A: About
the Author
B. Summary
Peace and justice go together as overriding principles
of Islamic jurisprudence (al-maqasid). Islam even
etymologically is identified with peace („as-salam"). The
Qur`an strongly associates peace with paradise. Muslims
ought to be recognizable by their peacefulness and devotion
to justice, Allah having ruled out injustice for Himself.
Reviewing Islamic history it is easier to attribute peace
and justice to the earliest period than to the eras since.
Paragons of peace and justice like Salah ad Din, model
Muslim regions like the M`Zab, and exclusively peaceful
mystics were rare on all sides. Due to terror conducted in
its name, Islam is no longer associated with peace and
justice, even though genuine Islam allows the use of force
only in defence against illegal attacks from without and
against tyranny from within. Islamist terrorism, while not
justifiable, can be understood in the historical context of
imperialist colonization, de-colonization, (Zionist)
neo-colonization, and globalization. Islam, nevertheless,
has the potential to contribute to contemporary peace
building and conflict resolution because of its pronounced
support of religious pluralism, its protection of religious
minorities, and its practice of racial equality.
C. Key Words
´adl , Assassins, Bin Laden, colonization,
conflict resolution, constitution (of al-Madinah),
de-colonization, fiqh , freedmen, globalization,
hadith , hadith qudsi , hajj , Hind, Holocaust,
Hudaybiyya, human rights, imperialism, ijma , jizya ,
jurisprudence, ius ad bellum , ius in bello ,
justice, kafa´ah, Makkah, madhahib, Madinah,
maqasid, Muhammad, M`Zab, nobility, peace,
pilgrimage, pluralism, Qa´ida, qiyas, Qur`an, Salah
ad-Din, sira , siyar , slaves, social mobility,
Süleyman, suicide, sunnah , terrorism, ummah .
D. Text
1. I n t r o d u c t i o n
1. Peace and justice obviously go together. Where there
is no peace there can hardly be any justice. And where there
is no justice, peace remains elusive. It only takes a short
glance at the situation in Palestine under Israeli
occupation to illustrate these truisms. Therefore both peace
and justice in Islamic jurisprudence belong to the so-called
maqasid, i.e. overriding principles which must be
obeyed even in cases where positive law remains silent.
2. All world religions except Islam are called after
personalities (Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ) or regions
(Judaism; Hinduism). Only Islam identifies itself with
peace, the word "Islam" being a derivative of as-salam, is the religion that promotes peace and brings peace
to its sincere adherents.
3. Justice between individuals as well as between rulers and
the ruled is indeed a central notion in the Shari´ah as it
is in any successful society. This is so because without
justice the equality of all people under the law would be
jeopardized. Muslims underscore the centrality of justice by
listing al-´adl - justice - among the 99 most
beautiful names / attributes of God / Allah.
2. P e a c e a n d J u s t i c e i n t h e Q u r
`a n
(1) Peace:
The Qur`an immensely treasures peace, describing paradise as
"the abode of peace" (19: 62). There the normal greeting is
indeed "Peace be with you ! " or just "Peace !" (13: 24; 14:
23; 15: 46, 52; 16: 32; 25: 75; 33: 44; 36: 58; 39: 73; 50:
34; 56: 26, 91). In particular the Qur`an describes how
greetings of peace were extended by the angels to Abraham
(11: 69; 19: 47; 37: 109), John the Baptist (19: 15), Jesus
(19: 33), Noah (37: 79), Moses and Aaron (37: 120) as well
as to Elias (37: 130). No wonder that the Night of Destiny (Lailat
all-Qadr) is graphically described as a particular night
whose peacefulness is assured until dawn (97: 5).
Muslims are instructed to salute others with greetings of
peace (27: 59; 28: 55; 43: 89), never to put such greetings
into doubt, regardless from whom they had been received (4:
94), and in war to accept offers of peace as a matter of
principle (8: 61). Consequently Muslims can be recognized as
such by their way of greeting (25: 63). They know indeed
that peace is bestowed on all those who lead modest lives
and react to provocations and ignorance by saying "peace ! "
(25: 47).
The Qur`an demands peacefulness towards all those who offer
peace (4; 90; 8: 61) and rewards peace-creating forgiveness
(42: 40). On the whole, the Islamic acceptance, and endorsement,
of religious pluralism (2: 256; 5: 48; 10: 99; 109) helps to
safeguard peace.
