Seminar: Muslim preaching of the Bible and Christian tafsir of the Qur’an in East Africa
Competition between Islam and Christianity in East Africa is intense. One approach is to use the Bible and Qur’an in order to persuade the ‘other’. This seminar will examine how Muslim preachers of the Bible (Wahubiri Waislamu wa Biblia), influenced by Ahmed Deedat, began to hold public meetings (mihadhara) using the Bible to show the truth of Islam. In order to develop a response, some Christians began to interpret (tafsir) the Qur’an to show its errors. Both Muslims and Christians produced tracts, based on their meetings, to spread their message to a wider audience.
John Chesworth is a Research Officer at the School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham. Among his most recent publications: The Character of Christian-Muslim Encounter: Essays in Honour of David Thomas, D. Pratt, J. Hoover, J. Davies and J. Chesworth (eds) (Leiden: Brill, 2015) and Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History 1500-1900, volume 6 onwards D. Thomas and J. Chesworth (eds) (Leiden: Brill, 2014 onwards).
Date, time and location
02 June 2016
15.30 - 17.00
Pieter de la Courtgebouw / Faculty of Social Sciences, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden
Room 3A06 (third floor)
Registration
Posted on 21 March 2016, last modified on 1 June 2016