The Islamic Scholarly Perspectives of Interfaith dialogue, Religious Pluralism and Tolerance: A comparative Analysis of Fethullah Gulen and Abdul Karim Soroush’s Ideologies.

Abstract

Contemporary Muslim scholars hold different positions on religious pluralism and tolerance; some (so-called ‘fundamentalists’) are exclusivist and regard Islam as the only true religion and reject religious pluralism and tolerance, others (so-called ‘traditionalists’ and ‘modernists’) believe that religious pluralism and tolerance are acceptable in Islam. Traditionalists mainly rely on Islamic concepts and Sufism and generally do not emphasize or explicitly endorse pluralism, preferring to promote only the religious virtue of religious tolerance.