Abstract This article examines three recurrent tensions in contemporary interreligious engagement in Malaysia: the meaning of religious pluralism, the relationship between dialogue and daʿwah, and the place of minority rights within a credible framework of coexistence. Drawing on qualitative library research, it argues that current debate often conflates the sociological fact of religious diversity with a stronger theological claim that all religions are equally true or salvifically equivalent. For the Malaysian context, pluralistic coexistence is a more precise term than religious pluralism, because it allows communities to live together under a shared civic order without requiring the relativization of doctrinal truth claims. The article further argues that daʿwah and dialogue should not be cast as simple opposites. The more relevant distinction is between dialogical witness and polemical contestation. Finally, the article contends that minority rights are not a secondary issue within interreligious relations but one of the conditions of meaningful dialogue itself.
Ghazali et al. (Wed,) studied this question.