title: Rashid Rida

text: However, Rida accused Oriental Christians in general of being the tools of colonial powers and of conspiring with "atheist Westerners" against Islam. In a series of articles published in 1911 compiled under the title "al-Muslimun wa-l-qutb" ("The Muslims and the Copts"), Rida condemned Muslims for dividing over nationalism. In his view, nationalist slogans were exploited by the colonial powers and would only favor the Coptic minority. He mocked the Copts’ claim to be descended from the “heathen, God-hating” Pharaohs and their demand to positions of power, responding that "they lack experience". Rida also applauded the 1911 Muslim congress organised as a response to Congress of Asyut in 1911 that demanded Coptic minority rights. Rida believed that the Western Civilisation could not be considered "Christian" but only materialistic, and predicted that its vices would lead to its self-destruction. He alleged that the West sought to turn Muslims away from their religion, either by degrading their moral values, or converting them to Christianity, or both.


title: Rashid Rida

text: From being a person who was accommodative towards Shiism, Rashid Rida would gradually become a sharp critic of it. In a book originally published in 1929, he states that he was once willing to work with the balanced reformers amongst Shias, but explains that the situation has changed. He also alleged that Shiites "worship the dead" attributing to their intercessionary practices towards "awliyaa" in their shrines and called upon Shias to condemn these practices. Although he fell short of censuring all Shias, Rida left them few options. Pan-Islamic unity was still conceivable, but it had to be on Salafi terms. In 1927, in the context of heightened communal tensions following the Saudi's heavy-handed efforts on the Shi'i population of the kingdom, "al-Manar" published a series of seven anti-Shi'i articles written by the Salafi scholar and Rida's disciple Muhammad Taqi ud din al-Hilali. Rida condemned the Shia for "supporting the Tatar and Crusader invasions" and alleged that "Raafidi" doctrines were formulated by a Jewish-Zoroastrian conspiracy aimed at "perverting Islam and weakening the Arabs". Rida called upon "moderate Shi'is" to dissociate themselves from the stagnant Shia clergy and condemn intercessionary practices such as beseeching their religious figures from the "Ahl al-Bayt" and "Awliyaa" (saints) in their graves; which he equated with "shirk" (polytheism). Only then shall they be incorporated into his pan-Islamic ecumenical paradigm.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Despite all this, Rida was the most important modern Sunni scholar that influenced modern Shiite exegesis. Rida's prolific Quranic commentary ("Tafseer") is regarded by both Sunni and Shiite scholars as groundbreaking in the field of "Tafseer". As traditional Shiism came into contact with various Islamic reform movements, such as the "salafiyya" which emphasised the importance of adhering to ""Qur'an" and "Sunnah"" over personalities, its orthodox reluctance to engage in "Qur'anic" exegesis was highly challenged in the modern World. Rida's "Tafseer" and his innovative approach were important in inducing a similar tendency within Shiism.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Although Rashid Rida personally rejected Darwin's theory of evolution, he did not outright denounce someone who expounded the theory as an unbeliever. Abduh had interpreted certain aspects of the story of Adam such as "questions of angels", "prostration of angels", "tree", etc. in an allegorical manner. Commenting on his teacher's explanation, Rashid Rida said that what was done by "al-Ustadh" (teacher), is no more as al-Ghazali. Rida points out that Abduh did not interpret Adam as a mere myth. Defending Abduh, Rida argued that Darwinism cannot answer whether humans originate from a single lineage or not. Hence, Rida argues that the Islamic creationist belief of Adam being the first man doesn't contradict Darwinism.


title: Rashid Rida

text: However, Rida sharply distanced himself from the figurative interpretation of "Qur'an" favoured by Abduh and Afghani. According to Rida, anybody who denied the historical existence of Adam and Abraham is guilty of apostasy. Like the medieval theologian Ibn Taymiyya, Rida held that there's no possibility of reason or science contradicting any "Qur’anic" text.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Throughout his legal writings, Rida tried to demonstrate that "Sharia" was intended and suited to be a comprehensive legal structure for the Islamic society. In an early series of articles in "Al-Manar" titled “Debates Between the Reformer and the Slavish Imitator” ("Muhäwarät al-Muslih wal-Muqallid"), Rida takes the view that the fixed "shar'i" principles in the "mu'ämalät" (social transactions) are of only a general character, allowing for considerable adaptation by successive generations of Muslims in the light of the demands of their worldly welfare, while it is only the '"ibädät" (governing matters of ritual and worship) that do not admit of interpretive change. According to Rashid Rida, the Hanafi principle of "Istihsan" (ruling in which a benefit to the Community is confirmed) is essentially an application of this spirit. However, Rida expanded the sancrosanct and unbending legal realm of the "'Ibadat" to also incorporate personal and civil laws. According to Rida:“the rules of the "šarīʿa" in the like of marriage and divorce […] are from the category of "ʿibādāt" rules in that God is worshipped with them”


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rida divided "Mu'amalat" into two categories: i) moral issues and ii) morally irrelevant issues. The former are similar to "'Ibadat" rules which were Revealed by God who defined moral norms and hence, fixed. Those who break these rules are sinful transgressors. The latter category of issues, can be solved through the process of "Qiyas" (analogical reasoning). Thus, like "Istihsan", "Qiyas" is a fundamental principle necessary for the relevant application of the law. For medieval jurists such as Al-Qarafi, Ibn Taymiyya etc., "istislah" was but a logical extension of "qiyas", whereby a consideration of utility neither explicitly enjoined nor excluded by the revealed texts would be assumed as a valid basis for judgment. Rashid Rida adopted this rationale, acknowledging that the conclusions of "istisläh" were accordingly not legally binding as a firmly grounded "qiyas" (as opposed to a "qiyas" without precise textual basis), for "no individual is entitled to require or forbid others to perform an act without Divine authorization".


title: Rashid Rida

text: However, in matters of public policy this doesn't prevent the government from enacting ordinances based on utility, provided that the government rests on the proper foundations of ""shura"" (consultation) amongst "ulul amr" (qualified authorities) and that such ordinances do not conflict with clear Divine Revelation. Citing the Andalusian "Faqih" Ash-Shatibi (d.790 H), Rida suggests that much of the legal rulings built through the meticulous process of "Qiyas", can actually be reached by an equally valid (yet much simpler) process of "istislah". Citing Al-Qarafi, Rida states that many "ulema" feared that tyrants would use ""maslaha"" as an excuse for following their desires and imposing absolutism upon their population. Rida concludes that the solution should be to reform the political system so that decisions of public policy and law rests on the hands of qualified persons - ""ahl al-hall wal-'aqd"" or ""ulul amr"" - through mutual consultation ("shura") and ruler responsible to them. If this is done, "there will be no reason to fear that "Masalih" will be a means for corruption", Rida says, thus lifting the restrictions on deduction of legal ordinances. Such a choice of overturning "Mu'amalat" rulings are predicated on the condition of compulsion ("darurah") and are only to be undertaken by a competent Faqih (jurist) who may derive the appropriate ruling based on his "Ijtihad".


title: Rashid Rida

text: However, Rida was clear in specifying that general principles cannot supersede clear-cut texts. He stated that a soundly transmitted Scriptural text can only be superseded by a specific text which is more superior. It could also be superseded by general texts of "Qurʾan" and authentic "hadiths" that permit believers to prevent damage to themselves or to commit prohibited actions in a state of emergencies; such as endangerment of life. Rida asserted that such a permission is valid only during the situation of extreme necessity; and that the degree of allowance was proportional to the scope of necessity. Maintaining that Revealed texts are superior to "Maslaha"; Rida's legal approach towards the revealed texts and "maṣlaḥa" was based on the criterion and mechanisms elaborated by classical jurists such as Al-Shatibi and Al-Tufi. In addition, Rida's legal doctrine continued the juristic traditions of a number of prominent "Fuqaha" between the 10th and 14th centuries such as Al-Ghazali, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, al-Qarafi, Ibn Taymiyya, etc. During these four centuries, Islamic jurists had commonly employed "maṣlaḥa" as an amenity for legal resolution and juristic dynamism. As Rida saw it, the classical jurists had sufficiently elaborated the “philosophical, moral and hermeneutical controls" for valid utilisation of the principles of "Maslaha" (public interest). Thus, he engaged with the traditional theoretical literature of classical Sunni "Fiqh" and conveyed its rich heritage to his readers in a sophisticated manner. Rida would also credit Al-Ghazali and Al-Shatibi for his revivalism of "maṣlaḥa"; which revamped the principle within the traditional legal framework of "Qiyas" (analogical reasoning).


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rida's doctrines would later be extended by modernists to uphold "maslaha" as an independent legal source, making "qiyas" dispensable and formulating positive laws directly on utilitarian grounds, for the "wisdom behind the Revealed Laws is no longer inscrutable", thus creating new implications. Throughout the 1920s, when such conclusions were drawn by the modernists based on these premises, Rida would object strenuously. He vehemently denounced the Egyptian lawyer Ahmed Safwat for promotion of "non-adherence to the texts" of "Qur'an" and "Sunna" in particular matters in the name of public utility. Although Rida stated that "Mujtahids" are obliged to take a broad view of all considerations affecting the public interest, "textual limits" had to be respected. The general public was obliged to follow the qualified "Mujtahids" unquestionably on "mu'amalat" (wordly Transactions) and their consensus was a legal source ("hujja shar'iyya").


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida believed that Islam treats women and men equally in terms of their spiritual obligations and their ability to earn God's favor. He holistically addressed gender issues such as sexual freedom, women's exploitation in the workplace, and the rising cases of illegitimate children which were creating serious problems in European societies. He contrasted this with Islamic gender roles, which defined a woman's position in both household and society; and maintained that it represented the proper solution to the social problems faced by the most advanced societies. While men are heads of the household, Islam granted women the right to choose a spouse and gave them clearly stipulated rights and responsibilities in a marriage. He also stipulated that consent of male guardian of women was essential for a "Nikah" (marriage) to be valid, since it stabilises the domestic order and befits the honor of both women and men. He criticised those followers of "Hanafi" school, who didn't adhere to this stipulation and confuted his position, as bigoted partisans to "madhabs" guilty of abandoning the "Qur'an" and "Sunnah" in favour of their law schools.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rida was also a firm defender of traditional Islamic views on polygamy, presenting it as a solution to the emerging social ills afflicting societies; such as free mixing of men and women in workplaces and consequent sexual freedoms. In one of his last treatises ""A Call to the Fair Sex"" published in 1932, a treatise addressed to the Muslim women, Rida argued that polygamy not only solved the problems associated with promiscuity and its resultant evils, but also addressed the difficulties produced by the loss of numerous men in wars. The book condemned the calls for equality between men and women in the workplace and in politics; and warned about the folly of imitating Western women in their misguided ways. Rida declared that calls for "the liberation of women" and other social reforms by the modernisers were destroying the very fabric of Islamic societies. Rida also explained the etiquettes of veiling, emphasizing modesty for Muslim women, and addressed legal issues such as divorce. Although Rida hindered Muslim women from political participation, he encouraged association-based female Islamic activism; that called upon the government to outlaw free-mixing, wine-drinking, fronts of prostitution and demanded expansion of Islamic education for both males and females. In marital affairs, he held the view that wives are not obliged to cook, clean or take care of their children in "Sharia" and decried the hypocrisy of men who demanded more from their wives. At the same time, Rida asserted that husbands are allowed to discipline their wives, using force, if necessary.


title: Rashid Rida

text: While Rida encouraged Muslim women to participate in the social life of Islam as they did during the early Islamic eras, he would stress that men are more capable and superior in terms of strength, intelligence, learning, physical labour, etc. Hence, they have "Wilayah" (legal guardianship) over women; but similar to the ruler over his subjects, the male authority should be exercised through "shura" (consultation). In this, Muslim men should follow Muhammad, who set forth the perfect example of the kind treatment of wives. Rida also defended Islamic slavery, asserting that it protects women from harm and gives all of them a chance to bear children, and therefore, not in conflict with justice. According to Rida, the basic principle of "Sharia" concerning women, is that:


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida belonged to a minority of Sunni scholars like "Mujaddid Alif Thani" Ahmad Sirhindi, etc. who widened the definition of "Ahl al-Kitab" to include Magians, Sabians, Buddhists, Brahmins, Confucianists and Shintoists; since they held that they too were recipients of previous abrogated Revelations that upheld "Tawhid". In their opinion, since those religious sects believed in God, Prophets, Revelation, Day of Judgment, Paradise and Hell, they are similar to the Jews and Christians and fall under the "Ahl al-Kitab" category; despite not being mentioned in "Qur'an". Rida posited that "Qur'an" confined to mention those groups such as Jews, Christians, Sabi'is and Magians since they were known by the Arabs, to whom the Holy Qur'an was Revealed. He adopted this view from his discernment of the hadith "treat them in the same way as "Ahl al-Kitab"" regarding the Magians. Hence, Muslim men were permitted to engage in marital relations with women of these religions. Justifying this stance, Rida argued that marriages with non-Muslim women had been the manner of expanding the reach of Islam. However, Rida was clear in specifying that a Muslim woman was not allowed to marry a non-Muslim.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rida considered that certain types of "riba" (usury) may be permitted in certain cases (i.e. in cases of extreme poverty or larger public interest). The medieval scholar Ibn al-Qayyim had distinguished between two types of "riba", "riba al-nasi'ah" and "riba al-fadl". Ibn Qayyim maintained that "rib al-nasi'ah" was prohibited by Qur'an and Sunnah definitively while the latter was only prohibited in order to stop the charging of interest. According to Ibn Qayyim, the prohibition of "riba al-fadl" was less severe and it could be allowed in dire need or greater public interest ("maslaha"). Ibn Qayyim considered that things prohibited in order to prevent access to evil become permissible when they result in a greater benefit. Hence under a compelling need, an item may be sold with delay in return for dirhams or for another weighed substance despite implicating "riba al-nasi'ah". In addition, Ibn Qayyim held that the sales of gold and silver jewelry for more than their equivalent weight in gold or silver was permissible, in consideration of workmanship and people's dire need. Although Ibn Qayyim clearly sought to restrict the scope of "riba’"s prohibition, he never stated that charging interest on loans was legal. In fact, Ibn Qayyim, relying on his reasoning, rejected the argument that coins (at the time made of gold and silver) could be sold for an excess in compensation for the minting process. In his opinion, although the authority gets them minted on wage payments, gold and silver should be used as a means of exchange, not trading with coins. Rida was influenced by both 'Abduh and Ibn Qayyims' legal reasonings.


title: Rashid Rida

text: As Grand Mufti of Egypt, 'Abduh had issued a fatwa in 1904 permitting to accept interest on deposits with the savings fund of the Egyptian post office. However, Rida was uneasy about 'Abduh's expansion of circumstances in which interest payment was permitted and chipped away at what 'Abduh had allowed. Rida glossed away 'Abduh's fatwa by suggesting that "Abduh only sanctioned returns on money deposited in this way on the understanding that the funds would be used for small investments by the post office in which the rules of transction would be strictly observed." He later would also highlight the public about "Abduh's fierce condemnation of the interest charged by the Egyptian banks." Most remarkably, Rida asserted that, as a direct violation of Divine command, "riba" rendered capitalism fundamentally at odds with an Islamic system.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida's stance on Riba is expressed in his treatise "Al-Riba w al-Mu`amalat fi al-Islam" (Riba and Transactions in Islam). In the treatise, Rida responds to a series of four "fatwas" issued by Hyderabadi Hanafi jurists. In their first fatwa, Hyderabadi jurists stated that concept of "riba" is abstract and quoted consensus over it. Responding to the fatwa, Rida defeated the claim of consensus while accepting it as a valid Hanafi stance. In the second fatwa, the Hyderabadi jurists defined "riba" as "an increase without compensation in sales" referring Hanafi legal treatises. Rida responded stating "This view isn't necessarily accepted, since his proof is not necessarily accepted", maintaining that "riba" isn't restricted to sales. The third fatwa stated that the benefit stipulated as condition in a loan is not the ""riba" explicitly mentioned in the Canonical Texts", since there is no explicit proof in "Qur'an and valid Hadith". Responding, Rida stated "If he means that it is not explicitly mentioned in the Qur'an, we accept the statement, since the "riba" mentioned in Qur'an is restricted to "riba al-nasi'ah" applied to deferment of existing debts, rather than at the inception of the first contract". The fourth fatwa stated that a benefit arising as part of a loan is not "riba" by "Qur'an" or valid "Hadith", but only on "Qiyas" (analogical reasoning). The analogy is doubtful owing to "instigating factors" and even if the analogy was valid, it would be speculative since, "rulings based on analogy change with time". In his response, Rida acknowledged the validity of the position stating that "if the analogy was valid at an earlier time, its ruling may be reversed based on necessities of needs in current times".


title: Rashid Rida

text: In summary, Rashid Rida ruled that only the first increase in a termed loan is permissible in "sharia", classifying it as "Riba al-Fadl". Based on his analysis of the reports in Tafsir al Tabari that described the practice of "riba" during the pre-Islamic period, Rida distinguished the former from the usury practised during the pre-Islamic period ("Ribā Âl-Jāhilīyyá"). However, any further increase in returns or postponement of maturity date is unlawful. Differentiating between "Riba al-Jahiliyya" and other forms of Riba in his treatise "Al-Ríba Fi Al-Mūamālat Fíl Islām" ("Riba and Transactions in Islam"), Rida writes:


title: Rashid Rida

text: The debut of Turkish translations of Qur'an in the newly established Turkish Republic with state involvement would ignite considerable controversy throughout the Muslim world in 1924. Muhammad Rashid Rida, who was highly influential in shaping opinion in the Muslim world, portrayed the state-sponsored project as a long-term plot to displace the Arabic Qur'an. Rida was correct in his suspicions that Mustafa Kemal's regime sought to tamper with Islamic rituals and accused the Turkish government of promoting heretical ideas in order "to turn the devout people among them away from the word of God the Exalted, who revealed it to the Arabian Prophet Muhammad in the clear Arabic tongue".


title: Rashid Rida

text: In response to a query by Sheikh Ahsan Shah Effendi Ahmad (in Russia), Rida issued a "fatwa" prohibiting Qur'anic translations. Rida listed numerous negative objections such as 1) literal translation of Qur'an identical to original text being impossible 2) this trend will sever "Islamic ties of unity" by stoking racial divisions 3) translation of Qur'an doesn't have the same quality of Qur'an, as the meaning will be "limited" by the translator's understanding. However Rida was clear in the fatwa that prohibition was on translation of Arabic Qur'an to substitute it with a non-Arabic one. Rida's criticism was not against the general idea of Qur'anic translations (which are considered interpretations of the scripture of Islam in languages other than Arabic). He was against the possibility that Muslim nations would have a substitute to the original text, which in his opinion was heresy and lead to disunity among Muslim nations.


title: Rashid Rida

text: The emerging controversy over erecting statues in the early 20th-century Arab world was extensively addressed in the treatises of Rashid Rida. Rashid Rida believed that statues were forbidden in Islam, since they belonged to pagan traditions. According to him, statues were an imitation of un-Islamic cultures and also involved wasting people's money. Most notably, Rida vigorously campaigned against the statue-erection of the Egyptian nationalist leader Mustafa Kamil Pasha.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rida focused on the relative weakness of Muslim societies vis-à-vis Western colonialism, blaming Sufi excesses, the blind imitation of the past ("taqlid"), the stagnation of the "ulama", and the resulting failure to achieve progress in science and technology. He held that these flaws could be alleviated by a return to what he saw as the true principles of Islam albeit interpreted ("ijtihad") to suit modern realities. This alone could, he believed, save Muslims from subordination to the colonial powers.


title: Rashid Rida

text: In 1923, the French government had enacted a law for easier citizenship access to Tunisians. Responding to a query from Tunisia in 1924, Rashid Riḍā ruled that Muslims who naturalize are apostates; since they are guilty of giving preference to non-Muslim system of law. In 1932, he would issue another "fatwa" declaring the naturalized Tunisians as "enemies of Allah and His Prophet" and forbade them from being married or buried in Muslim cemeteries.


title: Rashid Rida

text: When France eased access for French citizenship for the French Protectorate of Tunisia in 1933, Rida backed the anti-naturalization protests. In line with the Salafi doctrine of "Al Wala wal Bara", Rida issued a "fatwa" prohibiting the acquisition of citizenship of the colonial power, stating that it was apostasy from Islam:


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida advanced anti-Semitic conspiracies which would later become popular across the Arab world and various Islamist movements. In Rida's worldview, Freemasonry was invented by Jews to plot against world nations. Rida's early mentors Afghani and Abduh used to have close relations with Freemasonry. Afghani had arrived in Egypt in 1871 with the mission to combat what he perceived as the threat of European imperialism. For al-Afghani, freemasonry was a means of shattering "the towering edifices of injustice, tyranny, and oppression" in Egypt. Afghani had utilised Freemasonry as an organizational base for subversive activities against the Egyptian ruler, Khedive Isma'il. The political faction later founded by Afghani, "al-Hizb al Watanlal-Hurr" ('The Free National Party') would play a major role in removing Ismail Pasha from the throne and bringing Tawfiq Pasha as the Khedive. In these efforts, Afghani was also aided by his disciples such as Muhammad Abduh whom he persuaded to join Freemasonry. Through these associations, Abduh was able to establish contacts with Tawfiq Pasha and other leaders of Egypt. In his later life, however, Abduh would distance himself from his past associations with freemasonry. Afghani and Abduh would later withdraw from Freemasonry due to political disputes. Years later, Rida would ask 'Abduh why he and Afghani had become Masons, 'Abduh replied that it was for a "political and social purpose". Rida pointed to Abduh that the objective of the Masons was "the destruction of all the religions." His attitudes towards Baháʼí Faith were also negative.


title: Rashid Rida

text: From the turn of nineteenth century, Rida's "Al-Manar" periodical would regularly feature anti-semitic articles linking Jews and Freemasons who eagerly sought the exploitation of "all nations’ wealth for its own benefit". By the 1930s, Rida would also promote the ideas of Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Conspiracy theories accusing Freemasons and Jews of seeking to topple the existing order through secret machinations featured regularly in "Al-Manar". In his articles, Rida maintained that the Jews created Freemasonry and through it orchastrated the Young Turk revolution in the Ottoman Empire in 1908 and French Revolution of 1789 and manipulated the Bolsheviks against the Czar. By 1910, Rashid Rida believed that Ottoman Empire had fallen under a Zionist-Masonic influence due to the Young Turk Revolution. Adopting a narrative of a grand, global Jewish conspiracy; Rida described that the Jews, oppressed by the Catholic Church, had orchestrated through the Freemasons the French Revolution, 1905 Russian Revolution and the Young Turk Revolution. According to Rida, the revolution of Young Turks was a Jewish response to the Ottoman Empire's rejection of Jewish ambitions to regain possession of their temple in Jerusalem and surrounding regions to reestablish their kingdom. Rida argued that Jews wielded immense influence over the Committee of Union and the treasury of the Ottoman Empire. As early as 1908, he had alleged about a Zionist plan to purchase Palestine from the Freemasons in Turkish leadership and called upon Arabs to resist this plan by force. By March 1914, Rida believed that the Zionists had already managed to convince the Committee of Union and Progress to support Jewish rule in Palestine as a buffer against the Arabs and as a means to divide them.


title: Rashid Rida

text: According to Rida, the term ‘Freemason’ itself refers to the re-construction of the temple of Solomon. In his articles, Rida emphasized that although the founders of Freemasonry were Jews and Christians, Jews led and dominated the movement. Rida viewed freemasonry as a Jewish invention and one of the tools of Jews in their bid to re-establish a Jewish state and rebuild Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. They dominated the Freemasons, concealing the ultimate objective of establishing a Jewish state and overthrowing the religious governments in Europe, Russia, and Turkey, where Islamic law was replaced by a secularist government. Although the Jesuits were able to thwart their influence in Catholic countries, Jews succeeded in establishing Bolshevism in Russia and secularise Turkey. Explaining his beliefs, Rida wrote in his famous 1929 article "Revolution in Palestine: Its Causes and Consequences" ("Thawrat Filastin: Asbabuha wa nata’ijuha") in "Al-Manar":


title: Rashid Rida

text: Despite some un-conventional stances held by Rida, his works and in particular his magazine "al-Manar" spread throughout the Muslim world; influencing many individuals including the popular Salafi writer Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani.


title: Rashid Rida

text: The status of Rida and his works, are a matter of contention amongst some contemporary purist Salafis. Unlike the Purist Salafis, Rashid Rida considered rulers who legislated man-made laws contrary to "sharia" to be guilty of "kufr akbar" (major disbelief). According to Rida, Muslims are obliged to force such rulers to annul such laws or overthrow them. If they are unable to do that, their lands can no longer be considered "Dar-al-Islam" (abode of Islam). Owing to this, some present-day Salafi Purists criticise Rida for straying from quietist Salafi principles. The pro-government Madkhali Salafists condemn Rida for his influence on Salafi-activists, Islamists and Salafi-Jihadists. However, other Salafi scholars such as Albani, while critiquing his mistakes on "Hadeeth" sciences, praises Rida and his works generally. Praising Rashid Rida and his scholarly contributions, Al-Albani stated:


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida is widely regarded as one of "the ideological forefathers" of contemporary Islamist movements. Rida's ideas were foundational to the development of the modern "Islamic state". He "was an important link between classical theories of the caliphate, such as al-Mawardi's, and 20th-century notions of the Islamic state". While rejecting secularist calls for separation of religion and state with regards to Islam, Rida nevertheless contended that those who engage in defence of Islam, its propagation and its teaching should not engage in politics, in line with orthodox Sunni doctrine.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida preceded Abul Ala Maududi, Sayyid Qutb, and later Islamists in declaring adherence to "sharia" (Islamic law) as essential for Islamic rulers, saying:


title: Rashid Rida

text: The corruption and tyranny of Muslim rulers (caliphs, "sultans", etc.) throughout history was a central theme in Rida's criticisms. Rida, however, celebrated the rule of Muhammad and the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and leveled his attacks at subsequent rulers who could not maintain Muhammad's example. He also criticized the Islamic scholars ("ulama") for compromising their integrity - and the integrity of the Islamic law ("sharia") they were meant to uphold - by associating with corrupt worldly powers. Rida believed that throughout Islamic history, the feudal monarchs and the depraved "Ulema" classes had disfigured the ideal caliphate system, leading to social chaos and institutionalising corruption of authoritarian rulers. He expounded the revival of an ideal, veritable “Islamic state” political system, and reverse this status-quo.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida also believed that the awakening of Arabs was an important prerequisite for Islamic Renaissance. Since it was during the early days of Arab power that Islamic power reached its pinnacle; only the Arab nation could restore the might of early Islam. By constantly stressing on Arab pre-eminence; Rida pointed out that only Arabs can take up the "historic mission" of Islamic Unity. Rida's calls for the restoration of Arab leadership were rooted in his pan-Islamist programme that sought the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate and viewed nationalist trends as a plot to divide the Muslim World. Hence, he strongly criticised Arab nationalism; portraying it as a starting point to "kufr" (disbelief).


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rida viewed Arabic language as the common medium that unites Muslims of all nations and promoted Arabic as an integral pillar of his reform efforts. Issuing a "Fatwa" stipulating that knowledge of Arabic is obligatory on every Muslim, Rida wrote in "Al-Manar":


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida opposed secularist criticisms which accused religion of being responsible for wars and human suffering; asserting that the materialist and irreligious conceptions of humanity that were the prime instigators of warfare and bloodshed throughout history. In Rida's view, wars are an integral component of human history and Islamic law regulated conflicts to just wars based on the doctrine of "Jihad". He praised the religious campaigns of Prophet Muhammad and Rashidun Caliphate as an exemplary model of "Jihad" to be emulated against the European imperial powers.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida believed that Islam prescribed armed "Jihad" as a binding duty upon all capable male Muslims; not only to defend the religion but also to bring non-Muslims into the fold of the Islamic faith. However, since the obligation of "Jihad" cannot be performed unless they are strong, their immediate task was to acquire the sciencitific and technical prowess first, in order to fulfill the duty of "Jihad". While upholding "Jihad" as a necessary duty, Rida nonetheless distinguished between wars to spread Islam ("Jihad al-Talab") and wars to defend Islam ("Jihad al-Daf"'). While the latter are always obligatory; Jihad to expand Islam into non-Muslim territories ("Dar al-Harb") is not obligatory unless Muslims are not allowed to live according to "sharia" or unless Islamic "Da'wa" (preaching) efforts were hampered by the non-Muslim state.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida revived Ibn Taymiyya's concept of "jahiliyya", a "Qur'anic" term that denoted the ignorance of pre-Islamic Arabia. He applied this concept to Muslim lands of his own era and charged the ruling secular authorities with apostasy for submitting to man-made laws and substituting Islamic laws, in the same manner Ibn Taymiyya ex-communicated the Tatars. Rida argued that only "salafiyya" Islam, "an Islam purged of impurities and Western influences", could save Muslims from colonial subordination and "Jahiliyya". He detested the rulers who substituted Western laws for "sharia" and "takfired" them stating:


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida believed that Islamic law was flexible enough to remain relevant for all eras and was staunchly opposed to influences of foreign law-codes. The Islamic state is to be based on "Hakimiyya" (“sovereignty of Allah”) and it "does not recognize the sovereignty of the people, and the state denies people's legislative power”. Muslim politicians must engage with the state's social, political, economic and process of the state according to the sources of Islamic law.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Throughout his works, Rashid Rida emphasized that "sharia" was intended to be a comprehensive legal structure for the society. He promoted a restoration of the Caliphate for Islamic unity, through shura". In theology, his reformist ideas, like those of Abduh, were "based on the argument that:


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rida's Islamic state envisioned a representative government, which he compared to be "a sort of a republic", that upholds "Shura" (Islamic consultative system) in political life. The "Khalifa" has no superiority in law over his subjects; and his duty is only to execute the religious law("sharia") and act according to national interests. The Caliph must uphold truth, social justice and the rule of law; cleanse "bid'a" (innovations), eliminate oppression and consult his advisors in issues not verifiable by the "Quran" and "Sunnah". The caliph is not a "Ma'sum"(infallible) or a source of revelation and was responsible for all his deeds. The nation has the right to depose the caliph, for valid reasons. Every member of the "Ummah" had a right to question the Caliph for his errors. The best possible way to bring about a strong caliphate was through a detailed application "of the rules of the "Shariah"." One of these rules is involved the appointment of "ahl al-hal wa-l 'aqd" (the group who loosen and bind), a group of Muslim representatives who have the right to take council("mushabaha") with a Caliph as well as the power to both appoint and remove him of behalf of the "Ummah." Since the state uses Islamic law as its guiding principle, the "Ulema" were not only responsible for the sacred mission of reforming the society, but also responsible for correcting the monarch, by holding him accountable to "Sharia". The "Fuqaha" were also to engage in "Ijtihad" by referring to the Scriptures, and evaluate contemporary conditions to enhance the vitality of the law. In a jibe against his theological opponents, Rida also remarked that their forsaking of "Ijtihad" had sunk Muslims into ignorance and "westernization and atheism."


title: Rashid Rida

text: The two major books outlining the Political Doctrines of Rashid Rida are: i) "Al-Khilafa aw al-Imama al-ʿUzma" (""The Caliphate or the Grand Imamate"") ii) "'al-Waḥī al-Muḥammadī" (""The Muhammadan Revelation"")


title: Rashid Rida

text: Al-Khilafa aw al-Imama al-ʿUzma () is an influential treatise written by Rashid Rida in 1922, during the aftermath of the Turkish Abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate. The treatise outlined a comprehensive Islamic state theory by taking precedence from classical Sunni doctrines; especially those of Al-Mawardi. The treatise would become an authoritative reference for modern Islamist movements.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Riḍā's final substantial treatise "The Muhammadan Revelation" ("al-Waḥī al-Muḥammadī"), published in 1933, was a manifesto in which he proclaimed that Islam is the only savior for the deteriorating West. Insisting that Islam called for the Brotherhood of all people, opposing all forms of racist hierarchies that were responsible for the World War and the corrupted League of Nations, Rashid Rida presented a Universal Islamic Order as a substitute for the crumbling Wilsonian system.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida blamed the horrors of the First World War on European nationalism and racial obsession. Introducing Islam as the solution for World peace, Rida explained the Five important Islamic teachings on "Jihad":


title: Rashid Rida

text: According to Rida, Islam is a comprehensive religion, which, in addition to dealing with ethics and spirituality; also elaborated on leadership, politics and government. The Islamic state symbolised "the greatest political reform" brought forth by the "Qur'an" in an age when all of humanity were shackled by various manifestations of tyranny. Taking the "Khulafa Rashidun" as the exemplar models, Rashid Rida elaborated on the basic features of an Islamic government:


title: Rashid Rida

text: The Islamic political doctrines of Rashid Rida would deeply influence many future Islamists like Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, etc. as well as subsequent fundamentalist movements across the Arab world. In 1928, Rashid Rida published "Majmuʿat al-rasaʾil wa al-masaʾil al-najdiyya" (Collection of Treatises and Questions from Najd); one of the earliest occurrences wherein the doctrine of "Al-Walāʾ wa al-barā" (loyalty and disavowal) was emphasised alongside "Tawhid" in the Salafi context, a doctrine would become important in militant Jihadist circles. Egyptian school teacher Hasan al-Banna, was highly influenced by Rashid Rida's "Salafiyya" movement as well his Pan-Islamist activities through socio-political means to re-generate an Islamic state. Continuing Rida's work, Al-Banna would go on to establish the Muslim Brotherhood, a mass political party which sought to establish an Islamic state in Egypt, within the existing constitutional framework. The movement demanded the Egyptian government to recognize "Sharia" as the supreme source of law and remove the European law codes.


title: Rashid Rida

text: The Islamic State Theory of Rashid Rida was also adopted by Usama Bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri. Throughout their references of "Islamic State" and "Caliphate", Bin Laden and Zawahiri followed the terminology as advocated by Rashid Rida and later embraced by Hasan al-Banna; which differentiated between an Islamic State and the Caliphate. In contrast to other Islamist movements like Hizb ut-Tahrir who believed that a Caliphate is the only valid government; the two Al-Qaeda leaders believed in the legitimacy of multiple Islamic national states referring to them as Emirates, such as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia until the 1990s when it lost legitimacy according to Bin Laden.


title: Rashid Rida

text: In developing the pan-Islamist model of Afghani, Rida had specifically admired the model of the "Khulafa Rashidun", and resurrected Ibn Taymiyya's concept of "Jahiliyya". Moving towards a militant and conservative sphere of revivalist teachings, Rida condemned the secular authorities of his era to be apostates; just like the Mongols during the era of Ibn Taymiyya. Furthermore, he condemned the state-backed scholars for neglecting the revival of the traditions and values of early eras of Islam. Rida's insistence that only an Islamic world completely free of Western influences could escape the colonial noose and the state of "Jahiliyya", set the foundations of future Salafi-Jihadist ideologies. Rida's strategy to establish an Islamic State is also believed to have influenced the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant in their 2014 declaration of Caliphate in Mosul.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Muhammad Rashid Rida is considered by Salafis as an erudite scholarly authority for contemporary reference. Rida's works are taught in the Islamic University of Medina, an influential Salafi seminary. Salafi scholar Muhammad 'Abdullah Salman authored a book in his praise, titled, "al-Shaykh Rashid Rida al-Musleh al-Salafi" (al-Shaykh Rashid Rida the Salafi Reformer). Rida's efforts were instrumental in fostering the modern trans-national network of Salafi scholarship across the world. Early Salafi "ulema" of Egypt would build extensive relations with Wahhabi scholars through education, travel, religious gatherings, etc. These included Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqi, ʿAbd al-Razzaq Hamzah, ʿAbd al-Zahir Abu al-Samh, etc. who were the pupils of Rida. These "ʿulama" would continue writing against innovations and various Sufi practices within the theological framework laid down by Ibn Taymiyyah, the Najdis, and Rashid Rida. Their organisation, "Ansar al-Sunnah al Muhammadiyyah" would become the bastion of Salafiyya school in Egypt. Apart from the Purist Salafis, Salafi activists ("harakis") also look up to Rida's works to build a revivalist platform focused on Islamic socio-political and cultural reforms ("Islah") with a long-term objective to establish an Islamic state. Prominent figures in this rival camp include Abu Hanieh, Safar Al-Hawali, Abu Qatada, Muhammad Surur, Abdurrahman Abdulkhaliq, etc. Abu Qatada and Abu Hanieh established a new movement known as "Ahl Al-Sunnah Wal Jama’a" based in Jordan and published "al-Manar" magazine named after Rashid Rida's popular monthly.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Rashid Rida's religious efforts not only influenced the Arab World, but also made major impact in South Asia and South East Asia. Rida got numerous requests for fatwas from his followers in Indonesia and South East Asia, and answered them through his seminal journal "Al-Manar". These "fatwas" were regarded by the indigenous reform-oriented scholars as their main source of inspiration and became influential in shaping the intellectual thought of religious circles in 20th century Indonesia, introducing them to Salafi reformist ideals. Numerous reformist scholars corresponded with Rida and popularised the ideals of "Salafiyya."


title: Rashid Rida

text: The influential activist-Salafi organisation Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), which played a crucial role in the spread of Salafism across North America, drew inspiration from Muhammad Rashid Rida. The official publication of the organisation was a magazine titled "Al-Manar al-Jadid" (“the New Lighthouse”) in honour of Rashid Rida's legacy. The magazine's prologue was copied verbatim from Rida's original 19th century text; believing that the Muslim community continued to face "the same tribulations" as during Rida's era. The organisation included notable scholars and figures like Bilal Philips, Muhammad Adly, Jamal Zarabozo, Abdel Rahman al-Dosari, etc. After 9/11, IANA would be subject to intense federal scrutiny. As a result of this policy in the post 9/11 period, IANA was eventually forced to disband; many members were deported, and some others, like Ali al-Timimi, were jailed.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Salafi scholar Nasir al Din Al Albani considered Rashid Rida to be his mentor. As an avid reader of "Al-Manar", Albani embraced key Traditionalist Salafi ideas through Rida's works and adopted Rida as his intellectual father. For Albani, Riḍā exemplified the standard of how to look to "ḥadith" for reviving the Muslim community. Crediting Rida for his turn to Salafism and interest in "hadith" sciences, Albani stated:


title: Rashid Rida

text: In his treatise ""The Exoneration"" written in response to Sayyid Imam Al-Sharif, Salafi-jihadist leader Ayman al Zawahiri cited the anti-colonial fatwa of Rashid Rida (against French naturalization) to argue that a Muslim who applies for Western citizenship by his own choice is guilty of "kufr"(disbelief) or close to "kufr". Islamic scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi described Rida as "the true "mujaddid" of Islam of his time" and views him as the most prominent scholar who advocated traditionalism in contemporary Islamic history. Qaradawi described Rida's thought as a "lighthouse" that "guided the ship of Islam in modern history".


title: Rashid Rida

text: Albani's son ‘Abd Allah praised Rashid Rida as ""muhaddith Misr"" (the ḥadīth scholar of Egypt). The Egyptian Salafi hadith scholar Ahmad Shakir conferred the title of "Hujjat al-Islam" to Rashid Rida and extolled his Qur'anic commentary, "Tafsir al-Manar" as a "real defense of religion" in the contemporary era, encouraging everyone to read as well as spread his "Tafsir". Rida's teachings also deeply influenced the prominent Saudi scholar Ibn 'Uthaymeen who listed Rida as his chief source of scholarly influence alongside Ibn Taymiyya. Ibn 'Uthaymeen commended Rida as an exemplar scholar of "sharia" who had the combined knowledge of religious sciences as well political and economic affairs.


title: Rashid Rida

text: Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Mustafa al-Maraghi praised Rida as the champion of Salafi thought during his funeral saying:


title: Tammy Townsend

text: Tamara A. Townsend (born August 17, 1970) is an American actress and singer. Townsend is best known for her roles as Wendy Reardon on the NBC daytime soap opera "Days of Our Lives" (1994–96), and Greta McClure, Eddie's girlfriend on the ABC/CBS sitcom "Family Matters" (1995–98). From 2015 to early 2018, she starred as Kira Cooper, the mother of K.C. Cooper, on the Disney Channel series "K.C. Undercover".


title: Tammy Townsend

text: Townsend was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Anorene, an African American interior designer, and Thomas Townsend, an American judge with English and Yugoslavian ancestry. Townsend is a 1988 graduate of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.


title: Tammy Townsend

text: Townsend began her acting career in 1985, appearing in episodes of television sitcoms such as "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Charles in Charge". From 1994 to 1996, she played Wendy Reardon on the NBC daytime soap opera "Days of Our Lives". From 1995 to 1998, Townsend played the recurring role of Greta McClure in the ABC sitcom "Family Matters". In 1997, she played the female leading role in the comedy film "The Pest" starring John Leguizamo. She has played guest-starring roles in "Quantum Leap", "Living Single", "The Practice", "Felicity", "Walker, Texas Ranger", "Friends", and "". Townsend again appeared in a recurring role on the short-lived UPN sitcom "Grown Ups" with "Family Matters" star Jaleel White.


title: Tammy Townsend

text: Townsend was a regular cast member on the short-lived sitcoms "Rock Me, Baby" (2003–04) and "Sherri" (2009). She also played recurring roles on "Lincoln Heights", "Switched at Birth", and "The Client List". In 2015, Townsend began starring as Kira Cooper, the mother of Zendaya's lead character, on the Disney Channel sitcom "K.C. Undercover".


title: John Mark

text: John Mark is named in the Acts of the Apostles as an assistant accompanying Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journeys. Traditionally he is regarded as identical with Mark the Evangelist, the traditional writer of the Gospel of Mark.


title: John Mark

text: Several times the Acts of the Apostles mentions a certain "John, who was also called Mark" or simply "John":


title: John Mark

text: From these passages it may be gathered that John's mother Mary had a large house in Jerusalem to which Peter fled after escaping prison; that John assisted Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey to Cyprus and as far as Perga in Pamphylia, but then returned to Jerusalem; and that later controversy over receiving John Mark back led to Paul and Barnabas parting ways, with Barnabas taking Mark back to Cyprus and both thereafter disappearing from the narrative of Acts. The reasons for John Mark's departure to Jerusalem and the subsequent disagreement between Paul and Barnabas have been subject to much speculation. Matthew Henry, for example, suggested that John Mark had departed "without [Barnabas and Paul's] knowledge, or without their consent". However, there is simply too little data to regard any explanation with confidence.


title: John Mark

text: Some scholars have argued that John Mark's negative portrayal in Acts is a polemic against the presumptive author of the Gospel of Mark, Luke's primary source for his own Gospel. Adela Collins suggests, "Since the author of Acts also wrote the Gospel according to Luke, it could be that this critical portrait was intended to undercut the authority of the second Gospel." Michael Kok notes that "Mark's Gospel was a bit of an embarrassment to the refined literary and theological tastes of an educated Christian like Luke."


title: John Mark

text: It was common for Jews of the period to bear both a Semitic name such as "John" (Hebrew: "Yochanan") and a Greco-Roman name such as "Mark". But since "John" was one of the most common names among Palestinian Jews, and "Mark" was the most common in the Roman world, caution is warranted in identifying John Mark with any other John or Mark.


title: John Mark

text: Ancient sources in fact consistently distinguish John Mark from the other Marks of the New Testament and style him Bishop of Byblos. Nor was John Mark identified in antiquity with any other John, apart from rare and explicit speculation.


title: John Mark

text: Medieval sources, on the other hand, increasingly regarded all New Testament references to "Mark" as Mark the Evangelist, and many modern scholars have agreed in seeing a single Mark. The very fact that various writings could refer simply to "Mark" without further qualification has been seen as pointing to a single Mark.


title: John Mark

text: First, there is Mark the cousin of Barnabas, mentioned by Paul as a "fellow worker" in the closings of three Pauline epistles. In antiquity he was regarded as a distinct Mark, Bishop of Apollonia. If, on the other hand, these two Marks are to be identified, the fact that these epistles were written after the departure of John Mark with Barnabas in Acts must suppose some later reconciliation. But a majority of scholars, noting the close association of both Marks with Paul and Barnabas, indeed regard them as likely the same person. Biblical scholars Samuel Rolles Driver and Charles Augustus Briggs identified Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, with John Mark, as do John R. Donahue and Daniel J. Harrington.


title: John Mark

text: Mark the Evangelist, however, is known only from the patristic tradition, which associates him only with Peter and makes no mention of Paul. Jerome alone suggests that the Mark of whom Paul speaks may be the Evangelist. But modern scholars have noted that as Peter fled to the house of John Mark's mother, the two men may have had a longstanding association.


title: John Mark

text: A minority of modern scholars have argued, on the other hand, for identifying John the Evangelist or John the Elder with John Mark.


title: John Mark

text: The Acts of Barnabas, apparently an apocryphal work of the 5th century, purport to be written by John Mark and to detail the missionary journey and martyrdom of Barnabas in Cyprus, thus picking up where the account of Acts leaves off.


title: John Mark

text: The "Encomium of the Apostle St. Barnabas", written by Alexander the Monk in the 6th century, also gives an extensive account of the activity of Barnabas and John Mark in Cyprus. After the death of Barnabas, John Mark leaves for Ephesus, and the account then continues by identifying him with Mark the Evangelist.


title: Islam and violence

text: The use of politically and religiously-motivated violence dates back to the early history of Islam, its origins are found in the behavior, sayings, and rulings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, his companions, and the first caliphs in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries CE. Mainstream Islamic law stipulates detailed regulations for the use of violence, including corporal and capital punishment, as well as how, when, and against whom to wage war.


title: Islam and violence

text: Sharia or sharia law is the basic Islamic religious law derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the opinions and life example of Muhammad (Hadith and Sunnah) which are the primary sources of sharia. For topics and issues not directly addressed in these primary sources, sharia is derived. The derivation differs between the various sects of Islam (Sunni and Shia are the majority), and various jurisprudence schools such as Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali and Jafari. The sharia in these schools is derived hierarchically using one or more of the following guidelines: Ijma (usually the consensus of Muhammad's companions), Qiyas (analogy derived from the primary sources), Istihsan (ruling that serves the interest of Islam in the discretion of Islamic jurists) and Urf (customs). Sharia is a significant source of legislation in various Muslim countries. Some apply all or a majority of the sharia, and these include Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen and Mauritania. In these countries, sharia-prescribed punishments such as beheading, flogging and stoning continue to be practiced judicially or extrajudicially. The introduction of sharia is a longstanding goal for Islamist movements globally, but attempts to impose sharia have been accompanied by controversy, violence, and even warfare.


title: Islam and violence

text: The differences between sharia and secular law have led to an ongoing controversy as to whether sharia is compatible with secular forms of government, human rights, freedom of thought, and women's rights.


title: Islam and violence

text: The first military rulings were formulated during the first hundred years after Muhammad established an Islamic state in Medina. These rulings evolved in accordance with the interpretations of the Quran (the Muslim Holy scriptures) and Hadith (the recorded traditions of Muhammad). The key themes in these rulings were the justness of war (see Justice in the Quran), and the injunction to jihad. The rulings do not cover feuds and armed conflicts in general. The millennium of Muslim conquests could be classified as a religious war.


title: Islam and violence

text: Some have pointed out that the current Western view of the need for a clear separation between Church and State was only first legislated into effect after 18 centuries of Christianity in the Western world. While some majority Muslim governments such as Turkey and many of the majority Muslim former Soviet republics have officially attempted to incorporate this principle of such a separation of powers into their governments, yet, the concept somewhat remains in a state of ongoing evolution and flux within the Muslim world.


title: Islam and violence

text: Islam has never had any officially recognized tradition of pacifism, and throughout its history, warfare has been an integral part of the Islamic theological system. Since the time of Muhammad, Islam has considered warfare to be a legitimate expression of religious faith, and has accepted its use for the defense of Islam. During approximately the first 1,000 years of its existence, the use of warfare by Muslim majority governments often resulted in the de facto propagation of Islam.


title: Islam and violence

text: The minority Sufi movement within Islam, which includes certain pacifist elements, has often been officially "tolerated" by many Muslim majority governments. Additionally, some notable Muslim clerics, such as Abdul Ghaffar Khan have developed alternative non-violent Muslim theologies. Some hold that the formal juristic definition of war in Islam constitutes an irrevokable and permanent link between the political and religious justifications for war within Islam. The Quranic concept of "Jihad" includes aspects of both a physical and an internal struggle.


title: Islam and violence

text: Jihad () is an Islamic term referring to the religious duty of Muslims to maintain the religion. In Arabic, the word "jihād" is a noun meaning "to strive, to apply oneself, to struggle, to persevere". A person engaged in jihad is called a "mujahid", the plural of which is "mujahideen" (). The word "jihad" appears frequently in the Quran, often in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God "(al-jihad fi sabil Allah)"", to refer to the act of striving to serve the purposes of God on this earth. According to the classical Sharia law manual of Shafi'i, Reliance of the Traveller, a Jihad is a war which should be waged against non-Muslims, and the word Jihad is etymologically derived from the word mujahada, a mujahada is a war which should be waged for the purpose of establishing the religion. Jihad is sometimes referred to as the sixth pillar of Islam, though it occupies no such official status. In Twelver Shi'a Islam, however, jihad is one of the ten Practices of the Religion.


title: Islam and violence

text: Muslims and scholars do not all agree on its definition. Many observers—both Muslim and non-Muslim—as well as the "Dictionary of Islam", talk of jihad having two meanings: an inner spiritual struggle (the "greater jihad"), and an outer physical struggle against the enemies of Islam (the "lesser jihad") which may take a violent or non-violent form. Jihad is often translated as "Holy War", although this term is controversial. According to orientalist Bernard Lewis, "the overwhelming majority of classical theologians, jurists", and specialists in the hadith "understood the obligation of jihad in a military sense." Javed Ahmad Ghamidi states that there is consensus among Islamic scholars that the concept of jihad will always include armed struggle against wrongdoers.


title: Islam and violence

text: According to Jonathan Berkey, jihad in the Quran was maybe originally intended against Muhammad's local enemies, the pagans of Mecca or the Jews of Medina, but the Quranic statements supporting jihad could be redirected once new enemies appeared. The first documentation of the law of Jihad was written by 'Abd al-Rahman al-Awza'i and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani.


title: Islam and violence

text: The first forms of military Jihad occurred after the migration (hijra) of Muhammad and his small group of followers to Medina from Mecca and the conversion of several inhabitants of the city to Islam. The first revelation concerning the struggle against the Meccans was surah 22, verses 39–40:


title: Islam and violence

text: The main focus of Muhammad's later years was increasing the number of allies as well as the amount of territory under Muslim control.


title: Islam and violence

text: According to Richard Edwards and Sherifa Zuhur, offensive jihad was the type of jihad practiced by the early Muslim community, because their weakness meant "no defensive action would have sufficed to protect them against the allied tribal forces determined to exterminate them." Jihad as a collective duty ("Fard Kifaya") and offensive jihad are synonymous in classical Islamic law and tradition, which also asserted that offensive jihad could only be declared by the caliph, but an "individually incumbent jihad" ("Fard Ayn") required only "awareness of an oppression targeting Islam or Islamic peoples."


title: Islam and violence

text: Tina Magaard, associate professor at the Aarhus University Department of Business Development and Technology, has analyzed the texts of the 10 largest religions in the world. In an interview, she stated that the basic texts of Islam call for violence and aggression against followers of other faiths to a greater extent than texts of other religions. She has also argued that they contain direct incitements to terrorism.


title: Islam and violence

text: According to a number of sources, Shia doctrine taught that jihad (or at least full scale jihad) can only be carried out under the leadership of the Imam (who will return from occultation to bring absolute justice to the world). However, "struggles to defend Islam" are permissible before his return.


title: Islam and violence

text: Ghazi () is an Arabic term originally referring to an individual who participates in Ghazw (), meaning military expeditions or raiding; after the emergence of Islam, it took on new connotations of religious warfare. The related word Ghazwa () is a singulative form meaning a battle or military expedition, often one led by Muhammad.


title: Islam and violence

text: The Caravan raids were a series of raids in which Muhammed and his companions participated. The raids were generally offensive and carried out to gather intelligence or seize the trade goods of caravans financed by the Quraysh. The raids were intended to weaken the economy of Mecca by Muhammad. His followers were also impoverished. Muhammad broke an Arab tradition of not attacking one's own kinsmen by raiding caravans.


title: Islam and violence

text: Islamic Doctrines and teachings on matters of war and peace have become topics of heated discussion in recent years. Charles Matthews writes that there is a "large debate about what the Quran commands with regard to the 'sword verses' and the 'peace verses'". According to Matthews, "the question of the proper prioritization of these verses, and how they should be understood in relation to one another, has been a central issue for Islamic thinking about war." According to Dipak Gupta, "much of the religious justification of violence against nonbelievers (Dar ul Kufr) by the promoters of jihad is based on the Quranic "sword verses".


