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On Islamic Tolerance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Abdelwahab Bouhdiba
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Extract

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Why does one hear so much about tolerance today, when as little as a few decades ago it was considered an obsolete virtue, anachronistic and outstripped by the progress of our civilization? When a virtue is lacking we remember it most! Must we conclude from the emphasis placed on tolerance these last few years that we have entered an era of generalized mutual incomprehension? The conquests of the intellect; local, national and international juridical practices; education open to global issues; the intermixing of humanity that has never before “moved” so much under the combined effect of emigration; tourism and the developments in transportation and vast information exchanges served by efficient techniques that make communication one of the greatest benefits of our culture; all this could have led mankind into a surplus of exchanges on all levels, and better mutual appreciation leading to more tolerance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 44 , Issue 176 , December 1996 , pp. 121 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1. The literature on this is extensive in Arabic, English, and French. Here it is sufficient to refer to the relevant chapters in UNESCO's Individu et société en islam, Paris, 1994.

2. Voltaire's Mahomet ou le fanatisme is written in the same vein as his Traité sur la tolérance (1762). He focuses on the fanaticism of all religions and all ideologies. The lack of information at the time, the desire to be effective and escape censor ship, led Voltaire to "blacken" Mohammed. But surprisingly Voltaire's real struggle against intolerance is the same as that led by the real Mohammed. The thoughts of Claude Lévi-Strauss at the end of Tristes Tropiques (p. 429 in the first edition of 1955), however, are surprising coming from a great anthropologist.

3. Suyûti, "Al-jàm'i al-saghir," in: Recueil des dits de Mahomet, p. 123.

4. See R. Blachère, "L'Allocution d'Adieu de Mahomet," in: Analecta, 1975, p. 140: "Oh people! Your Lord is unique and so is your forefather. You all descend from Adam, and Adam was born from the earth; the noblest of you in the eyes of Allah is the most pious…. The only superiority of one arab over another is through piety."

5. See A. Chennoufi, "La Tolérance comme valeur à travers l'histoire tunisi enne," in: Al-Hayat Al-Thaqafiya, No. 76 (June 1996), pp. 22ff. See also the definitive and very learned study by H.H. Abdelwahab, "L'Apport ethnique des étrangers en Tunisie," in: Cahiers de Tunisie, No. 69/70, pp. 158ff.

6. C. Cahen, Orient et Occident au temps des croisades, Paris, 1992, pp. 18-9.