Religious Radicalism

Front matter

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RADIC ALISM

DEMARCA IONS AND CHALLENGES °

PART 1: DEMARCATIONS Jaco Beyers

The Role of a Policy of Multiculturalism in the Struggle against Religious Extremism: The Example of Azerbaijan 51

Ravan Hasanov

Mission and Missiology: The Quest for a ‘Grassroots’ Narrative to Address ‘Radicalization and Violence’ in Post-Apartheid South Africa 59

Eugene Baron

Elizabeta Kitanovic

Radicalization and Divine Violence 93 Johann Meylahn The Dutch East India Company: Strict Protestantism and Intolerance 111

Jack McDonald

PART 2: CHALLENGES The Radical System in the Hebrew Bible Arjan Knop

Peace, Violence and Holy War According To The Qur’an Jan M.F. Van Reeth

Contextualizing Holy War: The Rabbinic and Patristic Theology of the Joshua Wars as a Counter-Theology to Religious Radicalization

Jannica de Prenter

A Theological Reflection on Exodus 24:11 from the Perspective of the Dialogue between Judaism and Christianity

Harry J. Sinnaghel

A Plea for Hope: About the Contribution of Religious Education to Respectful Citizenship

Leendert-Jan Parlevliet

List of contributors

Preface his volume represents the result of joint work. In January 2020, research-

ers from the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies in Brussels presented the results of a project that had been underway for a year to colleagues in Pretoria. During those same intensive sessions, colleagues from the University of Pretoria also shared their findings on radicalization, multiculturalism and violence. The exchange was very fruitful and the resulting harvest forms the backbone of this book.

The initial religious motives and mechanisms of radicalism have been brought to the fore by the researchers who have contributed to this anthology. A growing lack of understanding of religion can be observed in secular policy bodies in the academic world in Europe as well as elsewhere in the world. That is why in this volume we approach the subject ‘from within’. The contributions, each validin their own right, are linked together through the background and experiences of the authors who are all specialists in academic theology or in ancient languages and literature. It is our intention, as experts in religious studies, to provide policy makers with workable tools and a user-friendly method to tackle religious radicalism constructively. The underlying issue is the question of the role of the rule of law in relation to the human rights of religious minorities. This collection of articles aims at an interdisciplinary approach to religious radicalism. Religious studies blend with theology and cultural criticism within it. The underlying research question - to which we present some answers in this volume - is: what instruments can be used to better understand religious experience and sacred texts in order to combat radicalization?

In Part 1, we define and describe the boundaries of religious radicalism. The first article sets out the concept of religious radicalism within the limits of modernity. The contours of radicalism from a religious perspective reveal an anti-scientific discourse. Contemporary developments indicate that this radical discourse threatens the public debate: radicalism can readily be seen as areaction toa sense of life encapsulated in, and circumscribed by, technology and economics. Next, Jaco Beyers investigates radicalization in the context of interreligious communication: in the specific post-apartheid context of today’s South Africa, this issue needs to be framed in the colonial past. He focusses on the relationship between mission and the diverse cultural backgrounds within Africa. These initial theoretical articles are followed by two practical applications: Ravan Hasanov describes the practice of multiculturalism and religion in post-communist Azerbaijan. The author is deeply rooted in the problem; he pleads for a strong overarching educational and socio-political strategy to combat extremism and radical sects. An advanced society based on international cooperation must be able to turn the threat around, he argues. Eugene Baron tests a gendering of this problem in the specific context of Africa. Asa lecturer in practical theology and missiology, he shows that radicalization very often occurs in a situation of dehumanization. He points to a loss of identity as a result of a colonial culture, perpetuated by neo-colonial corruption.

He pleads for a ‘grassroots narrative’, a ‘story from the bottom up’ asa constructive answer to religious radicalization and violence. After defining the concept and exploring possible ways to combat radicalization within specific contexts, we present a third, reflective part to this volume. Here we explore general questions about the problem of religious radicalism. Elizabeta Kitanovic, professor of Human Rights in Brussels, pleads for the introduction of clear legislation on racism and discrimination: it is the duty of the constitutional state to place human rights high on the political agenda and to provide the necessary instruments for its implementation. Religion plays an opinion-forming role in this and should motivate people to be tolerant and willing to open themselves up to those who think differently. In line with this legal approach, Johann Meylahn tests a philosophical approach: based on Walter Benjamin, ‘divine violence’ is contradicted by forms of violence that are legitimate in the rule of law, whether state-forming or state-preserving. He argues unequivocally in favour of supplementing a purely ‘policing’ approach to radicalization with a politics which responds less to symbols and signification than to the poetic power of inclusive openness. The cultural-critical section concludes with an investigation into the theological foundations of violence perpetrated by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Indonesia: Jack McDonald shows that new religious rules of faith after the Reformation underpinned a policy of exclusivism. Making foreigners doctrinally and doctrinairely different appears here as a political instrument of religious radicalism.