ISLAM AS A LEADER OF INTERRELIGIOUS TOLERANCE: THE CASE FROM SACRED SOURCE AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

The paper presents a case around the interreligious tolerance credentials of Islam as a religious and cultural polity. Evidence for making such a case is drawn from Islam’s most sacred sources, the Qur’an and Sunnah, as well as its widely revered interpretive history in the form of al-Tabari’s The History and from examples of its lived medieval history in the form of La Convivencia polities of al Andalus Spain. The paper proffers that education about Islam’s credentials in interreligious tolerance should form part of religious and social education curricula in both Muslim and non-Muslim settings, so to set the record straight as well as controvert the ease with which Islam is stereotyped differently. In completing the case, the paper draws on the work of the contemporary Qur’anic historian and theologian, Mohamed Talbi, work that is premised on a similar positive interpretation of Islam’s credentials around interreligious tolerance.