As shown, if Islam nowadays is rarely perceived as religion
of peace it is certainly not due to its core teachings but
to people who, while claiming to act Islamically, disregard
the profound Qur`anic commitment to peace.
(2) Justice:
The notion of justice is ever so present in the Qur`an.
Allah Himself declares that He will always decide, and that
his word will be realized, "in truth and justice" (6: 115;
34: 26; 40: 28, 78: 45: 22), stressing that He loves (!)
those who do justice and shy away from injustice (60: 8).
Allah assures us that all of His messengers acted, and act,
in accordance with justice (10: 47; 57: 25), justice having
been expressly commanded by Him (7: 29; 16: 90).
To this effect the Qur`an contains a general appeal to all
of mankind: "Do justice !" (49:9). This is backed up by
specific admonitions to do justice to ones` spouses
(4: 129) and to orphans (4: 127; 6: 152).
Witnesses in court are urged to serve justice under any
circumstances (4: 135; 5: 8, 108), and salesmen in
the marketplace to use just measuring (11: 85; 55: 9). In
fact, Allah frequently when addressing justice uses the
image of the weight-scale (21: 47; 42: 17; 57: 25). Not for
nothing, judges considered prone to corruption are
specially reminded of their duty to decide in justice (4:
58; 5: 42, 45; 10: 54; 38: 26; 42: 15). It therefore makes
good sense when the Muslim Ummah is defined in the
Qur`an as the community which practices justice (7: 181).
3. P e a c e a n d J u s t i c e i n
t h e S u n n a h
Given the overwhelming evidence for the Qur`anic endorsement
of peace and justice there is no need to prove from
hadith literature that the Prophet of Islam in his
speaking, acting and non-acting also supported and followed
these particular guidelines of the Qur`an.
The Sunnah, at any rate, on the whole is much too concrete
for dealing with concepts as abstract as peace and justice.
In hadith collections like Imam Malik`s al-Muwatta it
is easier to find out „what to do if [ in prayer ] one
raises one`s head before the imam" (no. 3. 14) than anything
on peace or justice. In fact, these two concepts do not even
appear in the index of this major collection.
Typical are rather prophetic traditions which condemn, e.g.,
injustice in general and fraud in particular.
1 Suffice
it therefore to refer to a famous Hadith Qudsi, related by
Abu Dharr, accor-ding to which Allah ta´ala said that
„I have ruled out injustice for myself."
2 One might add
that it is „Sunnah" that „nobody really believes as long as
he does not wish for his brother what he wishes for himself
", 3 this being an indirect way of highlighting the virtue
of justice. The same is true for the very great reward in
the au-delà promised to just rulers who resist
abusing their power. 4
4. E a r l i e s t M u s l i m H i s t o r y
The history of the foundation of Islam and of the
Khulafah ar-Rashidun was not only religious sira
but down-to-earth political, economic, and social
interaction. Nevertheless, the Prophet`s biography, at any
rate, provides enough evidence of the pursuit of peace and
justice.
(1) a) Peace-keeping, rather than resisting
suppression and persecution by force, explains the need for
emigrations of Makkan Muslims to Abyssinia and to al-Yathrib
(al-hijra), the former one comprising 75 men and 9 women
from Makkah plus 25 Muslim clients, altogether 109 people.
Emigration signaled that the Muslims would rather leave
than put up resistance.
Permission to resist by force the Makkan strategic
aggression against al-Madinah was given only in the 2nd year
of the Hijra, after the 2nd Pledge of ´Aqaba. Only now Abu ´Ubayda`
s detachment was provided with a flag. Now only the first
Muslim arrow was shot (by Sa´d Abu Waqqas)
5 in what turned
out to be the first of altogether 72 Muslims raids against
the Mak-kans.
b) Peace through justice was also the unformulated guideline
behind the Constitution of al-Ma-dinah, dictated by
the Prophet in the first year A.H., rightly called by
Muhammad Hamidul-lah „the first written constitution of the
world". In its art. 25, e.g., it provided for conflict
resolution via consultation, arbitration, and
reconciliation. As it turned out, this basic law could not
prevent hostilities between the Muslim and the Jewish tribes
of Madinah. However, a remarkable peace-keeping effort had
been made.
c) The armistice for 10 years of al-Hudaybiyyah,
followed one year later by the so-called conquest of
Makkah (8 A.H.) as well as the (only) „farewell" pilgrimage
of the Prophet Mu-hammad (s.) (10 A.H.) were three further
incidents which helped to put the fundamentally peaceful
disposition of Islam into focus. After Hudaybiyyah the
Muslims felt that war had been abolished.
