|
Does Shari'a Really Prohibit Building Churches?
AWR's Editor-in-Chief Cornelis Hulsman responds to the accusation that Islamic law is inherently violent and prohibits the building of churches
November 7, 2011
CAIRO (AWR) — Dutch intellectual Hans Jansen has written a provocative article on a Dutch blog claiming that Egyptian adherence to shari’a law was the reason Copts were killed last month during clashes with Egypt’s armed forces outside the state television building in Cairo.
Jansen not only suggests that Islamic law inherently encourages violence, he also argues that shari’a prohibits the building of churches.
“These arguments must be refuted,” says Arab-West Report Chief Editor Cornelis Hulsman in this editorial response.
“Professor Jansen is either unaware of the arguments of Muslims who are vehemently opposed to those anti-Christian interpretations of Islamic scriptures,” says Hulsman, “or he simply does not want to consider their arguments.”
Hulsman argues that scholars such as Jansen should use their knowledge of Islamic texts to interact with Muslims instead of using this knowledge to make generalized statements on Muslims or Muslim beliefs in general.
In this article, Hulsman asks three Egyptian Muslims to respond to Jansen’s arguments.
“While it is obvious from the scholarly work of Professor Jansen that he knows his Islamic texts well,” says Hulsman, “I would like to see scholars of the stature of Jansen engage in dialogue with Muslim scholars, asking questions that only he is capable of asking, but then also be ready to listen their response.
Read more....
|
