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Islam, Christianity, and Forcible Humanitarian Intervention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

Oliver P. Ramsbotham
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Extract

At a time when some informed Muslims believe Islam to be “set on a collision course with the West” and some Christians warn of a “perhaps irrational but surely historical reaction of an ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage,” it may be helpful to ask what both traditions teach about current issues of joint concern. One of the most urgent of these issues is the question of forcible humanitarian intervention. Setting aside broader questions of interpretation, such as the extent to which Islam can be identified with political radicalism and Christianity with Western political interests, this essay compares Muslim and Christian teachings on this issue. Both traditions have had to confront questions of political violence, suffering, and war since at least the time of the conversion of Constantine in one case (1,600 years ago) and the founding of the first Islamic state at Medina in the other (1,300 years ago). The central argument in this essay is that there is a surprising measure of agreement between the two traditions on the question of forcible humanitarian intervention, enough to provide the basis for a shared doctrine.

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Articles
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 12 , March 1998 , pp. 81 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1998

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References

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4 For example: Security Council Resolutions (SCRs) 688, April 5, 1991 (Iraq); 770, August 13, 1992 (Bosnia); 794/814, December 3,1992/March 26,1993 (Somalia); 866, September 22,1993 (Liberia); 929, June 23, 1994 (Rwanda); 867, September 23, 1993 (Haiti).

5 See Ramsbotham, Oliver and Woodhouse, Tom, Humanitarian Intervention in Contemporary Conflict (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1996)Google Scholar for a fuller account, including a suggested reconceptualization in which “forcible humanitarian intervention” is seen as one option among others within the broader category of “humanitarian intervention” in general.

6 Muslim members of the study group were Ali Bin Al-Hajri (Shari'ah Higher Court), Zaki Badawi (principal, Muslim College, London), Abdel Haleem (professor, School of Oriental and African Studies), Harifiyah Haleem (IQRA Trust), Abdul Ali Hamid (Muslim College), Haifa Jawad (Middle East and Islamic Studies, Westfield College), Salim Kemal (chair of Philosophy, University of Dundee), Saba Risaluddin (president, World Conference on Religions for Peace; director, Calamus Foundation). Other Muslims interviewed included Chandra Muzaffar (professor, Centre for Policy Research, Universiti Sains, Malaysia; president, Just World Trust). Christian members of the study group were Hugh Beach (former warden, St George's House, Windsor), David Fisher (Ministry of Defense), Anthony Harvey (canon, Westminster Abbey), Arthur Hockaday (chairman, Council on Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament), Robert Markus (professor emeritus, University of Nottingham), Oliver Ramsbotham (Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford), Edwin Robertson (former advisor, religious broadcasts, British Broadcasting Corporation), Patrick Sookdeo (director, International Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity), Brian Wicker (president, Catholic Theological Association; convenor, Security and Disarmament Commission, Pax Christi), and Roger Williamson (assistant secretary for international affairs, Board for Social Responsibility, Church of England General Synod). Other Christians interviewed were Robert Beresford (Committee for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops' Conference), Keith Clements (co-ordinating secretary for International Affairs, Council of Churhes for Britain and Ireland), Myriel Davies (United Nations Association), Pat Gaffney (general secretary, Pax Christi), Mgr. Bruce Kent (International Peace Bureau), Catherine Perry (Quaker Peace Service), and Martin Summers (East European Desk officer, Catholic Fund for Overseas Development.

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30 Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Appeal to All International Factors, December 12, 1995. I am grateful to Dr. Roger Williamson, assistant secretary for international affairs, Board for Social Responsibility, Church of England General Synod, for material on the responses of the British churches.

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44 Chandra Muzaffar, “Responses,” private communication with the editors of The Crescent and the Cross, June 1996, p. 2. Unsurprisingly, the figures for deaths given here have been disputed, notably by Serb apologists.

45 Badawi, interview transcript, pp. 4–5.

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50 Although in April 1993 OIC states promised $83 million emergency assistance, and in July seven OIC states offered troops for UNPROFOR. Troops from Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Turkey were sent.

51 Hashmi, “Is There an Islamic Ethic of Humanitarian Intervention?” p. 72.

52 Quoted in ibid., p. 65.

53 Ibid, p. 68.

54 Badawi, interview transcript, p. 7.

55 Quoted in Hashmi, “Is There an Islamic Ethic of Humanitarian Intervention?” p. 70.

56 Gentili, De Jure Belli Libri Tres, bk. 1, ch. 25.

57 Ibid., p. 122.

58 Kelsay, John in Just War and Jihad: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on War and Peace in Western and Islamic Traditions, edited by Kelsay, and Johnson, James Turner (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991), p. xvGoogle Scholar.

59 A full comparison of these traditions is beyond the scope of this article. See, for example, Johnson, James Turner and Kelsay, John, eds., Cross, Crescent, and Sword: The Justification and Limitation of War in Western and Islamic Tradition (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Kelsay and Johnson, eds., Just War and Jihad; Smock, David, Religious Perspectives on War: Christian, Muslim and Jewish Attitudes Toward Force After the Gulf War (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1992)Google Scholar; Kelsay, , Islam and War: A Study in Comparative Ethics (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993)Google Scholar; Haleem, Harifiyah, Ramsbotham, Oliver, Risaluddin, Saba, and Wicker, Brian, eds., The Crescent and the Cross: Muslim and Christian Approaches to War and Peace (London: Macmillan, forthcoming)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60 See Haleem et al., The Crescent and the Cross, chs. 3–4.

61 There have been attempts to determine criteria for “just humanitarian intervention” by applying traditional just war criteria, as in Fisher, David, “The Ethics of Intervention,” Survival 36 (1994), pp. 51–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar. It is the view of this author that traditional criteria need to be expanded: see Haleem et al., The Crescent and the Cross.

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63 Muzaffar, “Responses,” p. 2.

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