Reading the Qur’an in Solidarity with Indigenous Rights

Join CCMS for a conversation with Shadaab Rahemtullah where shares a recently published paper that may help provide a framework for Muslim-Indigenous solidarity.

The paper being presented seeks to put Islamic liberation theology in conversation with First Nations’ rights, focusing on an Indigenous critique of Christian liberation theology. The Exodus – the liberation of the ancient Israelites from Egyptian bondage - is a central paradigm for Latin American and Black liberation theologians, representing a just deity in solidarity with the oppressed. But Indigenous scholars have critiqued the Exodus paradigm as selective, omitting “the other side” of the story: namely, the Israelite conquest of Canaan and destruction of its local inhabitants.

Given the Exodus is also a key trope in Islamic liberation theology, this paper raises the following questions: What exactly does the Qur’an have to say about the Israelite encounter with Canaan? Does it mirror the Biblical account? Did a mass genocide take place, and, if so, was this a result of divine decree?