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(1940, Nottinghamshire, Great Britain). Considered one of the most important contemporary historians of Islam, he has directed the monumental The New Cambridge History of Islam (six volumes). He has just been awarded the prestigious Balzan Prize.

You have studied in depth the Muslim precept that orders the followers of that religion to do good and forbid evil ... Yes, it is. It is a principle that has been in force for centuries until today, and that is a source of discussion among academics. But that precept of intervening to do good and avoid evil, is it exclusive to Islam? There are similar precepts in other monotheistic religions such as Judaism or Christianity. But in Islam that principle is more elaborate and, although it is not exclusive to that religion, it has its own peculiarities. And what is the main difference? Well, in Islam the intervention to do good and to avoid evil can be physical, can be accompanied by violence. Can that Muslim precept then justify the terrorist attacks of Islamic radicals we have seen in recent years? The terrorist attacks that we have seen for example in the United States or in Europe were committed under the label of jihad. But when, in the 1930s, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt entered the stores that sold alcohol and broke the bottles, they did so guided by the principle of avoiding evil. Does Islam consider a violent religion? I consider humans a violent species . And I don't think there is a huge difference today between the level of violence in the Islamic world and in other parts of the world. Consider, for example, Christianity: in the Gospels there is a kind of call for Christians to follow a pacifist principle, but Christians have not always been pacifists and have in fact justified it with Old Testament passages. What is clear is that jihad obviously implies religious support for a certain type of violence and to the extent that there are people who respond to that jihad, that violence is very visible. If Muhammad came back to life, would he recognize Islam as the religion he founded? All religions have changed a lot. Muhammad would recognize the Qur'an and many things about Islam would be familiar, but I am sure there would be others that would seem very unknown. But I have no doubt that the same would happen to Jesus Christ and Buddha. 50 years ago nobody could imagine that Islam was going to have the importance it has today. Why is that? I really don't know the answer. What I can tell you is that, obviously, when the Western world impacts the Muslim world, one of the answers is Islam. But I don't know why that strong turn towards Islam came at the end of the 20th century and not in the first half of the 20th century or the end of the 19th century. I do not know. Perhaps it is due to the problem that for Muslim countries supposed to obtain independence in the first half of the twentieth century. And the way to claim the independence of the West was to speak in a nationalist language. You who have read the Qur'an numerous times, do you think you approve of violence? Without a doubt, the Quran speaks on numerous occasions of fighting the infidels. And, in that sense, it is clear that it approves the use of violence. And that violence that the Quran approves, would it be defensive violence as a reaction after suffering an attack or offensive violence? Studying the Koran, that is a matter that is not clear. In the Qur'an there are verses that show that violence can be defensive and others that can be interpreted as offensive violence. Scholastic tradition has generally ruled strongly that it is a defensive violence, but it can also be offensive. And the Quran is macho? Yes and no. In the Quran there are verses that in a very obvious way establish that it is men who must handle women and there is even a verse in which Allah tells a husband how to act before his rebel wife, which includes hitting her. But, on the other hand, there is a very beautiful story about one of the Prophet's wives, a woman with a lot of confidence in herself and saying what she thought without inhibiting herself. And that woman, in reference to the revelations of the Qur'an, complains that they only talk about men, men and more men, and wonders what happens to women. In heaven they decide to fix it and send a verse that speaks of believing men and believing women, of pious men and pious women, placing men and women on the same level. Does the Qur'an approve of a man hitting his wife? In the Quran a story is told, not exactly beautiful, about a Muslim who in times of the Prophet hits his wife. She complains to the Prophet and the Prophet is about to say that she can hit him again and hit him. But then from heaven Allah sends a verse that authorizes a man to hit his wife and the Prophet sentences that he wanted one thing but heaven has decided another. The Quran is always interpreted, and interpretations can go in different directions. And some interpretations accept that a man hits his wife, but without breaking any bones. There are interpretations that talk about how a man can hit his wife but only with a toothpick that is used to clean his teeth. In addition, tradition ensures that the Prophet never hit any of his women. So there is a lot of ambiguity on the matter, but do you think that in most Muslim countries, women today have the same rights as men? No, that is very clear. But there are many variations. In Turkey, a country with strong secular roots, men and women are equal in the face of the law. However, there is still an attitude of masculine superiority in many cultural norms. What do you not know about Islam and would like to know? I would like to know more about the origins of Islam. If you find, for example, the diary of one of Muhammad's companions, it would be really fascinating.

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