Rosenzweig dismissed Islamic confession as disbelief masquerading as faith

Evidence

To the extent that Islam does not know or understand faith, to the extent that it does not even have faith, Rosenzweig will oppose Islam to belief itself (“For belief, on the other hand … ”) and claim that Islam’s confession (Bekenntnis) is thus no confession at all. It says nothing about faith ( Glaube ): “Islam’s confession that ‘God is God’ is not a confession of belief but a confession of disbelief,” ein Unglaubensbekenntnis (18I/G2o2). Given this failure of the theological and this failure of love, on Islam’s part, Islam’s act of love cannot be anything but a purposive act, an act of war and an act of holy war ( Glaubenskrie~ without faith ( Glaube). — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 494

Categorization

• SEED: The idea of an ‘Unglaubensbekenntnis’ — a confession of unbelief — is a rich conceptual inversion that could anchor an essay on how enemies are constructed through theological misrecognition.
• SHARE: Rosenzweig’s coinage ‘Unglaubensbekenntnis’ (confession of unbelief) is the kind of crystalline formulation a specific friend deep in philosophy of religion would savor.