Rethinking Religious Engagement in a Globalized World: an Islamic Perspective

Abstract This essay analyzes the major questions that challenge Islam and politics in our modern world to better understand what Islam offers to peace, development, and living together. Religious institutions and communities have important resources to engage in global affairs, and their role must be determined within their own theological and spiritual framework. This essay presents five pillars that form the resources and the theological conditions for an Islamic engagement in global affairs: value-based religious mission; religious freedom; theological understanding of democracy; the need for dialogical theology; and disarming theology and dismantling modern violence. Notably, the Islamic way of religious engagement necessitates a theological reform and a contextual interpretation of religion.