6 In the process
the Muslims learned that to lay down arms might profit Islam
much more than fighting for it. Given that the Muslim army
surrounding Makkah was 10. 000 warriors strong, and given
the bloody persecution Muslims had suffered at the hands of
the Makkans led by Abu Jahl and Abu Sufyan, it was expected
as natural that there would be a massacre.
To the relief of the citizens of Makkah Muhammad (s.) had
only singled out 10 people, among them four women, for
punishment. Three of them had been apostates who
treacherously had fought Islam actively. Others as poets or
singers had made fun of Islam in a repulsive manner. In the
end, only five people were put to death. The others had been
allowed to escape or, even including Abu Sufyan`s wife Hind,
had been pardoned by the Prophet. Even though she led a life
of shameless debauchery and had engineered the death of
Hamza, she was treated with clemency. Such leniency was
unheard of, and still is. (For instance, after the recent
fall of Baghdad several hundred Baathists were executed.)
d) Even before his peaceful entry into Makkah Muhammad (s.)
had shown himself as a statesman of rank and vision by
addressing conciliatory letters to eight rulers in
his vicinity, including the emperors of Byzantium,
Heraclius, and Persia, Parviz Khosrau, the king (Negus) of
Abyssinia, the amirs or governors of Bahrain, ´Uman, and
Syria, and Archbishop Maukakis ofAlexandria. In his messages
the Prophet (s.) did not threaten them or pose any
ultimatum. He simply invited them to accept Islam. In case
of refusal, in consonance with the Qur`an, the Prophet (s.)
was content with having delivered the message.
7
(2) Justice , too, was a basic value
underlying these early happenings.
a) Justice had even been formally introduced into the
Constitution of al-Madinah. One point in its article 37
reads: „Verily, help shall be given in favor of the
oppressed." On this basis, Islam sought to create a
classless society.
b) It has indeed been recorded that the Makkan nobility
hated this egalitarian impulse of Islam, seeing - to
their disgust - that is was the „wretched of the earth" who
were among the first to inherited the (Islamic) kingdom,
among them many freedmen or „clients" (mawali). Indeed ear-ly
Islam provided excellent chances for upward social
mobility. In fact, among Muhammad`s earliest disciples
quite a few former slaves were to be found, next to Bilal
including ´Amir ibn Fuhayrah, ´Ammar, Khab-bab, Yasir and,
of course, Zayd ibn Harithah.
In this vein, Zayd b. Harithah, a former slave, could even
become governor of al-Madinahand another freedman, Anas b.
Malik, one of the most valued narrators of ahadith .
Abu ´Ubayda b. al-Jarrah, a grave digger, and Amr b. al-
´As, a butcher, both moved up to be-come celebrated Muslim
army commanders.
c) The Islamic value of justice and equality proved
particularly incompatible with the customary Arab law of
marriage (al-kafa´ah) which, e.g., had outlawed marriages
between Arab women and non-Arab men, requiring equality of
nobility and wealth, as a minimum. The criteria of
compatibility between spouses included lineage (nasab),
honor (hasab), family (bayt), property (mal), liberty (hurriyah),
and profession (hirfah).
In marked contrast to this code of social rigidity in early
Islamic society marriages took place between Muslims of
different social standing; even marriages between non-Arabs
and Arab women took place for the first time. Thus Bilal ibn
Rabah, a negro, married Halal bint ´Awf , sister of the
famous Qura`ish military leader and Muslim hero ´Abd
ar-Rahman b. ´Awf. Muslims proved then, as they do now, that
blood is thinner than faith.
d) At the same time, Islam did not require poverty. There
were some rich Muslims, to be sure, including the later
khulafa ´Uthman and Abu Bakr. The latter bought and
released not only Bilal but as many slaves as he could get.
But the well-to-do Muslims had lost their class
consciousness and thus provided support for the
disprivileged without looking down on them in charity
fashion. 8
e) The early Muslims upheld justice even in cases so
repugnant that it went against their grain. Thus they stuck
to the agreement of Hudaybiyyah obliging them to return male
Muslim asylum-seekers.
