Islam and Buddhism

Abstract

This chapter examines Islam's view of Buddhism as a non-theistic tradition, the history of relations between these two traditions, themes and issues in Muslim-Buddhist dialogue, and the implications of such dialogue for the contemporary religious scene. While Muslims and Buddhists have coexisted in different parts of the world, their exchange has been largely political, military and economic, instead of doctrinal, and only a few scholars have studied the relations between the two traditions in any detail. The contemporary dialogue between Buddhism and Islam takes many forms. Some converts to Buddhism attempt to overcome the ethnic divides between Buddhists and Muslims and attempt to engage in a purely spiritual dialogue, leaving aside the historical and political relations between the two traditions. The history and state of Islam-Buddhism relations and dialogues is subject to different factors of doctrinal, ethnic and political nature. This chapter was first published in Perry Schmidt-Leukel (ed.), Buddhist Attitudes to Other Religions, St. Ottilien/Germany: EOS-Verlag 2008. We thank EOS for the kind permission to reuse it here. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.