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The article discusses Pope Francis’s visit to Bahrain in 2022, which, although religiously and politically important, has not yet been exposed to science. This is the second visit of the head of the Catholic Church to the countries of the Persian Gulf, which is part of the refreshing interreligious dialogue between Christians and Muslims. This article analyzes changes in the Catholic Church’s understanding of dialogue with Islam, as illustrated by Pope Francis’s visit to Bahrain. Using comparative analysis, the article highlights the evolving nature of interreligious dialogue and its role in strengthening Muslim–Christian connections. The papal visit to Bahrain caused much controversy among human rights activists. Bahrain is seen, on one hand, as a tolerant and religiously inclusive country, but on the other, as a nation that frequently violates human rights, particularly in cases involving differences among its members. Pope Francis, as a diplomat, was not afraid to talk about some social issues in Bahrain (death penalty, discrimination, labor law) from the beginning of his visit. Pope Francis’s attitude and the benefits of interreligious dialogue that he has generated may not only confirm the presence of Christians in Bahrain but, above all, must change their destiny in the countries of the region that have so far treated this religion as an enemy. This article is an analysis of sources and their systematic review. The authors have focused on the interpretation of Pope Francis’s statements and their reception in the world. Interreligious and intercultural dialogue, as well as interpersonal fraternities, are extremely important in the international policy of the Holy See.

Learning from the past prepares one for being able to cope with the future. History is made up of strings of relationships. This article follows a historical line from colonialism, through apartheid to post-colonialism in order to illustrate inter-religious relations in South-Africa and how each context determines these relations. Social cohesion is enhanced by a post-colonial theology of religions based on the current context. By describing the relationship between Christians and Muslims during the 17th-18th centuries in the Cape Colony, lessons can be deduced to guide inter-religious relations in a post-colonial era in South Africa. One of the most prominent Muslim leaders during the 17th century in the Cape Colony was Sheik Yusuf al-Makassari. His influence determined the future face of Islam in the Cape Colony and here, during the 18th century, ethics started playing a crucial role in determining the relationship between Christians and Muslims. The ethical guidance of the Imams formed the Muslim communities whilst ethical decline was apparent amongst the Christian colonists during the same period. The place of ethics as determinative of future inter-religious dialogue is emphasised. Denial and exclusion characterised relationships between Christians and Muslims. According to a post-colonial understanding of inter-religious contact the equality and dignity of non-Christian religions are to be acknowledged. In the postcolonial and postapartheid struggle for equality, also of religions, prof Graham Duncan, to whom this article is dedicated, contributed to the process of acknowledging the plurality of the religious reality in South Africa.

In early modern Islamic thought, the concept of zindīq (heretic) occupied a critical space at the intersection of theology, law, and state authority, particularly in the context of Muslim–Christian relations. One of the most significant scholarly attempts to define this term came from Ibn Kemāl (d. 940/1534), a leading Ottoman jurist and theologian, whose treatise Risāla fī mā yataʿallaq bi-lafẓ al-zindīq (Treatise on the Definition of the Word Zindīq) sought to clarify the precise meaning and legal implications of zandaqa (heresy). This article provides the first English translation and critical edition of Ibn Kemāl’s treatise, making this important work accessible to a wider scholarly audience. Through a close reading of the text, this study examines how Ibn Kemāl systematically distinguished zindīq from murtadd (apostate), mulḥid (disbeliever), and munāfiq (hypocrite), shaping Ottoman legal discourse on heresy. The present analysis further explores the theological and jurisprudential foundations Ibn Kemāl employed to define and punish heretics, particularly in light of the controversial execution of Mollā Kābid (or Mullā Qābiḍ, tr. Molla Kābız), who had asserted the superiority of Jesus over Muhammad. This case demonstrates the presence of polemical debates in the shaping of confessional boundaries in the ninth/fifteenth-century Ottoman Empire and reflects the broader challenges of Muslim–Christian interactions during this period. Additionally, this study investigates the broader implications of Ibn Kemāl’s classification of zindīq within the context of Muslim–Christian relations, considering how interfaith polemics and religious boundary-making influenced Ottoman legal thought. By contextualizing this treatise within early modern Ottoman legal and theological traditions, this study contributes to the understanding of how heresy was redefined in a multi-religious empire navigating theological, political, and interreligious challenges.

Muslim and non-Muslim historical sources provide us with contradictory stipulations in the treaties attributed to the second Caliph of Islam 'Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb. This article argues that the initial treaties were non-intrusive, with few, if any restrictions on the non-Muslim populations. Notwithstanding that, some security concerns may have been implemented by 'Umar's generals during the early conquests on a temporary basis. When the major urban centres came to be classified as amṣār al-Muslimīn, the restrictions that had been imposed in the garrison towns of Kūfah, Baṣrah, and Fusṭāṭ were now transferred to cities like Damascus, Jerusalem, and Ṣan'ā'. The article concludes that over time, more and more restrictions were placed on the local non-Muslim populations, beginning with the decrees of the Umayyad Caliph 'Umar b. 'Abd al-Azīz and culminating with the edicts of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil, after which the Pact of 'Umar took its final form.

