Islam for world peace

Within the diversity of states and cultures, Islamic faith and civilisation provided an underlying unity, epitomised by a common profession of faith and acceptance of the Sharia, Islamic Law: Islam provided the basic ideological framework for political and social life, a source of identity, legitimacy, and guidance. A sense of continuity with past history and institutions was maintained. (John L. Esposito: Islam the Straight Path).

Muhammad (SM) never asked Jews or Christians to accept Islam, unless they particularly wished to do so, because they had received perfectly valid revelations of their own. The Quran insists strongly that there shall be no coercion in matters of faith (II: 256, CIX: 6), and commands Muslims to respect the beliefs of Jews and Christians, whom the Quran calls ahl al-Kitab, a phrase usually translated as for our God and your God is One and the same, and it is unto Him that we (all) surrender ourselves. People of the Book but which is more accurately rendered: people of an earlier revelation:

The message of Islam
The monotheistic message of the Quran and the preaching of Muhammad (SM) did not occur in a vacuum. Monotheism had been flourishing in Semitic and Iranian cultures for centuries preceding Muhammad's ministry.

Muhammad's (SM) message therefore appeals to all distinct parts of the human being:

1. Islam, freely choosing to obey God (will)

2. Iman, seeking God's Truth with your mind (intellect)

3. Ihsan, loving God above all else (heart and opening oneself to union with God (soul).

Muslims see Muhammad (SM) as recapping the messages of all the previous Prophets, just as the conclusion to a book recaps the themes of the whole book. He manifested the absolute submission and monotheism of Abraham, the dream-interpreting ability of Joseph, the spiritual warrior-Kingship of David, the wisdom of Solomon, the law of Moses, and the spirituality of Jesus. He was a Prophet and spiritual guide: a head of state and leader of community; supreme judge and arbitrator of dispute; reformer of society; a family man, loving husband, and father. In the way that Muhammad (SM) discharged these rule.

In a spirit of give and take other civilisations can appropriate (or has already appropriated of) some abiding values clearly articulated by Islam:

1. Unity of God and

2. Striving hard and study to understand the laws of the universe and to unveil and disclose all its secrets Al-Quran (III:190 & III: 196)

3. Freedom and responsibility, sacrifice, compassion and commitment.

4. Unity of mankind and universal brotherhood and equality of all humans before law.

5. Striving for justice and collective endeavour to establish justice in society.

6. Stressing distributive justice (XVI: 96). Compassion for the deprived. Help the poor and the underprovided. It is no favour to them but their basic right to be helped.

7. Guaranteeing some basic rights. To fully act on the commitment of the Shariah in order to establish brotherhood and justice, four essential conditions must be met: i. Fulfilment of the basic needs of the individuals; ii. Ensuring a humane and respectable living for all; iii. Equitable distribution of income and wealth; and iv. Growth and stability.

Islam and terrorism
In his book What Is Right With Islam Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf observes: "The truth is that killing innocent people is always wrong -- and no argument or excuse, no matter how deeply believed, can ever make it right. No religion on earth condones the killing of innocent people; no faith or tradition tolerates the random killing of our brothers and sisters on this earth. God does not want us to kill each other: "Do not kill the soul which God has made sacred except by right (of justice)" VI; 151). And God has certainly prohibited killing the most defenceless members of our societies."

Islamic law is clearly against terrorism, against any kind of deliberate killing of civilians or similar "collateral damage." The roots of terrorism lie not in theology but in human psychology and in the hatred born of violent conflict over politics, or power, and economic assets such as land or denial of freedom or imposing subjugation.

Our response must be this: "We will create a world in which the seductions of death hold no allure because the bounties of life are accessible to everyone." This must be our collective global vision. Succeeding in this, we will have won the war on terrorism.

Clash of civilisations
In the book The Clash of Civilisations, Samuel P. Huntington classified the contemporary civilisations into the following categories.

Sinic: All scholars recognise the existence of either a single distinct Chinese civilisation dating back at least to 1500 BC.

Japanese: They recognise Japanese as distinct civilisation, which was the offspring of Chinese civilisation, emerging during the period between AD 100 and 400.

Hindu: One or more successive civilisations. It is universally recognised to have existed on the subcontinent since at least 1500 BC. These are generally referred to as Indian, Indic, or Hindu.

Islamic: All scholars recognise the existence of a distinct Islamic civilisation. Originating in the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century AD Islam rapidly spread across North Africa and the Arabian peninsula and also eastward into central Asia, the subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. As a result, many distinct cultures or sub-civilisations exist within Islam including Arab, Turkic, Persian, South Asia and Malay.

