Muslims in the Performative Mode: A Reflection on Muslim-Christian Dialogue

Hermansen stresses that one needs to consider whether performance is a genuine and effective mode of dialogue with non-Muslims and of enacting Muslims' experience. She expounds that in some ways it has a defensive quality of asserting the Muslims difference and reinforcing their otherness, and that it also perpetuates canons of authority within the Muslim community by masking individuality. He elaborates further that on occasion the embodied context of interfaith dialogue can become an unpredictable space that challenges the conventions of Muslim performance in unexpected ways, thereby opening the way to new understandings and interpretations.