Islam—A Liberal, Intellectually Challenging Partner for Europe?

What was the relationship of the earliest Muslims to the formative ideas, the ideologies of its milieu? How did the earliest community deal with the apocalyptic anxieties that dominated their environment? The Qur’an tackles major questions such as human freedom vis-à-vis determinism. It offers new answers to major questions such as: Is there the burden of original sin? Is “Adam” (man) a creature that failed from the beginning? Or can he act as a leader, as God’s viceroy (khalifa)? A look at these deep structures, their inclusion in the discussions with Muslims, is therefore particularly promising as an introduction to a critical but fair view of Islam, which is the focus of this chapter.