9 It was as revolting to them when Muhammad`s uncle Ibn Abbas gave protection to the arch enemy
of Islam, Abu Sufyan, and even carried him to the Prophet on
horseback. 10 Yet, they did honor the code of hospitality.
f) When the Prophet accorded amnesty to Hind, the bitch, he
made her subscribe to a number of rules for her to abide by.
These included a remarkable rule: „Not to refuse obedience
in what is just ",
11 implying that resistance against injust orders is permitted. Many believe that this principle
- which cost the lives of many German officers after their
failed plot against Hitler on 20 July 1944 - was a modern
achievement. As proven here it dates back 1400 years...
5. I s l a m i c H i s t o r y t h r o u g h
t h e A g e s
(1) It would be both anachronistic and overly partisan
to claim that Islamic history through all the ages - the
Umayyad, Abbasid, Mameluk and Osman dynasties - had been
characterized by peace and justice. These dynasties indeed
pursued dynastic interests first of all. Politics,
social and economic problems, after all, look for immediate
solutions, whether or not sanctified by high moral
principles. Ismaili (7er Shi´i) Islam in the 12th century
with the Assassins even produced the first cult of suicidal
terrorism, directed against fellow Muslims. That is why
people even today often refuse to engage in politics in
order „ not to sully their hands".
(2) Therefore, while justice never was entirely absent
during Muslim history, this value became dominant only
sporadically, be it in certain Muslim personalities, be it
in certain regions and institutions. On the whole, however,
Muslim societies socially became as closed, rigid and static,
as they had been in pre-Islamic days. With very few
exceptions, including Abu Hanifa and Abu Yusuf, the Abbasid
society allowed no longer even professional mobility.
Crafts like dyers, peasant, sweepers, tanners, and weavers
even became hereditary now as the old ´Arab restrictions on
marriage (al-kafa´ah) infiltrated Muslim law. Alas, all of
the Islamic Schools of Law (madhahib) sanctioned and
enshrined inequality between Muslims.
(3) So much more important it is to signal positive
exceptions to a generally negative trend:
a) Personalities:
First to mind comes Salah ad-Din al-Ayubi ( ), the
famous liberator of Jerusalem ( and Palestine) from the
Crusaders. His fairness, sense of justice, and chivalry were
so unusual that as "Saladin" he became a moral hero even in
the West. Never since ´Umar, the 2nd Khalif, was Islam so
well blended into a public personality.
Similarly, the Osman Padishah Süleyman Kanuni („the
Law -Giver"; 1494-1566) enjoyed the prestige of being a
model „Muslim on the throne", impressing his contemporaries
by refusing polygamy, his sole and only wife being Hürrem
Sultan. But his image has been marred by the wanton
execution, in 1553, of his son Mustafa, the crown-prince.
Other Muslims devoted to peace and justice mainly were to be
found among sufis, even though some of them, especially in
the Maghrib, were militant, engaging in military jihad
against both Portuguese and Spaniards. Muhy ad-Din Ibn
al-´Arabi (d. 1240 in Damascus) and Jalal ud-Din Rumi
(d. in 1273 in Konya) are prototypes of non-militant,
otherworldly mystics. However, a Muslim Mahatma Gandhi we
seek in vain, if only because fighting in defence of peace
and justice is a Muslim`s religious duty.
b) Regions: There is at least one community which
practizes Islam in such a puritan and total fashion that its
looks like a utopia come true: The M`Zab region in
Southern Algeria, with seven small cities in barren
surrounding, including Ghardaia, Melika and Beni Izguen.
The Mozabites in each community, men and women alike and all
of them, go to their (single) mosque for each of the five
daily prayers. The do not maintain any hotels: Visitors stay
with families as their guests. Neither are there shops.
Rather, all marketable items are sold by public auction. In
the central square, representatives sitting in the round,
each family has a place.
All common tasks (like taking care of dams and watering the
palm trees) are fulfilled by elected officials.
During wedding ceremonies both spouses wear traditional
costumes provided by the community (so as to prevent
wasteful competitive consumption). Before Mozabite merchants
and craftsmen leave the region, for a limited number of
years only, they get married, leaving their wives behind.
During the Algerian war of independence (1954-1962) the
Mozabites at very high personal risk hid FLN
12 activists
operating in the Sahara region. But after the war they
refused all the medals and other honors offered to them by
the first FLN government.
This secessionist Kharijite brand of Islam may not appeal to
everybody. But it is an example of a Muslim community
totally devoted to assuring peace and justice among
themselves.
c) Institutions:
(i) Islamic law (fiqh) on the basis of Qur`an and
Sunnah was developed by Muslim lawyers employing, and
honoring, methods like analogy (al-qiyas) and consensus (al-ijma).
