Symposium: ‘Christian-Muslim Encounters: Perspectives on Modalities of Interreligious co-existence from Asia, Africa and Europe’

2 June, 2017

On 2 June the symposium “Christian Muslim Encounters: Perspectives on modalities of interreligious co-existence from Asia, Africa and Europe” will be held in Utrecht. This symposium, drawing on case-studies from Asia, Africa and Europe, explores the modalities of co-existence of Christians and Muslims in the public domain.

Across Asia, Africa and Europe, Christians and Muslims live in shared settings, defining themselves in distinction to each other, at times engaging in violent conflicts, but also being entangled in multiple ways and showing unexpected similarities.

ENCOUNTERS AND ENTANGLEMENTS
In current scholarly research on religion, the study of Christianity and Islam is thriving. But often, notwithstanding some laudable exceptions and initiatives, these study fields still exist more or less independently from each other. Rarely have the encounters and entanglements of Christianity or Islam and the modalities of interreligious co-existence been a central research issue or studied within a common framework, even though Christians, Muslims and others have co-existed – and still co-exist – more or less peacefully in many contexts. This symposium explores the modalities of these co-existencies.

PROGRAMME

13.15-13.20 Opening by the chair Prof. Birgit Meyer

Session I: Perspectives from Asia
13.20-13.40 ‘Contested Content: Muslim-Christian Encounters over Textbook Reform in Pakistan.’ By Kor Grit.

13.40-14.00 ‘The Politics of “Allah”. Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Indonesian Political Space.’ By Dr Lucien van Liere.
14.00-14.15 Questions

Session II: Perspectives from Africa
14.15-14.35 ‘The Africa that we were, the Africa that we are, and the Africa that we want in Christian-Muslim relations.’ By Johnson Mbillah.
14.35-14.55 ‘To repeal an Islamic state. The price of interreligious coexistence in The Gambia.’ By Prof. Martha Frederiks
14.55-15.10 Questions
15.10-15.30 Tea & Coffee

Session III: Perspectives from Europe
15.30-15.50 ‘Pious aspirations, secular routines. A comparative ethnography of young Muslims and Christians in the Netherlands.’ By Dr Daan Beekers.
15.50-16.10 ‘Fatherland-Motherland. Christians, Muslims and others combining loyalties in the context of the Dutch nation state.’ By Dr Gé Speelman.

16.10-16.25 Questions
16.25-17.15 Plenary discussion (Birgit Meyer)
17.15 Drinks