Reclaiming Pluralism in Contemporary Islamic Thought: A Mediterranean Cosmopolitanism

There is a dire need for collective work to face the increasing challenges the Mediterranean region is facing on all fronts. Religion has a major role to play in contributing to preventing, reducing, and overcoming these challenges. In this regards, this essay, first, refers to some texts of Islamic thought that are classics in comparative religions from an Islamic scholarly perspective. It, second, refers to some contemporary theological and philosophical projects that engage the question of modernity, being, and ethics for a shared future civilization of ethos and trusteeship, and argues that Islamic feminism contributes to this human challenge in a particular way. Finally, third, the essay ends with a call for more initiatives of pluralization, for the protection of global factual plurality, and for pluralism as an ideal. It ends with giving the example of the “Medizen” as a form of plural and aquatic identity of the future “Mediterranean citizen,” an identity composed by various “geotheologies” that are rooted in their own traditions but are at the same time open to difference and to the other as an integral part for its own composition and flourishing.