Historically Islamic jurisprudence produced seven schools
of law (al-madhahib), the Ma-likite, Hanafite, Shafi´ite,
Hanbalite, Jafarite , Zayidite and (extinct) Zahirite
schools of law. They, and not rulers or parliaments, create
law in the Muslim world. In fact, law is not created
at all, from a Muslim perspective; it is found (in
the divinely revealed sources).
Against this background, in Islam jurisprudence is of
supreme importance. This explains why it tolerated, and
still does, the existence of competing bodies of law,
allowing Muslims to choose between them as they wish, and to
change their choice, at will. Different interpretations
could be so diverse that one and the same case might be
considered a major crime by one school and entirely legal by
another.
No other law system in the world has ever tolerated
divergent legal codices in similar fashion. I therefore
submit that the unique Muslim legal scene gives evidence of
institutionalized tolerance designed to assure intra-Islamic
peace and justice.
(ii) Pilgrimage (al- hajj) is another case in point.
There are no parallels to the peaceful conduct of the
Pilgrimage to Makkah. Two and a half million people assemble
and fulfill their religious duties in the same place without
ever clashing. This corresponds to the religious command of
total peacefulness according to which pilgrims are not even
allowed to step on cockroaches or to pick leaves from a
tree.
Obviously, the peacefulness of al-hajj defies each
and every sociological "law" concerning mass behavior.
Violence hardly ever absent in large soccer stadiums is
absent among millions of pilgrims.
6. T h e c o n t e m p o r a r y S c e n e
1. In today`s world few non-Muslim people would be
inclined to associate Islam with peace and justice. Rather,
there is almost general conviction that Islam stands for
almost structural violence against women and for terrorism
against non-Muslims. These are the lessons learned from al-Qa´ida
attacks as on September 11, 2001, in New York and
Washington, and later on in Madrid, London, Delhi, Bali,
´Amman, Istanbul, Dar al-Beida (Casablanca) and many other
places.
a) „Islamic" terrorism, even if carried out by certified
Muslims like ´Usama bin Laden, cannot be justified
Islamically because the Shari´ah allows the use of force
only in two cases: defence against illegal attacks
(2: 191, 4th Verse, 192; 4: 90 f.; 9: 13; 22: 39), and
resistance against unbearable tyranny (8: 39; 42: 39,
42). Nor does it allow suicide under any
circumstances(4: 29).13 Nor does it tolerate warfare against
innocent civilians or against women, children, and natural
resources (2: 191, 3rd Verse; 22: 40).
Western people perusing the Qur`an without sufficient
overview frequently arrive at the wrong conclusion that the
Qur`an supported an attitude of general aggressive hostility
against non-Muslims, as if Muslims were crawling around
clenching a knife in their mouth on the look-out for
victims. This wrong view is reinforced by the equally wrong
conviction that Muslims continue to divide the world in two
with their long since obsolete Medieval concepts of dar
al-harb and dar al-Islam
In this context much harm is done by the confusion of verses
dealing with ius in bello with verses dealing with
ius ad bellum . To be precise: The Qur`an contains
verses dealing with the legal conditions permitting, or not
permitting, the opening of armed hostilities (ius ad
bel-lum). And it contains verses dealing with the proper
conduct of armed hostilities (ius in bello). The latter
rules today form part of the humanitarian law of war.
Now, the two kinds of rules are not neatly separated in the
Qur`an but follow and precede each other unsystematically.
This can create havoc, and it does. For instance, in 2: 191
it says: „Fight 14 them wherever you come across them." If
this is read as ius ad bellum it turns Islam
into a war-mongering religion. In reality, however, 2: 191
is fully in accord with international law that allows
warfare without any territorial limits once war had been
legitimately declared. Thus 2: 191 and similar verses of the
Qur`an in no way contradict the doctrinal Islamic commitment
to peace.
b) While terrorism committed by Muslims cannot be
justified, to some extent it can be explained. One must be
aware of the fact that the Muslim world was enormously
wronged during the era of colonization which for it began in
the 18th century with the landing of Napoleon I in Egypt.
Soon, except for Turkey and parts of Arabia, the entire
Muslim world was colonized and divided among the British,
French, Dutch, Portuguese, Russians, and Spanish. All of
them, although with different methods, tried to eradicate
Islam and to prevent the technical and scientific
development of their Muslim subjects.
