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Islam en christendom: Het onmogelijke gesprek?
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 24, 2018
In my reading program on islam, I read this little book (in English: Islam and Christianity, an impossible dialogue?) of the Belgian professor and Islam-expert Urbain Vermeulen (1940-2016). Vermeulen had quite a reputation. He did not shy away from polemics and openly criticized certain practices in the Muslim world. This earned him the scorn of the media and even a (temporarily) blame by his fellow professors.
In this booklet Vermeulen repeats his skepticism about the possibility of an equal dialogue with the Muslim community, and he also falls out against the leniency of the West versus Islam, a tolerance that is not answered at all on the other side. He points repeatedly to the rigidity that has grown in the Muslim world in the last 5 centuries and the almost paranoid attitude that prevails in relation to the West and Christianity in particular. He opposes this with the far-reaching adaptation that Christianity underwent under the influence of criticism in its own circle and beyond.
So this book is very polemic, and I have no problem with that. However, the text occasionally adopts a pamphlety tone, and Vermeulen forgets to substantiate some of his propositions. And that is disturbing, because in this matter already enough populism predominates. In this regard I’d rather follow the approach of his Louvain collegue Emilio Platti, who perhaps is too soft in his criticism, but argues in a more thoroughly and a balanced way.
Finally I certainly agree with Vermeulen that there still is still too little knowledge of Islam in our society. That was the case in 1999 (when this booklet was published), and unfortunately it still is almost 20 years later.
In this booklet Vermeulen repeats his skepticism about the possibility of an equal dialogue with the Muslim community, and he also falls out against the leniency of the West versus Islam, a tolerance that is not answered at all on the other side. He points repeatedly to the rigidity that has grown in the Muslim world in the last 5 centuries and the almost paranoid attitude that prevails in relation to the West and Christianity in particular. He opposes this with the far-reaching adaptation that Christianity underwent under the influence of criticism in its own circle and beyond.
So this book is very polemic, and I have no problem with that. However, the text occasionally adopts a pamphlety tone, and Vermeulen forgets to substantiate some of his propositions. And that is disturbing, because in this matter already enough populism predominates. In this regard I’d rather follow the approach of his Louvain collegue Emilio Platti, who perhaps is too soft in his criticism, but argues in a more thoroughly and a balanced way.
Finally I certainly agree with Vermeulen that there still is still too little knowledge of Islam in our society. That was the case in 1999 (when this booklet was published), and unfortunately it still is almost 20 years later.
August 14, 2017
Door mijn reizen in Islamitische landen groeit er een zekere honger naar kennis over hun geloof. Hier een eerder pessimistisch relaas
January 3, 2026
Ik had eerlijk gezegd een beetje meer verwacht van dit boek, vooral aangezien dit boek als aanrader kwam van meerdere personen, maar helaas...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews