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Abstract
This article contributes to the broader debate on interreligious relations and nonviolence in Islam by examining references to the concept of covenant (ʿahd and mīthāq) in the Qurʾān and specific covenantal documents attributed to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Covenants include solemn agreements, bonds, pledges and treaties, and are central to the Qurʾānic narrative of human existence and coexistence as well as the diplomacy of the Prophet, though they are understudied and underrepresented in discourses about Islam. Content analysis is used to identify the commands, narratives and themes concerning covenants in Islam’s primary, preeminent sources. The article shows that covenants in the Qurʾān and Sunnah establish human security and peaceful coexistence as the normative basis of relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, which influenced early interreligious relations but were neglected over time. While Islamic covenants establish a principle of nonviolence, the use of armed force is permitted, in self-defence, in response to armed aggression and treaty violation that threatens peace and security. These findings have profound implications for our understanding of interreligious relations and the legitimate use of force in Islam.
Abstract
This article comprises a discussion with Prof. Mohammed Abu-Nimer, a trailblazer in the field of Peace Studies focusing on Islam and Muslim communities. It explores Prof. Abu-Nimer's reflections on the development of this field over the past three decades. It focuses in particular on methodological, institutional, and inter-cultural challenges and developments during that time. Like Prof. Abu-Nimer's long career, it is international in scope and explores convergences and divergences in the experiences and discourses surrounding Muslim-led nonviolent resistance, peacemaking and peacebuilding initiatives in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. It also includes discussion of the role played by cultural difference and hybridity in translating the distinct peace and nonviolence repertoires of Western and non-Western cultural and political contexts.
Abstract
This introductory article situates research into Islamic notions of pacifism and nonviolence by considering interpretive challenges that include the history of Eurocentrism and the challenge of interdisciplinarity. It argues that both academic Philosophers and Religious Studies specialists confront a range of disciplinary challenges in interpreting and explaining Islamic nonviolence and pacifism. Moreover, the paper argues that the neglect of Islamic nonviolence in the modern Western academy is also the result of residual Eurocentrism, reflected in the fact that Christian nonviolence is better known and more widely studied in the Anglo-American world than Islamic nonviolence. This introductory article proposes that paying attention to disciplinary silos and Eurocentric biases can help explain the neglect of Islamic pacifism. This neglect is a contingent result of historical, cultural, and disciplinary factors; and there is no valid reason to exclude Islamic nonviolence from academic study.
Abstract
Freedom of belief and of conscience is well attested in the Qurʾan by the many verses that exhort to tolerance towards “others”, among which Q. 2:256: ‘There is no compulsion in religion’. In contemporary Islam, some intellectuals have endeavoured to reaffirm this principle as an essential goal: among them, the Sunni Syrian thinker Jawdat Saʿīd (d. 2022). In his works, Q. 2:256 is at the core of an anthropocentric and social hermeneutics which emphasises the centrality of non-compulsion, considered as the true jihad that Muslims should undertake. His position is in open polemic with a tendency within Islamic societies not to recognise the legitimacy of those opinions – religious or political – that deviate from the “official” discourse on the one hand, and to combat this discourse with violence on the other. This entails a renegotiation of other key doctrinal concepts, the case of nasḫ, “abrogation”, being a key example.
Abstract
Andreas Malm says sabotage is needed to save the world from climate catastrophe. In this Forum, scholars of pacifism and nonviolence caution against such a course of action by pointing to several important factors at play in determining the success or otherwise of activist campaigns, including barriers to participation, organisational dynamics, loyalty shifts, the backfire effect, and the role of framing and public opinion. Ongoing research into pacifism and nonviolence presents a nuanced picture of the current strategic landscape of climate activism, revealing lessons that the climate movement must consider as it reflects on what repertoire of action to embrace to enhance its effectiveness and mitigate the unfolding climate emergency.
Abstract
Qur’ān 41:33–35 instructs that believers should return the greater or greatest good for acts of evil, and the commentators recognize that it is a counsel to nonviolence on the part of individuals. It is one of a series of peace verses in the Muslim scripture. The place of these ethical commandments in Muslim traditions has been little studied in the Western academy. This article focuses on prominent thinkers of Nishapur and Shiraz who laid the foundations for classical Sufism. The indigenous Muslim roots of Sufism and its tie to formal Islamic texts are increasingly underlined by scholars. All three of the figures on which we concentrate authored substantial commentaries on the Qur’ān, and all three found this passage important for their ethical frameworks. For medieval Sufi thinkers Qur’ān 41:33–35 opened up the possibility of peace and reconciliation after conflict in society, whether within Sufi study circles or in wider urban environments, including both elite strata and that of urban artisans and youth.
Abstract
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. appears to have preferred nonviolent tactics for social justice that sidestepped the backfire problem. Given that he deployed approximately twenty-five nonviolent tactics, the number of options he chose not to deploy greatly outnumbers those he did deploy. Why? Both his circumstances and his philosophy shaped his preferences for nonviolent tactics. First, I explore how his preferred tactics embodied the praxis of his nonviolent personalism. Second, I explore the early introduction of King to pacifism and how this evolved during his graduate studies at Boston University. Third, I suggest that King drew upon his commitment to personalism to develop pragmatically his own approach to nonviolent activism, and that when King visited India, he was seeking practical support for his praxis of nonviolent activism. Finally, I reflect on how King’s praxis of nonviolent activism aimed to avoid the backfire problem.