The Catholic cathedrals in Casablanca, Rabat, Tanger, Oran,
Algiers, Bône, Constantine and Tunis - the one in Algiers
ironically called „Notre Dâme d`Afrique" (Our Lady of
Africa) - infamously give witness to excesses of Western
imperialism in the Muslim world.
De-colonization in most cases did not come peacefully.
Muslims had to fight for it in India, Central Asia, the
Caucasus region, and in North Africa. The most prominent
cases in point are Muhammad ibn ´Abd al-Wahhab (Arabia), al-Mahdi
(Sudan), Abd al-Krim (Morocco), ´Abd al-Qadir al-Jazai´ri
(Algeria), ´Umar al-Mukhtar (Libya), and Sayyid Qutb (Egypt).And
they still have to fight against the colonization of
Palestine and Chechnya.
De-colonization did not signal the end of Muslim woes. On
the contrary, in many cases the Western powers left behind
Westernized regimes who, to this day, maintain despotic
un-Islamic governments. Worse, Zionism and neo-colonialism
in the guise of globalization threw many Muslims back into
their earlier bunker mentality.
In short: During the two last centuries to be a good Muslim
increasingly meant to be a freedom fighter . As a
result, Muslims during this time had to engage
disproportionately often in violent resistance - to such a
point that Islam came to be associated with violence.
7. M u s l i m C o n f l i c t R e s o l u t i o n t o d a y
In searching the bases for peace and justice in Islam our
parcours had taken us from Qur`an and Sunna via Muslim
history to the present time. Against this background the
question now is: What does Islam have to offer for a
peaceful and just resolution of conflicts today? The
answer, again, has a theoretical and a practical angle:
1. Religious Pluralism: The best Islamic doctrine
has to offer for conflict resolution is the unique Islamic
endorsement of religious pluralism enshrined in Verse 48 of
the 5th Surat al-Ma´ida. As from its 4th sentence this verse
reads as follows:
For everyone of you We have appointed a different
law and way of life.
And if Allah had so willed, He could surely have made one
single community
of you.
But He wished to test you by what He has given you.
Compete, then, with one another in doing good works !
To Allah you must all return; and then He will make you
truly understand all
that on which you used to differ...
This is a sublime manifesto for the peaceful
co-existence of religious groups everywhere around the
world, based on mutual respect. At the same time it is a
clear-cut rejection of any attempt to claim religious
superiority.
5: 48, in fact, is entirely incompatible with doctrines like
„extra ecclesiam nulla salus " (no salvation outside
of the Church), until recently held valid by Catholics. Nor
is it compatible with the Medieval Catholic doctrine „cuius
regio eius religio ", meaning that all subjects have to
adopt the religion of their ruler.
What the Islamic doctrine of religious pluralism boils down
to is this: Islam, while not being accepted as a revealed
religion by Jews and Christians, accepts both Judaism and
Christianity as authentic and legitimate faiths. But the
Islamic tolerance at least in theory is not yet fully
reciprocated by the two other monotheistic creeds.
To be sure, 5: 48 is not the only Qur`anic passage
proclaiming religious tolerance. The same follows from 2:
256, No compulsion in religion ! ,which formulation
not only forbids conversion by force but recognizes that
prozelyting by force is utterly useless because the forum
internum of people simply is beyond outside control.
Therefore the very attempt of converting people at gun point
makes no sense.
The 109th Surah (al-Kafirun), too, stresses the merit of
religious tolerance:
Say: O disbelievers!
I do not worship that which you worship.
Nor do you worship that which I worship.
Nor will you worship that which I worship.
To you your religion and to me my religion.
Could any religious wars have been fought if people on all
sides had abided by this concept of religious pluralism ? Is
this Islamic doctrine not a major, a decisive contribution
to peace building and conflict defusion in our
world, a world characterized by the imposition - called
globa-lization - on the „rest" of the world of one
single ideology, technology, and market?
2. Protection of religious Minorities: If Islamic
doctrine from the beginning was pluralistic, so was the
Islamic practice of religious pluralism, all through the
ages.
a) According to the Islamic law for the protection of
religious minorities - as-siyar - non-Muslims in
an Islamic State have the right to practice their religion
openly. They can apply their own family law, law of
inheritance, and even penal law, to be administered by
themselves and their minority courts. They are allowed to
produce, consume, and trade with alcohol and pork.
