Abstract

The architecture of Hispano-Arab Andalusia presents a semiotics of shared identity known as mudejar art, embodying a certain cosmopolitan ideal. The Kantian notion of a single religion with multiple expressions finds forerunners in the Catholic Nicholas Cusanus, the Jew Moshe Ibn 'Ezra and the Muslim Ibn 'Arabī, though all three do argue logically for the precedence of their own faith, unlike Kant. Politically, the Zirid emir Bādīs, for instance, could choose the Jew Ibn Nagrila as prime minister, during a short-lived period of rich cosmopolitan coexistence. The more recent European colonial experience has exacerbated divisions and hardened identity formation around religion. The emergence of post-religious individuals, particularly among Muslims living in Europe as citizens, will require a sustained pedagogical effort on the part of the State.

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