Not Truth But Tolerance A (Much Belated) Response to Atif Khalil

Abstract

I should like to begin this essay with a sincere apology. More than five years
have passed since Professor Atif Khalil penned his scholarly critique of
some of my suggestive ruminations on intra-Islamic theological ecumenism
in the introduction to my translation of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghâzalî’s Fayṣal
al-Tafriqa.1 While scholarly convention – not to mention etiquette ‒ would
certainly demand a much more timely response than I have been able to
manage, I am afraid that I can plead no better than to throw myself on the
understanding of those who have insight into and appreciation for the various
ways in which the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001 have skewed
the scholarly agenda of many an Islamicist. I sincerely hope that this delay
will not be construed as some kind of veiled or surreptitiously snide dismissal
of Professor Khalil’s thoughtful analysis. I also hope that it will not
have gone so far as to suggest any inability on my part to respond to what
I shall argue amounts to a clever but ultimately wrong-minded critique ...