The minority community (dhimma ) was priviliged as
well by being exempt from military service.The members of
minority religions, so-called dhimmi, had to pay a
special tax (al-jiz-ya) to the Muslim authorities; but this
tax normally was not higher than the zakat -tax paid
by the Muslim majority.
One can still verify the large scope of Muslim tolerance
versus other faiths when visiting Muslim cities. In
Istanbul, in quarters like Taksim and Beyoglu, while one
will hardly find any mosque one is bound to run into
Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches. The same is
true for Cairo if from down-town one drives towards the
airport. Coptic churches, not mosques, dominate in that
area. In ´Amman (Jordan) the main mosque and the main
cathedral face each other. In Damascus the crosses on church
steeples are neon-lit at night.
b) Today, Muslim minorities in the West in theory are
relatively well protected, much better so than in the past,
not only by human rights articles inserted into individual
Western constitutions but also by human rights declarations
and covenants adopted by the United Nations,
15 the Council
of Europe, 16 and the European Union.17 Accordingly the
Occident is committed to safeguarding religious freedom for
all (equally and in justice).
However, putting theory into practice, living up to one`s
legal obligations is a different story. As currently shown
in Turkey, atheist-materialist reaction against progress of
religion in society can be as "fundamentalist" and violent as
any religious fanaticism. The British Baroness Rabbi Julia
Neuberger therefore was right when formulating that reaction
against religion can be just as extreme as religious
extremism. It`s clear that while humans might be dangerous,
religions aren`t. 18
The Western statutes of religious non-discimination are a
welcome step in the right direction. But they fall short of
the minority rights accorded by Islamic law. This is due to
the Western obsession with national sovereignty, hardly
diminished during the slow process of European unification.
Thus, in negative contrast to the Islamic rules for
religious minorities, Muslims in the West are not allowed to
administer among themselves their Islamic family law and law
of inheritance.
In Germany, members of noble families are, however,
permitted to adhere to their own laws governing inheritance
and titles of nobility...
Nevertheless, Muslims with their readiness to accept legal
diversification show the way towards a truly multi-religious
community of nations.
3. Racial Equality: What is true for
multireligious tolerance is also true for the potential
Muslim contribution to peaceful multi-ethnic
relations.
a) Any time, anywhere, the coexistence between ethnically
different people was troublesome. Human history shows all
too many examples of racial clashes. Black people were
equally enslaved by Muslim, Jewish, and Christian dealers.
Jews were persecuted everywhere in the Christian world
until anti-Semitism culminated in the German Holocaust.
b) In spite of that Muslim history has been relatively
free of racist crimes, freer than any other civilization.
Until the rapist creation of Israel, Muslims never were
anti-Semitic. In fact, they still are not since anti-Zionism
cannot be equated with anti-Semitism. (After all, the Arabs
are semites themselves...)
Symbolic of the irrelevance for Muslims of skin color was
the appointment of Bilal as the first muadhdhin ever.
True, there is some evidence of Persians looking down on
Arabs, and of Arabs on Blacks. Just as Hijazis and
Najdis may look down on each other, and the „noble"
people of al-Madinah on their „commercial" brothers in
Makkah. But much of that is entirely normal since -
important for their survival - human beings cannot but
think, and feel, sociologi-cally in terms of in-groups
and out-groups.
What counts is the positive trend found in the Ummah to
downplay ethnical differences in favor of a touchable
brotherhood based on Islam. This is what makes the Ummah a
reality that scares many a ruler in the Muslim world. And
this is what unites Arabs, Albanians, Americans, Bosnians,
Englishmen, Frenchmen , Germans, Indians, Indonesians,
Iranians, Malaysians, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Senegalese,
Somalis and Turks in Occidental mosques. The British
historian A. Arnold J. Toynbee put this well saying that
„the extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is
one of the outstanding achievements of Islam, and in the
contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need
for the propagation of this Islamic virtue."
19
The Ummah is indeed the closest the world has ever come to
human brotherhood. Neither Communists (supposedly uniting
all proleterians) nor Christians (supposedly loving their
neighbours like themselves) have ever come to their ideals
closer than the Muslims have.
These might indeed be the most crucial contributions Islam
can make to peace building and conflict resolution
world-wide.
8. C o n c l u s i o n
1) Today`s world is characterized by a dichotomy between a
strong trend towards globalization and a countervailing
flight into parochialism. The unitarian trend is being
opposed by a cosy „small is beautiful"-ideology. We all are
caught in between these currents, tucking us to and fro.