Orthodox: Several scholars distinguish a separate Orthodox civilisation, centered in Russia and separate from Western Christendom as result of its Byzantine parentage.

Western: Western civilisation is usually dated as emerging about AD 700 or 800. It is generally viewed by scholars as having three major components, in Europe, North America, and Latin America. The West then, includes Europe, North America, plus other European settler countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

Religion is a central defining characteristic of civilisations, and as Christopher Dawson said, "the great religions are the foundations on which the great civilisations rest." Of Weber's five "world religions," four -- Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Confucianism -- are associated with major civilisations.

Causes of clash
Huntington analysed the causes of the clash of civilisations and the fault lines of inter-state and inter ethnic or inter communal conflicts. He says that conflicts have to be dealt with at civilisational levels beyond the national boundaries.

We should stress that all civilisations have an equal right to exist side by side. Instead of domination, accommodation should be the spirit of each one of them. Coexistence and cooperation, rather than clashes and conflicts should be the motto of each. No country however powerful should try to impose its system on others by dint of its arms might.

In a multicivilisational world, the constructive course is to renounce universalism, accept diversity, and seek commonalities.

Western universalism may be seen as imperialistic by others. Huntington admitted that. According to Huntington: It is most important, to recognise that Western intervention in the affairs of other civilisation is probably the single most dangerous source of instability and potential global conflict in multicivilisation world. (The Clash of Civilisation: Samuel P. Huntington).

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. says, "ideas of individual liberty, political democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and cultural freedom ... These are European ideas." They make Western civilisation unique.

Now the concepts underpinned by Arthur M. Schlesinger are European. But they can be appropriated by other civilisations and integrated in the social-political system. But we believe, there are limits to individual liberty and freedom. We do not believe in the relativity of and moral and all ethical values.

However, it is generally recognised that now the modern Western civilisation owes a deep debt to Islam. In the book, The Making of Humanity Robert Briffault observes: "It is highly probable that but for the Arabs modern European civilisation would never have arisen at all; it is absolutely certain that but for them it would not have assumed that character which has enabled it to transcend all previous phases of evolution."

Professor Dr Edward W Said says, that civilizations appropriate from each other. Europe borrowed from Arabs and the Arabs borrowed from Indians and others. But attempts to impose democracy in another country by force of arms at the cost of human lives say in 100,000 executions in Iraq cannot be justified. Democracy is the choice of own people. It is an historical evolution.

Civil society agenda
In the book Peace Within our Grasp Crandall R Kline Jr Points out that: World peace is not a utopian dream -- it is within our grasp.

Wars are caused by conflicting ideas on what is acceptable national behaviour. The urge to exert national will and protect perceived rights, however irrational, ... is a powerful emotion. Wars begin in the minds of men. To have world peace, we need some international rules and a means of enforcing them.

1. Nonviolence: No one has the right to kill anyone else. Groups of people have no more right to kill than individuals have. Governments have no right to kill anyone.

2. No Aggression: Lives and land are sacred. Nations have no right to invade another, kill the people or take their land.

3. Defence: A nation that has a non-repressive government has a right to defend itself from an invasion or revolution.

4. Guilt: The nation that initiates or supports an invasion, revolution or terrorism is the guilty party. If their army is on another nation's land they are the guilty party. The best system for defense is collective defence.

The world needs better rules
* Defense does not mean the right to make a preemptive strike. The first one to strike is the guilty party.

* All nuclear, biological and chemical weapons are not defensive weapons and should be eliminated.

* Nations have no right to use military violence to settle their differences. ... the one who strikes first is the culprit and deserves the condemnation of the world community.

* Nations should be allowed to defend themselves and the blame should be placed on the one who initiated the violence.

* The legitimacy of the government is important in this scene.

* The government must be the choice of the people.

* The government should be the assurer of nonviolence.

* There must be some freedoms as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, especially freedom of speech and freedom for religions.

* The majority must be charitable.

* It must have a military and diplomatic policy of defense-only.

* A government should be considered negligent if it does not provide the means for earning a living for all the people who want to work.

* A reasonable distribution of wealth and poverty reduction should be a priority agenda.

In order to effectively deal with the problem of terrorism, it is essential to identify its root causes and find remedies. But if the UN is to do more to assert its moral authority and to lead the way in combating international terrorism, its authoritative body, the Security Council, needs to have much greater, and more recognised, legitimacy.

Ahmed Farid is a former Ambassador and Secretary to government.