ON THE HISTORY AND PRESENT OF A WORLD RELIGION
Thomas Bauer, Professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic Studies, University of Münster
Moderation Gudrun Harrer, Senior Editor, Der Standard; she teaches Modern History and Politics of the Near and Middle East at the University of Vienna and at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna.
Muslims are often accused of striving „back to the Middle Ages“ and that „Islam“ has not yet arrived in the modern age. However, such statements do not do justice to pre-modern Islam, which is characterised by diversity and complexity and a high tolerance for ambiguity. On the other hand, they also fail to recognise the modernity of seemingly backward-looking currents of Islam with their tendency to reduce complexity, ambiguity and plurality in order to make Islam compatible with modern ideologies.