Distorted Understanding of Truth真理歪曲的理解.docVIP

The Problem of Truth in Jewish-Muslim Relations _____________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Shai Har-El Peacepaper #3 | June 2011 Middle East Peace Network  Table of Contents Page 1. Introduction 3 2. The Concept of God’s Truth 4 3. An Illustrating Parable 5 4. Monotheism Redefined 7 5. The One Universal Rule 10 6. One Truth and Many Truths 11 7. Conclusion 13 8. Final Thoughts in a Poetic Form 15 9. Endnotes 21 Introduction The most fundamental contemporary issue confronting the relations between Judaism and Islam, and consequently the relations between Israelis and Arabs, is the precedence their creeds give to Truth (with a capital T), the absolute truth, over all other ethical virtues. The common dictum, “All Truth is God’s Truth,” has become the main source of conflict, as each religious group upholds to and propagates its own absolutist version of God’s Truth. In so doing, they “religiously” fall into two traps, both at the same time: First, the “relativity trap”—when each group rejects the view that all truths are relative to time, place, and culture. Second, the “exclusivity trap”—when each asserts in absolute terms that there is only one moral law, one code, one standard, one way, and “ours is the right one, because it is God’s.” Each group is convinced from its divine prerogatives that they are the only true religion, and claim that “we are right because we possess the Truth; if you differ from us, you are a nonbeliever or heretic, and you are in error.” The problem of Truth is the truth of the problem in Jewish-Muslim relations. The problem is not whether there is absolute truth or not—there is. The problem arises when individuals and groups claim to possess the absolute