Khaliava, the theologian.

He said it was nice to see a theologian who wasn't a fool.

It was standard pre modern practice to overcome such differences with a formal disputation. In the early sixteenth century, the German princes attempted to settle the philosophical challenge presented by Protestant reformers by engaging Martin Luther to debate a prominent orthodox Catholic theologian, Johannes Eck.

Members of the transnational Gülen movement inspired by followers of Fethullah Gülen, a Pennsylvania based Muslim theologian are staffing Turkey s police, judiciary, bureaucracy, and universities. The Gülenist media now set the country s new ideological tone, producing a steady stream of disinformation in their vocal support of the country s show trials.

Mahmoud Abbas s election in Palestine and the forthcoming vote in Iraq on January 30 have pushed the question of Islam s compatibility with democracy to the center of the world s agenda. Sheik Dia al Shakarchi, a leading Shi ite theologian, argues that democracy is not only compatible with Islam, but is essential to it.

As I ponder this issue, I am reminded of a debate that I had more than ten years ago in Berlin with the German theologian Hans Küng and American and Asian participants. The subject was Globalization and Ethics specifically, a comparison of the ways that Europe, the United States and Asia protect the most fragile members of their respective societies.