Islamic ethics Of War & peace

Islamic ethics Of War & peace Islam, Conflict and Violence

Three Academic Approaches

Definitions of Key Terms “Contending definitions reflect the subjectivity of their producers, and provide lenses through which they see the world”

Conflict Transformation Conflict seen • as part of human condition • as continuous dynamic • as motor of/for change John Paul Lederach, Professor of International Peacebuilding Photo: University of Notre Dame

Definitions of Violence • Two Paradigms: • Physical Violence vs. Structural Violence • Legitimate Force (State) vs. Extra-legal Violence (Terrorism)

Structural Violence • Analysis of link between Instrumental Violence & Structural Violence • Structural Violence is built into the structure of socio-political, economic and cultural institutions Johan Galtung Photo: Jarle Vine. (Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 3.0)

Islam and Violence? Is Islam an Independent or Tangential Variable in Violent Conflicts?

Sources of Islamic Extremism

Scripture and Violence The meaning of the text is often as moral as its reader. If the reader is intolerant, hateful, or oppressive, so will be the interpretation of the text. - Khaled Abou El-Fadl

Qur’an: Chapter 9:5 “When the sacred months are over, slay the idolaters wherever you may encounter them, and take them captive, and besiege them, and prepare ambushes for them everywhere! Yet if they repent, and take to prayer, and render alms, then let them go their way freely: for, God is much oft-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.”

Tafsir/Exegesis of the Sword Verse The majority of Muslim scholars both past and present have argued that this verse cannot be generalized (`am) and that it relates to a limited context (khass)

Qur’an 4:34 “Believers! Stand firmly for justice, as witnesses for God, even if it means testifying against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it is against the rich or the poor, for God prevails upon all. Follow not the lusts of your hearts, lest you swerve, and if you distort justice or decline to do justice, verily God knows what you do”.

Meaning of Jihad • Literally - Struggle for Commendable Aim • Holy War- Al-Harb Al-Muqaddasah • The Greater Jihad al-Nafs-Self Purification • Jihad al-Qital - Just War Theory • Gender Jihad-Economic Jihad etc.

Rumi (13th century) “The prophets and saints do not avoid spiritual struggle. The first spiritual struggle they undertake is the killing of the ego and the abandonment of personal wishes and sensual desires. This is the greater jihad.” Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. (public domain)

Graham Fuller – CIA Expert on Islam “If a society and its politics are violent and unhappy, its mode of religious expression is likely to be just the same”. -- Graham Fuller

Carnegie Commission Report 1999 “…religious diversity does not spawn violence independently of predisposing social, economic and political conditions as well as the subjective roles of belligerent leaders.”

Study Questions • What are some the causes given for Muslim extremism? • Distinguish between jihad al-qital and jihad al-nafs?

Islamic ethics Of War & peace