177 Pre-Orientalism 178 The Turning Point 181 The Error of the Orientalism Approach 181 Muhammadiyah and the Relationship between Islam and Christianity 186 11 Missionary Adjustment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Van Lith: the Father of Change 192 The Demands of the Times 195 12 The Second Vatican Council. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 From Inward-Looking to Dialogue 201 The Result of the Second Vatican Council 202 The Second Vatican Council and Church Renewal 205 The Church’s Mission and Dialogue 206 Nostra Aetate 207 Outside the Church There is No Salvation 208 Stages of Church transformation 210 PART 3 A COMMON WORD BETWEEN US AND YOU. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 13 From Muhammad’s Letter to “A Common Word Between Us and You”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 The Holy Prophet Muhammad’s Letters 219 Letter to Emperor Heraclius 221 Background: Deviation from the monotheism principle 224 14 A Common Word: From Pure Monotheism to Peace. . . . . . . 228 The Genesis of “A Common Word” 228 The Historical Strategic Significance of the Pope’s Visit to Istanbul 230 Against Huntington’s Theory 233 Historical events after the Second Vatican Council 234 From A Call for Monotheism to A Call for Peace 236 Surah Ali Imran verse 64 is not a Dialogue Reference 237 The Momentum for Peace 238 Support for “A Common Word” 240 15 Contents of and Responses to “A Common Word Between Us and You”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Love of God 247 Love of the Neighbor 250 Come to a Common Word Between Us and You 251 The Power of “A Common Word between Us and You” 257 PART 4 THE WAY FORWARD TOWARD THE AGENDA FOR HUMANITY. . 261 16 Toward the Agenda for Humanity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 World Interfaith Harmony Week 263 World Humanitarian Summit 264 One Humanity, Shared Responsibility 265 Commitment to Actions 267 17 The Shrinking of Humanitarian Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 The Shrinking of Humanitarian Space and its Impact 270 The Virtuous Triangle and the Fourth Dimension 274 The Bekaa Valley Incident: Cooperation with the military 274 Dialogue with Atheism: China 276 18 Toward a New “Religion of Humanity”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 Humanitarian Forum, London 281 Against George W. Bush’s War on Terror 282 Humanitarian Principles 283 Partnership Principles 284 From London to Jakarta 285 The Imam and the Pastor in Nigeria 289 19 Human Fraternity, Abu Dhabi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Pope Francis’ visit to Abu Dhabi 291 The Role of the Crown Prince of UAE 292 Continuation of the spirit of Nostra Aetate and A Common Word 293 The Zayed Award for Human Fraternity 296 20 Toward a Base Community. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 The Awakening of Base Community 302 ‘Out There’ and ‘In Here’ Phenomena 303 G20 Interfaith Forum, Bolivia, and World Interfaith Harmony Week, Indonesia 305 Singapore and Minahasa: Study cases 306 The Decision-Making Process for Action 308 PART 5 TOWARD A UNIVERSAL HUMANITY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 21 Between Dialogue and The Clash of Civilizations. . . . . . . . . . 313 Dialogue among civilizations 313 The Clash of Civilizations 315 The Clash of Civilizations is Not an Academic Theory 317 22 The Struggles of European Muslims. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Challenges for Muslim Migrants 321 Muslims’ Identities 323 23 Reenvisioning a Global Humanity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 The Enabling Environment 327 Reenvisioning a Global Humanity 327 Pope Francis’ Encyclical: Fratelli Tutti 330 International Humanitarian Law 331 Conclusion 333 APPENDIX I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 APPENDIX II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 APPENDIX III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 APPENDIX IV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381 ABOUT THE AUTHOR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386 Reviews Not only can this work enrich our literature concerning the relationship between the Muslim and Western worlds throughout history, it can inspire us to develop more harmonious relationships today. For this work, I am very grateful to Sudibyo Markus. Azyumardi Azra, Indonesian Historian Sudibyo Markus is known for his faith-based partnership and humanitarian work in Indonesia. In this work, he has compiled and demonstrated the interconnection of historical phases of religion into a single mosaic. [...] We hope that Islam and the West will broaden and deepen this reflection on peace among all people, and continue to spread. H. E. Jusuf Kalla, 10th and 12th Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia This book is an important comparison to the great work by Max Weber. Weber died in 1920 and wrote one of the most important studies of religion, best known for one section, THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM. This is part of a larger volume which includes also a study of Hinduism and Confucianism. He died before focusing on Islam. Sudibyo’s book is equally global and does focus on Islam in comparison to Christianity. He provides much that else that Weber did not, despite his brilliance. James Peacock, Former President of the American Anthropological Association & Professor of Anthropology at UNC