title: Islam and violence

text: On the other hand, other scholars argue that such verses of the Qur'an are interpreted out of context, Micheline R. Ishay has argued that "the Quran justifies wars for self-defense to protect Islamic communities against internal or external aggression by non-Islamic populations, and wars waged against those who 'violate their oaths' by breaking a treaty". and British orientalist Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner stated that jihad, even in self-defence, is "strictly limited".


title: Islam and violence

text: However, according to Oliver Leaman, a number of Islamic jurists asserted the primacy of the "sword verses" over the conciliatory verses in specific historical circumstances. For example, according to Diane Morgan, Ibn Kathir (1301–1372) asserted that the Sword Verse abrogated all peace treaties that had been promulgated between Muhammad and idolaters.


title: Islam and violence

text: Prior to the Hijra travel Muhammad non-violently struggled against his oppressors in Mecca. It wasn't until after the exile that the Quranic revelations began to adopt a more defensive perspective. From that point onward, those dubious about the need to go to war were typically portrayed as lazy cowards allowing their love of peace to become a fitna to them.


title: Islam and violence

text: The context of the Quran is elucidated by Hadith (the teachings, deeds and sayings of Muhammad). Of the 199 references to jihad in perhaps the most standard collection of hadith—Bukhari—all refer to warfare.


title: Islam and violence

text: Quranists reject the hadith and only accept the Quran. The extent to which Quranists reject the authenticity of the Sunnah varies, but the more established groups have thoroughly criticised the authenticity of the hadith and refused it for many reasons, the most prevalent being the Quranist claim that hadith is not mentioned in the Quran as a source of Islamic theology and practice, was not recorded in written form until more than two centuries after the death of Muhammed, and contain perceived internal errors and contradictions.


title: Islam and violence

text: According to Ahmadi belief, Jihad can be divided into three categories: "Jihad al-Akbar" (Greater Jihad) is that against the self and refers to striving against one's low desires such as anger, lust and hatred; "Jihad al-Kabīr" (Great Jihad) refers to the peaceful propagation of Islam, with special emphasis on spreading the true message of Islam by the "pen"; "Jihad al-Asghar" (Smaller Jihad) is only for self-defence under situations of extreme religious persecution whilst not being able to follow one's fundamental religious beliefs, and even then only under the direct instruction of the Caliph. Ahmadi Muslims point out that as per Islamic prophecy, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad rendered Jihad in its military form as inapplicable in the present age as Islam, as a religion, is not being attacked militarily but through literature and other media, and therefore the response should be likewise. They believe that the answer of hate should be given by love. Concerning terrorism, the fourth Caliph of the Community writes:


title: Islam and violence

text: Various Ahmadis scholars, such as Muhammad Ali, Maulana Sadr-ud-Din and Basharat Ahmad, argue that when the Quran's verses are read in context, it clearly appears that the Quran prohibits initial aggression, and allows fighting only in self-defense.


title: Islam and violence

text: Ahmadi Muslims believe that no verse of the Quran abrogates or cancels another verse. All Quranic verses have equal validity, in keeping with their emphasis on the "unsurpassable beauty and unquestionable validity of the Qur'ān". The harmonization of apparently incompatible rulings is resolved through their juridical deflation in Ahmadī "fiqh", so that a ruling (considered to have applicability only to the specific situation for which it was revealed), is effective not because it was revealed last, but because it is most suited to the situation at hand.


title: Islam and violence

text: Ahmadis are considered non-Muslims by the mainstream Muslims since they consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of Ahmadiyya, as the promised Mahdi and Messiah. In a number of Islamic countries, especially Sunni-dominated nations, Ahmadis have been considered heretics and non-Muslim, and have been subject to various forms of religious persecution, discrimination and systematic oppression since the movement's inception in 1889.


title: Islam and violence

text: The Islamic criminal law is criminal law in accordance with Sharia. Strictly speaking, Islamic law does not have a distinct corpus of "criminal law." It divides crimes into three different categories depending on the offense – "Hudud" (crimes "against God", whose punishment is fixed in the Quran and the Hadiths); "Qisas" (crimes against an individual or family whose punishment is equal retaliation in the Quran and the Hadiths); and "Tazir" (crimes whose punishment is not specified in the Quran and the Hadiths, and is left to the discretion of the ruler or Qadi, i.e. judge). Some add the fourth category of "Siyasah" (crimes against government), while others consider it as part of either Hadd or Tazir crimes.


title: Islam and violence

text: These punishments range from public lashing to publicly stoning to death, amputation of hands and crucifixion. However, in most Muslim nations in modern times public stoning and execution are relatively uncommon, although they are found in Muslim nations that follow a strict interpretation of "sharia", such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.


title: Islam and violence

text: Beheading was the normal method of capital punishment under classical Islamic law. It was also, together with hanging, one of the ordinary methods of execution in the Ottoman Empire.


title: Islam and violence

text: Currently, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which uses decapitation within its Islamic legal system. The majority of executions carried out by the Wahhabi government of Saudi Arabia are public beheadings, which usually cause mass gatherings but are not allowed to be photographed or filmed.


title: Islam and violence

text: Beheading is reported to have been carried out by state authorities in Iran as recently as 2001, but as of 2014 is no longer in use.


title: Islam and violence

text: It is also a legal form of execution in Qatar and Yemen, but the punishment has been suspended in those countries.


title: Islam and violence

text: In recent years, non-state Jihadist organizations such as the Islamic State and Tawhid and Jihad either carry out or have carried out beheadings. Since 2002, they have circulated beheading videos as a form of terror and propaganda. Their actions have been condemned by other militant and terrorist groups, and they have also been condemned by mainstream Islamic scholars and organizations.


title: Islam and violence

text: Rajm () is an Arabic word that means "stoning". It is commonly used to refer to the "Hudud" punishment wherein an organized group throws stones at a convicted individual until that person dies. Under Islamic law, it is the prescribed punishment in cases of adultery committed by a married man or married woman. The conviction requires a confession from either the adulterer/adulteress, or the testimony of four witnesses (as prescribed by the Quran in Surah an-Nur verse 4), or pregnancy outside of marriage.


title: Islam and violence

text: Blasphemy in Islam is impious utterance or action concerning God, Muhammad or anything considered sacred in Islam. The Quran admonishes blasphemy, but does not specify any worldly punishment for it. The hadiths, which are another source of Sharia, suggest various punishments for blasphemy, which may include death. There are a number of surah in Qur'an relating to blasphemy, from which Quranic verses 5:33 and 33:57–61 have been most commonly used in Islamic history to justify and punish blasphemers. Various fiqhs (schools of jurisprudence) of Islam have different punishment for blasphemy, depending on whether blasphemer is Muslim or non-Muslim, man or woman. The punishment can be fines, imprisonment, flogging, amputation, hanging, or beheading.


title: Islam and violence

text: According to Islamic sources Nadr ibn al-Harith, who was an Arab Pagan doctor from Taif, used to tell stories of Rustam and Esfandiyār to the Arabs and scoffed Muhammad. After the battle of Badr, al-Harith was captured and, in retaliation, Muhammad ordered his execution in hands of Ali.


title: Islam and violence

text: Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined as the conscious abandonment of Islam by a Muslim in word or through deed. A majority considers apostasy in Islam to be some form of religious crime, although a minority does not.


title: Islam and violence

text: The definition of apostasy from Islam and its appropriate punishment(s) are controversial, and they vary among Islamic scholars. Apostasy in Islam may include in its scope not only the renunciation of Islam by a Muslim and the joining of another religion or becoming non-religious, or questioning or denying any "fundamental tenet or creed" of Islam such as the divinity of God, prophethood of Muhammad, or mocking God, or worshipping one or more idols. The apostate (or murtadd مرتد) term has also been used for people of religions that trace their origins to Islam, such as those of the Baháʼí Faith founded in Iran, but who were never actually Muslims themselves. Apostasy in Islam does not include acts against Islam or conversion to another religion that is involuntary, due mental disorders, forced or done as concealment out of fear of persecution or during war (Taqiyya or Kitman).


title: Islam and violence

text: Historically, the majority of Islamic scholars considered apostasy a hudud crime as well as a sin, an act of treason punishable with the death penalty, and the Islamic law on apostasy and the punishment one of the immutable laws under Islam. The punishment for apostasy includes state enforced annulment of his or her marriage, seizure of the person's children and property with automatic assignment to guardians and heirs, and a death penalty for apostates, typically after a waiting period to allow the apostate time to repent and return to Islam. Female apostates could be either executed, according to Shafi'i, Maliki, and Hanbali schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), or imprisoned until she reverts to Islam as advocated by the Sunni Hanafi school and by Shi'a scholars. The kind of apostasy generally deemed to be punishable by the jurists was of the political kind, although there were considerable legal differences of opinion on this matter. There were early Islamic scholars who did not agree with the death penalty and prescribed indefinite imprisonment until repentance. The Hanafi jurist Sarakhsi also called for different punishments between the non-seditious religious apostasy and that of seditious and political nature, or high treason. Some modern scholars also argue that the death penalty is an inappropriate punishment, inconsistent with the Quranic injunctions such as Quran 88:21–22 or "no compulsion in religion"; and/or that it is not a general rule but enacted at a time when the early Muslim community faced enemies who threatened its unity, safety, and security, and needed to prevent and punish the equivalent of desertion or treason, and should be enforced only if apostasy becomes a mechanism of public disobedience and disorder ("fitna"). According to Khalid Abu El Fadl, moderate Muslims reject such penalty.


