The Economist explains

What Islamic scholars have to say about attacking civilians

By N.P.

IMAGES of jihadists sanctifying God with their bloodshed are so rife on the internet and in the media that for many detractors of Islam the religion and indiscriminate violence have come to seem synonymous. Inspire, al-Qaeda’s e-magazine, offers would-be lone wolves instructions on how to assemble grenades from bits of plumbing pipe and Christmas fairy-lights. Dabiq, the official journal of Islamic State (IS), praises jihadists for “honouring the Prophet” by killing “French mushrikīn (pagans) gathered for a music concert” and hundreds of other crusader-types. If Muslims are also killed in the process, they are merely “legitimate collateral damage”, insists Abu Qatada Al-Filistini, a mentor to contemporary jihadists; provided they have not lived reprobate lives, they will be fast-tracked to heaven. But what has Islam traditionally had to say about killing civilians?

The Koran itself says surprisingly little. Far from being a military manual, as some jihadists would present it, the Muslims’ central scripture treats holy war only peripherally. Of its 6,346 verses, some 109—fewer than 2%—invoke the concept of jihad. It is like other holy books in that it contains injunctions to make both peace and war with kuffar, or unbelievers. In the Old Testament for instance, chapter 20 of Deuteronomy details the Torah’s rules of war and sanctions genocide. Chapter 19 of Luke, in the New Testament, quotes Jesus as saying that anyone who refuses his reign should be killed. And like other scriptures, the Koran is filled with apparent contradictions. A favourite verse of jihadists—“Fight them wherever you find them, and expel them from where they have expelled you”—is preceded by another which prohibits “transgressing the limits”. Muhammad the Prophet calls for churches, temples, synagogues, mosques and men in monasteries to be safeguarded, even though the Koran demands in verse 47:4 that “when you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks”. He calls for generosity towards captives on one hand, but also allows the capture of women—which has been used by IS to justify their rape.

For greater clarity, scholars turn to the life of Muhammad, whom IS and its satellites claim to emulate. Abdul Rahman Doi, in his masterful "Sharia: The Islamic law", notes that in his ten years of fighting the Prophet spread the faith over a million square miles at the rather low cost of some 1,014 lives. IS, by contrast, has taken a much smaller territory at the cost of some 25,000 lives in 2014 alone, according to the Sydney-based Institute of Peace. For IS, killing captives is routine, whereas the Prophet killed only two of the 6,564 captives he took, and freed 6,347, according to Mr Doi. Muhammad’s successor, Abu Bakr, even established a code of conduct that would preclude anything like the terrorism we know today; of enemies, he said, “Do not kill their children, old people and women. Do not even go close to their date palms.” Perhaps the plainest contrast is from Islam’s actual history. Down the centuries, a succession of caliphs went to great lengths to protect the Middle East’s kaleidoscope of sects and faiths, kuffar and otherwise.

Modern commentaries, often distributed by Saudi-financed publishing houses, are less circumspect. One of the most widely circulated interprets the Koran’s neck-smiting verse 47:4 in this way: “Once the fight (jihad) is entered upon, carry it out with the utmost vigour, and strike home your blows at the most vital points (smite at their necks), both literally and figuratively. You cannot wage war with kid gloves.” Other commentators decry such literalism, rejecting the possibility of jihad waged for territorial or material ends. As the first caliph, Abu Bakr, once said: “a community that engages in tyranny does not prosper, nor do they win victory over their enemies.” Not for nothing do Muslims, jihadists notwithstanding, preface their prayers with the words: “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful”.

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