An Islamic Perspective in Managing Religious Diversity

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of “diversity” as mentioned in the Qur’an and how commonalities in diverse religions may be used as a model for civilizational dialogue towards achieving harmony. This study reveals that religious and cultural diversity are laws of nature which cannot be changed while the concept of “identity” is a contested issue in modern discourse. Results also show that peace may be established among diverse religions through their commonalities and the best way to exploit these commonalities and to reduce the religious divide is through civilizational dialogue. The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and other methods for changing the nature of religious differences and reaching a consensus—thus arriving at a peaceful co-existence—are also discussed. It was found that people are often misguided or divided in the name of religion and culture, despite the fact that the philosophy of every religion is based on peace and harmony.

Keywords

Religious diversity, Conflict transformation, Conflict management, Dialogue, Islamic perspective

Divisions

DeptofSyariahLaw,Science

Funders

Grant from the Humanities Research Cluster, University of Malaya under project number RP004-2012A

Publication Title

Religions

Volume

6

Issue

2

Publisher

MDPI

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