Abstract
Since World War II, Jewish-Muslim relations have almost entirely been mired in the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. One of the results of this heavy politicization has been the
curtailment of any serious or fruitful dialogue between the mainstream, established Jewish
and Muslim communities of the West. This article brackets out the political issues that have
been a cause of mutual distrust and consternation to explore the theological, juridical and
mystical affinities between two strikingly similar traditions. It was these affinities that led to
the creation, in the medieval past, of a Judeo-Islamic tradition – a tradition which in the
words of one scholar was “parallel to and no less real – perhaps in fact even more real – than
that of the Judeo-Christian tradition.” The article demonstrates how the Judeo-Islamic
tradition offers some valuable resources for promoting not only dialogue but congenial
relations between Jewish and Muslim communities. It ends with a brief overview of the
shared (Jewish/Muslim) experience of otherness in the West by drawing on the insights of
Edward Said (vis-à-vis European representations of Semites) to examine the views of Hegel,
Ernest Renan and Abraham Kuenon. The shared experience or otherness offers yet another
vantage point from which to approach Jewish-Muslim dialogue.

Atif Khalil, University of Lethbridge

Jewish-Muslim Relations, Globalization, and the Judeo Islamic Legacy