During the 1660s and 1670s, the Ottoman Empire reached the peak of its expansion with military invasions of Ukraine and Habsburg Hungary, parts of central Europe that had traditionally been regarded as beyond the Porte's horizons. Many Ukrainians and Hungarians welcomed the Ottomans as liberators; they saw the sultan as a more benevolent ruler than the Russian tsar, the Polish king, and the Habsburg emperor. This article reconstructs the political, social, and religious dimensions of pro-Ottoman hopes as well as the popular revolts that resulted from these hopes. Comparing Ukrainian and Hungarian engagements with the Ottomans reveals the divergent and overlapping aspects of a largely forgotten historical reality, that is, the quest of many Orthodox and Protestant Europeans to consider a Muslim alternative to the Christian empires that oppressed them. The article draws on a treasure trove of little studied sources, both archival and published, in multiple languages.

This article examines the words used by Christian chroniclers in medieval Iberia to refer to North Africans. Following the Islamic conquests of the Peninsula in the early eighth century, Iberian Christians increasingly associated North Africans with Islam – and, conversely, Muslims with North Africa. I demonstrate that the term “Moor” reflected a growing tendency over the Middle Ages to collapse religious identity and geographical origins, and further suggest that it was racialized in various ways. In other cases, chroniclers employed scriptural identifiers like “Moabite” and “Hagarene” to distinguish between Muslims from North Africa and those from Iberia. While such terms acknowledged a measure of geopolitical specificity in the present, they simultaneously asserted a kinship between contemporary Muslims and ancient biblical peoples, casting them as religious others, denying their coevalness with Christians, and further racializing them. Finally, I discuss the use of the word “barbarian,” which was sometimes applied to Muslims in general, but was occasionally used to refer to North Africans in particular, drawing on Arabic usage to associate barbarity and lack of civilization with North Africa. Ultimately, I argue that the application of such labels to North Africans and Muslims functioned to displace them geographically and temporally, serving Iberian Christian colonizing impulses and projects over time.

One of the many faces of Islam in Indonesia is the abangan Muslims or the abangans. As one of the most populous Muslim groups in the country, it is important to know them. To understand Indonesian Islam or Muslims, one cannot overlook them. The article argues that, amid recent escalating Muslim–Christian tension in the country, this majority Muslim group can play a significant role in enhancing Muslim–Christian relations in the future, on account of their worldview that emphasizes and maintains cosmic harmony and balance of all existence. Their open and syncretic attitudes toward other religions may foster religious tolerance and coexistence. These are attested in the author’s personal engagement with them. It is suggested that Christians be more inclusive toward them, but, at the same time, be critical in engaging their worldview. These attitudes are necessary for building a mutual and peaceful Muslim–Christian relationship in the region.

This article investigates identity and belonging among Christians of Iraqi origin in Denmark through an analysis of their narratives of flight and interreligious relations, with a particular focus on the underlying dynamics of a widespread anti-Muslim discourse. Based on qualitative interviews and informal conversations with Chaldean and Assyrian Christians from Iraq, I examine how they presented themselves to me through their stories of flight from Iraq and settlement in Denmark. The analysis draws on perspectives on positionality and belonging among migrants as well as the ambiguous concept of (in)visibility, understood both as something structurally enforced and as how individuals and groups experience their (in)visibility and strive towards mobility and recognition. In addition, the analysis incorporates insights and discussions from literature on racialization and minority–majority relations, while particularly focusing on religious identity and Muslim–Christian relations. Against experiences of racialization and misrecognition as Muslims, I explore how they make sense of, articulate and act on their complex social location as invisible Christians and visible Middle Easterners in a Danish context characterized by ambiguous expectations of religiosity and national belonging. I draw attention to three different, yet simultaneous, narratives put forward by the Iraqi Christians: flight from political oppression, flight from Muslim persecution in the Middle East, and Islam as a threat against Europe. I argue that Iraqi Christians interpret and navigate the experience of being bodily invisible as Christians but visible as immigrants and Middle Eastern Muslims by rewriting narratives of their flight from Iraq to Denmark. Consequently, they also rewrite their relations to both the ‘Christian other’ in Denmark and the ‘Muslim other’ in Denmark and Iraq. The article contributes with a perspective on ‘invisible’ and/or misrecognized non-Muslim minorities in Europe and thus offers insights into the diversity within assumedly homogenous ethnic groups.

Even though women and questions of gender difference are not a core issue in medieval Eastern Christian–Muslim polemic, there are numerous arguments that go back and forth between Muslims and Christians that revolve around women. In the large corpus of polemical texts from the Middle East between the 8th and the 13th centuries, it can be noted that criticism of the other religion involves pointing out illogicalities and absurdities in each other’s doctrines and rituals. Carefully constructed arguments against the claim to Divine endorsement of the faith of the other party are frequently interlaced with criticism of their alleged immoral behavior. Although women feature mostly in the emotive sections of the polemical compositions, there are also reasoned debates about the issue of gender equality in the eyes of God. The discussion of these texts here brings out a range of diverse ideas about women that function primarily as sources for subsidiary arguments against the religious other. At the same time, this study reveals that these arguments were not invented ad hoc. They show the interconnectedness of works within a corpus of polemical texts that spans five centuries.