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Islam and the West: conflict, co-existence or conversion?
COLIN CHAPMAN, 1998
Carlisle, Paternoster
198 pp. pb. L12.99, ISBN 0 85364 781 X
Colin Chapman's new book follows current fashion in surveying relations between Islam and the West. There are, however, a number of problems associated with these categories: are 'Islam' and the 'West' entirely discrete realities which, somehow, interact with one another and even confront one another or is there co-existence and inter-penetration as well? Also, in choosing these categories there is the ever-present danger of identifying the West with Christianity and of neglecting oriental Christians, many of whom have, after all, lived with Muslims for centuries.
Today, moreover, both Islam and Christianity are world-wide faiths still active in missionary work. There is an urgent need to examine their relationship in Africa and Asia as well as in the West. While it is true that many of the issues at stake in Muslim-Christian relationships arise from the history of Islam's relations with the West, it is also the case that there are other equally important questions which are emerging from the encounter between the two faiths in other parts of the world. Finally, 'Islam' and 'the West' tend to suggest monolithic realities, whereas, in fact, there is a considerable diversity to be found within each category.
In discussing the legacy of history, the author has recourse to a number of historians, both Oriental and Western. It would have been interesting, however, if he had mentioned that some of the Orientals are Christians and some of the Westerners are Muslims! The cultural superiority of Islamic civilization in the Middle ages is mentioned but there is no discussion of the way in which Christians and Jews contributed to the creation of this civilization through their leadership in scholarship, medicine and architecture. In this respect, the position of the oriental Christians was different indeed from their European counterparts. Chapman quotes Sayyid Hossein Nast as saying that Eastern Christians displayed less missionary zeal than Western Christians. Anyone who knows the history of the Assyrian Church or of the Copts will be aware this is not the...