ABSTRACT
Four things can be said about historic relations between Muslims and Christians: Eastern Christians were the first to encounter Islam as the Arabs expanded their sphere of influence into previously Christian territories; Muslims and Christians have generally (with some exceptions) lived side by side for centuries in relatively peaceful coexistence in the traditional lands of many of the Eastern Churches; the treatment of religious minorities in territories under Muslim rule and those under Christian control, as well as attitudes toward the religious other, have varied considerably by location and time period; and western Christians, with the exception of those who lived in Muslim Spain, had little direct and personal contact with Muslims or their religion prior to the Crusades and, in many places, for a number of centuries thereafter. These historical realities are not always fully acknowledged or appreciated in discussions about Muslim–Christian relations today, nor within the various dialogues that are increasingly taking place between Muslims and Christians in many locations around the globe. Eastern Christians and Muslims, in a general sense, have arguably experienced and responded in similar ways to the historical, political and sociological developments that have resulted from the rise of Western powers and the spread of Western ideas in the modern and late modern periods (Sharp 2012: 127–78). These experiences and perspectives can be compared and contrasted in useful ways with those of western Christians, as well as other non-Christian and nonreligious groups in modern western societies (Sharp 2014: 126–50). For all of these reasons, it is important to reflect upon the topic of the Eastern Churches and Islam, not only to have a better understanding of how Islam is an essential aspect of Eastern Christians’ historical past, present identity and future aspirations but also to open the possibility of discovering a more favourable paradigm for relations between western Christians (or even ‘the West’) and Islam than the negative and antagonistic one that has been so prevalent since the time of the Crusades.
