We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
It is a pleasure to respond to Sohail Hashmi's thoughtful and thorough chapter. I agree with Hashmi that the debate among Muslims on weapons of mass destruction is not particularly well developed. Indeed, at certain points an analysis of Islamic approaches to WMD must have more the character of a thought experiment than of a descriptive analysis. This being the case, much of what we must do involves exploring the framework within which Muslims can (and sometimes do) discuss WMD. I thus develop my remarks in terms of three points at which the relation between Islamic political thought and the debate over weapons of mass destruction deserves elaboration. These are, first, the place of discrimination or noncombatant immunity in historic and especially contemporary Islamic discourse; second, the distinction between use of WMD and possession for purposes of deterrence (with attendant consequences for questions about nonproliferation and disarmament); and third, the importance of the dialectic between universal and particular in Islamic political thought.
DISCRIMINATION
As developed by classical jurists, the Islamic tradition proposes strictures on resort to and conduct of war. Consider the following report of the Prophet's practice, which is cited almost universally as a starting point for discussion:
Whenever the Apostle of God sent forth an army or a detachment, he charged its commander personally to fear God, the Most High, and he enjoined the Muslims who were with him to do good. And he said: Fight in the name of God and in the path of God. Combat those who disbelieve in God.[…]
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
