ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to join the conversation about the role of religion in reconciliation, or the possibility of reconciliation in religiously inspired conflicts, with particular reference to competing religious interpretations and social movements among Muslims. It argues the events of September 11 and their aftermath that have exposed sharply conflicting theological interpretations and sociopolitical identities among Muslims in the world today, and in many cases these conflicts have deep historical roots. It also focuses on the need for reconciliation among Muslims themselves, between modern globalized Wahhabi or Salafi movements among Sunni Muslims and more local and historically rooted communities of Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Muslims in America, most of whom are American citizens, suffer discrimination and humiliation from law enforcement agencies and neighbors, in schoolyards, and also from the still sadly influential pronouncements of religious spokespersons from the Christian right, such as Franklin Graham, who declare Muslims to be heathen.
