ABSTRACT
Scholarly interpretations today delve deep into history in order to substantiate claims about how religious actors and agencies relate to secular ones and to reflect on the legacies that shape contemporary intercultural encounters and engagements. The main reason for this proclivity for historical argument in non-historical interpretations of current religious issues is the roots of these conflicts in the distant past. Not only is religious diversity a ubiquitous phenomenon in human history in general, but also, in many contemporary cases, the main actors – religious com - munities and states identifying with certain belief systems – have been on the stage for hundreds if not thousands of years. Thus, negotiating a religious ‘other’ is as much a new challenge for the present as it is – or seems to be – the continuation of past encounters.
