" Within the rule of Islam, followers of the three faiths lived under one civilization with utmost respect for one other," Nasr

By Dina Rashed, IOL Chicago Correspondent

CHICAGO , October 24 (IslamOnline.net) - A renowned philosopher and one of the most influential scholars of Islamic Theology in the West delivered the finale speech of the University of Chicago Divinity School 2003 Conference, but his comments and the dialogue it stirred, taking place over Thursday afternoon’s round table lunch, were as intellectually stimulating as his scripted keynote address.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a professor of Islamic Theology at George Washington University in Washington D.C. , said that the relation between Muslims, Christians and Jews is witnessing a dramatic change never experienced before in Islamic history.

"As for the first time since the establishment of the Islamic state 14 centuries ago in Arabia ; Islam becomes the dominated and not the dominating power. Even defeats of Muslims in Spain and other relatively minor areas were never a threat to the Muslim heartland," he added.

Within the rule of Islam, followers of the three faiths lived under one civilization with utmost respect for one other. “several Muslim scholars had Christian followers or Jewish teachers, there is no doubt about that,” said Nasr.

However, the current equation in which power is central, is posing challenges to this longstanding tradition of mutual respect, according to Nasr.

“Whether in Kashmir , Chechnya or Palestine , Muslims feel they are loosing everywhere and this is changing the equation,” he said.

Feelings of being dominated and defeated by others, who relate to other faiths, have led to a misconception of confrontation between the religions, whereas the reasons for the Muslims’ setback have to do with political, economic and social conditions and not religion, said Nasr.

He went on to add that this sense of defeat is manifested in what he called the “generational difference” in viewing the other, in which older Muslim generations tend to have more tolerant and respectful views of their Jewish and Christian neighbors with whom they shared their homelands for decades under Islamic rule, while the much younger generations who grew up with a sense of failure have more confrontational views and are less accepting of the other.

In a comment to what is viewed by some in the West and especially in the U.S. as increasing anti-Semitism within the Muslim and Arab Worlds, Nasr attributed this misleading image as the making of the dominant media in the U.S, and stressed that almost all intellectuals in Muslim countries have condemned the heinous acts of 9/11/2001, but such voices were not heard on CNN, ABC News, and they usually never make it to the pages of the New York Times.

Nasr said that the problem is the media’s deliberate control which limits access of the average American to these views and not the absence of the conscientious voices against terrorism in different parts of the world.

“I have many rabbi friends here and in Israel who do not approve of the practices of the Jewish state against Palestinians because it is against principals of Judaism, but their voices are not heard in the Arab world either,” he said, explaining why much of the emotional frustration in reaction to the unjust practices of blowing homes, uprooting trees and killing civilians, is being aimed at all Jewish people with little discrimination.

Nasr stressed the necessity of condemning anti-Jewish Israeli practices, just as anti-Semitism should be condemned, and that both views should be given enough coverage through the mainstream media.

The three-day conference held under the title “Humanity Before God” presented views of theologians and scholars of the three monotheistic religions on social ethics, responsibilities of human beings as given by God and the moral aspects of vice-regency all within the realm of their traditions in an attempt to formulate an ethical standard for modern life.

Nasr’s closing keynote address focused on the absolutism of the Divine versus the relativity of the creation and the many responsibilities and duties of the human being towards God and His creations.