Clearly, the existential problems faced by mankind these
days and years to come - over-population and oversized
threats to the ecology, spelling disaster - are compounded
by unending armed conflicts between rich and poor, migrants
and sedentary people, young and old, black and white, and
between believers of divergent faiths.
In such turmoil, people are bound to see the world around
them as colored in black and white, in a confrontational
manner. If this vicious tendency is not checked the world is
heading for a catastrophy.
In this explosive situation, existing and potential, all
people of faith must see each other as allies in the
over-arching struggle between a sheer materialistic world
view and an opposing one defending the transcendental links
to the world`s Creator. Under the given circumstances all
religious people from whatever denomination cannot but
co-operate.
Indeed, the situation is so critical that God-fearing people
must seek to profit from the special insights and
spirituality of each and every religion. In that context,
Islam is called upon to contribute what it can do best in
terms of social interaction: to promote peace and justice
through (i) religious pluralism, (ii) the
protection of religious minorities, and (iii) the
practice of racial equality.
E n d n o t e s
1. As-Sujuti, Al-ahadith al-mutawatira, German version (Vielfach
überlieferte Prophetenworte),
translation by Ahmad von Denffer, Muslime helfen, e.V. :
Garching 2000, Hadiths No. 75 (p. 66) and 73 (p. 65).
2. Ezzedin Ibrahim and Denys Johnson Davies, Forty Holy
Hadiths, German translation by Ahmad von Denffer,
Islamisches Zentrum: Munich 1987, Hadith No. 17, p. 68
3. Hadith related by Malik ibn Anas as reported by al-Bukhari
und Muslim.
4. Hadith Nr. 4493, related by ´Abdullah ibn ´Umar, and No.
4542, related by Abu Hureira, Sahih Muslim, Vol. III,
translated by `Abdul Hamid Siddiqi, 4th reprint, S. Muhammad
Ashraf: Lahore, 1980, pp. 1016 and 1024
5. Ibn Ishaq, pp. 281 and 283
6. Ibn Ishaq, p. 507
7. According to at-Tabari, p. 250, the Prophet`s attitude
was : „Eh bien, moi je t`ai fait parvenir ce message".
8. Jan, p. 131
9. Ibn Ishaq, p. 504
10. At-Tabari, p. 278
11. At-Tabari, p. 286
12. Front de Libération Nationale
13. It is erroneous to equate suicide in combat with
martyrdom in the sense of 2: 154;
3: 157 f., 169; 47: 4 f. It is one thing to risk one`s life
in combat without a realistic chance of
survival and another thing to dispose of one`s life, no
matter for which purpose.
14. Fighting (al-qital) and killing (al-qatl) have the same
root in Arabic and are often used interchangeably.
15. The General Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the
United Nations on 10 December 1948 is merely declaratory,
i.e. without the force of international law.
16. European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms of4 November 1953.
17. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, both dated 19 December 1966.
18. emel, Muslim lifestyle magazine, emel media ltd:
London, May 2007, p. 31.
19. Quoted by emel (Note 18), p. 12.
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A.
Biography
The author, born in 1931 in Aschaffenburg, Germany, began
his studies at UNION College in Schenectady, N.Y. (pre-law;
sociology, 1950-51). After terminating his legal education
in Munich, Bavaria, with a doctorate in comparative (US /
German) jurisprudence and his bar exam, Hofmann while
working as a research scholar there obtained a LL.M degree
from Harvard Law School (1960). Subsequently, and for 33
years, he joined the German Foreign Servive, serving, e.g.,
as head of the NATO and Defence Desk in the Foreign Office,
as Director of Information for NATO (1983-1987) and as
German Ambassador to Algeria (1987-1990) and Morocco
(1990-1994). The author embraced Islam in 1980, performing
Umrah seven times and Hajj twice. His book publications in
12 different languages, all of them in German, English and
Arabic, include Diary of a German Muslim, Islam:
The Alternative, Journey to Makkah, Religion
on the Rise, Islam ,Qur`an, and
Understanding Islam.
Coordinates: Graurheindorfer St. 23, D-53111 Bonn, Germany
Tel. / Fax: + 49 - 228 - 633. 578
Mobile Phone: + 49 - 171 - 544. 7740
e-mail: wilfried.a.hofmann@t-online.de
