Feminist interreligious dialogical activism: The hybrid spaces and bridges of Muslim-Christian dialogue today

Muslim-Christian dialogue has enjoyed a rich and vibrant past, but it has also met with challenges such as the notion of an inevitable clash between civilizations. While interaction between Muslims and Christians has occurred at all levels of society since the inception of Islam, the formal organization of Muslim-Christian dialogue has been largely orchestrated by certain groups of men with significant levels of social or ecclesial power. Only certain motivations, processes and religious identities were conceptualized and practiced, while the majority of Muslims and Christians were underrepresented, marginalized and perhaps even silenced. Monolithic assumptions about what it means to be Muslim or Christian serves patriarchal, elitist and, with the rise of Christian colonialism, increasingly Christian-oriented purposes. Such a narrow configuration makes Muslim-Christian relations less able to respond vigorously to the challenges of living in a plural, diverse world with many voices and expressions of faith and indeed contributes to false notions of religious authority and competitive tribalism.;This thesis recounts the historical evolution of the spectrum of interreligious dialogue (typically portrayed as exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism), locates these positions within their historical contexts, and critiques the problems of these locations with the aid of postmodernist, feminist and discourse theorists. This positions me to be able to show the uniqueness of new trends within Muslim-Christian dialogue which I name as interreligious dialogical activism and feminist interreligious dialogical activism. Specifically, four contributions can be mentioned here: feminist theories of deconstruction and reconstruction with an appreciation for hybridity; an understanding of embodied dialogue, conversationalist epistemology, "feeling the story of the other," or the "wild wind" of Han-spirits; justice understood as universal well-being in various contexts; and collaborative responses to fundamentalist platforms that seek to further marginalize and violate women. Models of interreligious dialogue premised on bridging or connecting with "the other" with the intention of doing good works, i.e., acts of social justice, provide a pathway out of the destructive inclinations that trouble our world today. This work is essential to moving Muslim-Christian discourse away from the dichotomizing clash of civilizations espoused by some.;Women share this common history and experience of the colonization of minds and bodies because masculinized religious agendas define their world without their input. These common patterns of alterity between Muslim and Christian feminists place them in a unique role to critique dialogical processes. Examining the work of Riffat Hassan, Nimat Hafez Barazangi and Chung Hyun-Kung, I argue that their analyses and dialogical methods move away from notions of centralized hegemonic normativity and better illustrate the plurality of ourselves as multiple and diverse in our identities and narratives. A shift in understanding religion and self brings new considerations and methods to the dialogical table. Perhaps the most critical shift to be noted is a commitment to the full agency and voice of all but particularly those typically disenfranchised or configured as marginal to the centre of discourse.