By Martin Accad This year will mark nearly twenty years since I first began to think about the SEKAP spectrum for Christian-Muslim interaction. I have advocated for a moderate posture on a five-level continuum between Syncretism (D1: “all roads lead to Mecca”) and Polemics (D5: “aggressive and exclusivist”), with D2 and D4 representing Existential (“dialogue of life”) and Apologetic positions — hence the acronym SEKAP. Within this framework, through the Kerygmatic attitude and approach (D3), I have sought to locate a biblically faithful position for Evangelical engagement in interfaith dialogu ..read more

by Emad Botros In a previous ABTS Blog post I made the argument that the Jonah of the Bible and the Yūnus of the Quran are the same character. The post concluded with the questions: is it possible to learn from the Qur’an? Can the Qur’an help us as we develop theology in a Middle Eastern context? When I first heard this phrase “learning from the Qur’an” during my PhD studies I resisted the idea and answered firmly with “NO!” As a committed Evangelical, the Bible is the only authoritative book to learn from. How then can I learn from another religious book other than the Bible? What c ..read more

by Nabil Habibi My colleague, Abed, reflected last week on the death of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the subsequent debate among Muslims about whether it is acceptable to wish mercy on a dead Christian. Building on his own research of the effects of attitude on relationships, Abed concluded that we need to treat the religious other with respect. In many ways this blog is a continuation of that argument. I begin with Abed’s final statement: “Perhaps the death of Abu Akleh (as well as the results of my studies and so many others) reminds us that mutual respect, accompanied by ..read more

By Abed Zein El Dien On May 11, Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist and longtime TV correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic in Palestine, was shot dead by the Israeli forces while covering army raids in the city of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank. Her death is a tragedy that has startled the world in profound ways, but it has also caused passionate conversation about the way we manage religious differences. Arabs were furious about such a murderous incident and many Muslims spoke of Abu Akleh as a martyr and asked Allah to bring mercy on her soul. Many were not familiar with Abu Akleh’s relig ..read more

By Brent Hamoud There’s no denying that violence has an unfortunate place in Muslim and Christian history, but too often our historical narratives are laden with denial. Common presumptions position Islam as the antagonistic force versus Christianity as vivid examples of violence (of which there are many) committed by Muslims against Christians are strung together to construct grand stories about a one-way flow of oppression. However, such reductionist thinking features a glaring blind spot: Christianity has a sobering history of violence against Muslims. History is a battlefield for minds and ..read more

By Emad Botros As I was reading my colleague Martin Accad’s ABTS Blog article from last year, “What’s in a Name?: A Case for Using ‘Isa in Arabic Translations of the Bible,” my mind continually turned to another Biblical figure, Jonah, who appears in the Arabic Bible under the name Yunan and in the Qur’an under the name Yūnus. While Martin took us on a journey to explore some possible suggestions for the Qur’anic use of the name Issa, rather than the Arabic name Yasu‘ in Arabic translations, I thought more about the relationship between the Biblical story of Jonah (Yunan) and that of Yūnus in ..read more