A the dawn of the new millennium it was expected that a post-ideological era, a time of peace overcoming ideological conflicts, would come. However, Sep­tember 11th, 2001, and the ensuing disastrous developments all over the world have shown that the way to a peaceful living together and coexistence of all people on earth is still far away. There is again another type of conflict. A new stereotype image of the enemy (Feindbild) has been emerging in the West: Islam as the source of threat and menace to Western society which is based on "free­dom and democracy". 

The aim of chakana is to construct theological and philosophical bridges be­tween different cultures and to contribute towards an intercultural convivence. This final issue of chakana invites our readers to hear the voices of Islam directly. The articles on the central theme (Focus) show a different face of Islam from that usually transmitted by the media. The editors did not intend to give a systematic overview of the multiplicity of Islamic culture but to present exem­plarily three articles by Muslim scholars dealing with interesting themes from an intercultural perspective. 

Abou Yaareb Marzouki, born in Tunisia, discusses the complicated relation­ship between cultural heritage and social progress in Islam today. Self critically he analyses the reasons why Islam lost the ability to pursue a continual reforma­tion. In the search for a way out he falls back on four classi­cal thinkers of Islam and dis­covers important sources by his own creative inter­pre­tation. Nur Kirabaev, Kazakhstan, shows the endogenous potential in Islam for dia­logue and inter­action with other civilizations, which has been especially devel­oped in its early history. The article of Mustapha Ben Taïbi from France is special in consequently applying the hermeneutical method of a text-criti­cal interpretation of the Koran. The final article is written from a Christian point of view. Frederic Ntedika Mvumbi, Kenya, describes the present situation of Islam in different African regions and discusses the conditions for a Muslim-Christian dialogue. Hopefully, these articles will help to counteract the stereotype image of enmity. 

Choe, Hyondok