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common ground between islam and buddhism
Global Knowledge Society and Economy: Sharing Islam’s Inner Resources and
Untapped Wealth.”
The Round Table comprised an official opening session with an introduction by Dr
Tengku Azzman and two keynote speeches by Dr Mahathir and Dr Leif Edvinsson,
respectively, four sessions each with three speakers, and concluding remarks by the
moderators and Dr Edvinsson. The participants were told that the NCP will prepare
an official report, containing their recommendations to the PLF, a copy of which
will be presented to the office of Malaysia’s Prime Minister.
Common Ground between Islam and Buddhism
Eric Winkel, IAIS Malaysia
It is with great excitement that we welcome the initiative and book publication of
Common Ground between Islam and Buddhism.1 In 2007, spurred by Pope Benedict
XVI’s controversial ‘Regensburg lecture’, major figures in Islam and Christianity
created A Common Word between Us and You, an initiative which was instrumental
in reducing tensions and the sense of clash between the two religions. Now, Fons
Vitae has just published the book Common Ground between Islam and Buddhism,
which is a platform for much-needed, sustained conversations between Muslims
and Buddhists. The body of the book is written by Reza Shah Kazemi. There is also
a fascinating essay by Hamza Yusuf. The introductions are provided by the Dalai
Lama, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, and Mohammad Hashim Kamali. The latter
two were vital participants in the earlier Common Word initiative.
Before a common ground can be made, the Muslim has, I would suggest, to
address three questions. The first is historical. Hamza Yusuf describes Muslim–
Buddhist relations over the centuries as being turbulent, indeed centred in the wider
region of which Afghanistan is a part. Buddhists were treated historically by Muslims
along a wide spectrum, from being seen as ‘People of the Book’ to being protected
to being condemned as ‘idolaters’. Shifting from historical precedent, the Muslim
might then ask about the place of Buddhists in the law. Mohammad Hashim Kamali
addresses this question and provides a legal argument for an open interpretation
of “People of the Book” to include Buddhists, and the legal background for seeing
Buddhism as a dīn and for Islam to be seen as a dharma. The spirit of civilisational
renewal, he writes, encourages mutual respect “at a time when the talk of ‘clash
of civilisations’ has become an unwelcome distraction from the Qur’ānic vision of
recognition and friendship between the Muslims and other world communities and
nations” (p. xxi). If the Muslim has come this far, the last question is, one hopes,
what we can learn from each other.
Islam and Civilisational Renewal
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Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad writes of his experiences with reading about
Zen Buddhism and recently with meeting the Dalai Lama, when he found greater
concentration in his five daily prayers and a better ability to monitor his thoughts
the rest of the day. His description resonated with me. When I came out of a retreat
– very much needing a ‘practice’ to inform and direct insights – I was fortunate to
find kyudo, the ‘way of the bow’. I was part of a teaching with a continuous lineage,
directed by the twentieth Kanjuro Shibata Sensei. The practices of Islam, especially
the ṣalāh, became for me tremendously deep. I connected ‘breath’ in kyudo with the
vast literature and wisdom around ‘spirit’ and ‘self’ in Islam. Everything I learned,
in Japanese and in kyudo, I transposed into Arabic and Islam, while wondering
why it was so hard to find this living spirit among Muslims. Over the past 50 years
or so, especially, the petrodollar has been driving ‘spirit’ out of the religion. But
even just the process of creating this common ground is a sign of the movement of
spirit, if we are still enough to perceive it, and to be welcomed and sustained fully.
Recently, The Muslim World (vol. 100, no. 2–3, April–July 2010), an eminent
journal published quarterly by the Macdonald Center in the United States and usually
addressing issues pertaining to the study of Muslim–Christian relations, devoted its
latest issue to Islam and Buddhism. One author identifies four dialogues. One of
those dialogues came about as a reaction to the destruction of the statues of Bamiyan
and the events of 9/11. A second is the dialogue between Majid Tehranian and
Daisaku Ikeda. A third is the series of dialogues in Thailand to address the conflict
of Muslims and Buddhists, especially in southern Thailand (Pattani). This kind of
dialogue is reduced to ‘diplomatic crisis-management’. A statement made during
the dialogue in Kuala Lumpur in 2002 seems to suggest that the best we can expect
is crisis-management, and that spiritual and doctrinal issues should be ‘not up for
discussion’.2 A fourth dialogue is found in the perennialist tradition, which is also
somewhat ‘controversial’ here in Malaysia. The author’s hope is for what Raimundo
Panikkar called “intra-religious dialogue,” where “Muslims and Buddhists […] in
their own hearts and minds feel the spiritual strength of the other’s religion and try
to combine this with what they have learned from or through their own tradition”.3
One hopes this is the year when a mutually beneficial dialogue may begin between
Islam and Buddhism.
Notes
1. Reza Shah Kazemi, Common Ground between Islam and Buddhism (Louisville KY: Fons Vitae,
2010).
2. Perry Schmidt-Leukel, “Buddhist–Muslim Dialogue: Observations and Suggestions from a Christian
Perspective”, The Muslim World 100, no. 2–3 (April–July 2010), 353.
3. Raimundo Panikkar, The Intrareligious Dialogue (New York: Paulist Press, 1978).
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