title: Islam and violence

text: To the Ahmadi Muslim sect, there is no punishment for apostasy, neither in the Qur'an nor as taught by the founder of Islam, Muhammad. This position of the Ahmadi sect is not widely accepted in other sects of Islam, and the Ahmadi sect acknowledges that major sects have a different interpretation and definition of apostasy in Islam. Ulama of major sects of Islam consider the Ahmadi Muslim sect as kafirs (infidels) and apostates.


title: Islam and violence

text: Under current laws in Islamic countries, the actual punishment for the apostate ranges from execution to prison term to no punishment. Islamic nations with sharia courts use civil code to void the Muslim apostate's marriage and deny child custody rights, as well as his or her inheritance rights for apostasy. Twenty-three Muslim-majority countries, as of 2013, additionally covered apostasy in Islam through their criminal laws. Today, apostasy is a crime in 23 out 49 Muslim majority countries; in many other Muslim nations such as Indonesia and Morocco, apostasy is indirectly covered by other laws. It is subject in some countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, to the death penalty, although executions for apostasy are rare. Apostasy is legal in secular Muslim countries such as Turkey. In numerous Islamic majority countries, many individuals have been arrested and punished for the crime of apostasy without any associated capital crimes. In a 2013 report based on an international survey of religious attitudes, more than 50% of the Muslim population in 6 Islamic countries supported the death penalty for any Muslim who leaves Islam (apostasy). A similar survey of the Muslim population in the United Kingdom, in 2007, found nearly a third of 16 to 24-year-old faithfuls believed that Muslims who convert to another religion should be executed, while less than a fifth of those over 55 believed the same.


title: Islam and violence

text: Zina is an Islamic law, both in the four schools of Sunni fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and the two schools of Shi'a fiqh, concerning unlawful sexual relations between Muslims who are not married to one another through a Nikah. It includes extramarital sex and premarital sex, such as adultery (consensual sexual relations outside marriage), fornication (consensual sexual intercourse between two unmarried persons), illegal sex by a slave girl, and homosexuality (consensual sexual relations between same-sex partners). Traditionally, a married or unmarried Muslim male could have sex outside marriage with a non-Muslim slave girl, with or without her consent, and such sex was not considered zina.


title: Islam and violence

text: According to Quran 24:4, the proof that adultery has occurred requires four eyewitnesses to the act, which must have been committed by a man and a woman not validly married to one another, and the act must have been wilfully committed by consenting adults. Proof can also be determined by a confession. But this confession must be voluntary, and based on legal counsel; it must be repeated on four separate occasions, and made by a person who is sane. Otherwise, the accuser is then accorded a sentence for defamation (which means flogging or a prison sentence), and his or her testimony is excluded in all future court cases. There is disagreement between Islamic scholars on whether female eyewitnesses are acceptable witnesses in cases of zina (for other crimes, sharia considers two female witnesses equal the witness of one male).


title: Islam and violence

text: Zina is a Hudud crime, stated in multiple sahih hadiths to deserve the stoning (Rajm) punishment. In others stoning is prescribed as punishment for illegal sex between man and woman, In some sunnah, the method of stoning, by first digging a pit and partly burying the person's lower half in it, is described. Based on these hadiths, in some Muslim countries, married adulterers are sentenced to death, while consensual sex between unmarried people is sentenced with flogging a 100 times. Adultery can be punished by up to one hundred lashes, though this is not binding in nature and the final decision will always be in the hands of a judge appointed by the state or community. However, no mention of stoning or capital punishment for adultery is found in the Quran and only mentioning lashing as punishment for adultery. Nevertheless, most scholars maintain that there is sufficient evidence from hadiths to derive a ruling.


title: Islam and violence

text: Sharia law makes a distinction between adultery and rape and applies different rules. In the case of rape, the adult male perpetrator (i.e. rapist) of such an act is to receive the ḥadd zinā, but the non-consenting or invalidly consenting female (i.e. rape victim), proved by four eyewitnesses, is to be regarded as innocent of zinā and relieved of the ḥadd punishment. Confession and four witness-based prosecutions of zina are rare. Most cases of prosecutions are when the woman becomes pregnant, or when she has been raped, seeks justice and the sharia authorities charge her for zina, instead of duly investigating the rapist. Some fiqhs (schools of Islamic jurisprudence) created the principle of "shubha" (doubt), wherein there would be no zina charges if a Muslim man claims he believed he was having sex with a woman he was married to or with a woman he owned as a slave.


title: Islam and violence

text: Zina only applies for unlawful sex between free Muslims; the rape of a non-Muslim slave woman is not zina as the act is considered an offense not against the raped slave woman, but against the owner of the slave.


title: Islam and violence

text: The zina and rape laws of countries under Sharia law are the subjects of a global human rights debate and one of many items of reform and secularization debate with respect to Islam. Contemporary human right activists refer this as a new phase in the politics of gender in Islam, the battle between forces of traditionalism and modernism in the Muslim world, and the use of religious texts of Islam through state laws to sanction and practice gender-based violence.


title: Islam and violence

text: In contrast to human rights activists, Islamic scholars and Islamist political parties consider 'universal human rights' arguments as imposition of a non-Muslim culture on Muslim people, a disrespect of customary cultural practices and sexual codes that are central to Islam. Zina laws come under hudud—seen as crime against Allah; the Islamists refer to this pressure and proposals to reform zina and other laws as 'contrary to Islam'. Attempts by international human rights to reform religious laws and codes of Islam has become the Islamist rallying platforms during political campaigns.


title: Islam and violence

text: The Quran contains seven references to fate of "the people of Lut", and their destruction is explicitly associated with their sexual practices:


title: Islam and violence

text: Given the fact that the Quran is allegedly vague regarding the punishment for homosexual sodomy, Islamic jurists turned to the collections of the hadith and the seerah (accounts of Muhammad's life) to support their argument for Hudud punishment. There were varying opinions on how the death penalty was to be carried out. Abu Bakr apparently recommended toppling a wall on the evil-doer, or else burning alive, while Ali ibn Abi Talib ordered death by stoning for one "luti" and had another thrown head-first from the top of a minaret—according to Ibn Abbas, this last punishment must be followed by stoning. With a few exceptions, all scholars of Sharia or Islamic law interpret homosexual activity as a punishable offence as well as a sin. There is no specific punishment prescribed, however, and this is usually left to the discretion of the local authorities on Islam. There are several methods by which sharia jurists have advocated the punishment of gays or lesbians who are sexually active. One form of execution involves an individual convicted of homosexual acts being stoned to death by a crowd of Muslims. Other Muslim jurists have established an ijma ruling which states that those persons who are committing homosexual acts should be thrown from rooftops or other high places, and this is the perspective of most Salafists.


title: Islam and violence

text: Today, homosexuality is not socially or legally accepted in most of the Islamic world. In Afghanistan, Brunei, Gaza Strip, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, homosexual acts carries the death penalty. In other Muslim-majority countries, such as Algeria, the Maldives, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia and Syria, it is illegal.


title: Islam and violence

text: Same-sex sexual intercourse is legal in 20 Muslim-majority nations (Albania, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Niger, Tajikistan, Turkey, the West Bank (State of Palestine), and most of Indonesia (except the provinces of Aceh and South Sumatra, where bylaws against LGBT rights have been passed), as well as Northern Cyprus). In Albania, Lebanon, and Turkey, there have been discussions about legalizing same-sex marriage. Homosexual relations between females are legal in Kuwait, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, but homosexual acts between males are illegal.


title: Islam and violence

text: Most Muslim-majority countries and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have opposed moves to advance LGBT rights at the United Nations, in the General Assembly and/or the UNHRC. In May 2016, a group of 51 Muslim states blocked 11 gay and transgender organizations from attending a high-level meeting on ending AIDS at the United Nations. However, Albania, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone have signed a UN Declaration supporting LGBT rights. Kosovo as well as the (not internationally recognized) Muslim-majority Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus also have anti-discrimination laws in place.


title: Islam and violence

text: On 12 June 2016, 49 people were killed and 53 other people were injured in a mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the second-deadliest mass shooting by an individual and the deadliest incident of violence against LGBT people in U.S. history. The shooter, Omar Mateen, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Investigators have classified the act as an Islamic terrorist attack and a hate crime, despite the fact that he was suffering from mental health issues and he acted alone. Upon further review, investigators indicated that Omar Mateen showed few signs of radicalization, suggesting that the shooter's pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State may have been a calculated move which he made in order to garner more news coverage for himself. Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates condemned the attack. Many American Muslims, including community leaders, swiftly condemned the attack. Prayer vigils for the victims were held at mosques across the country. The Florida mosque where Mateen sometimes prayed issued a statement in which it condemned the attack and offered its condolences to the victims. The Council on American–Islamic Relations called the attack "monstrous" and offered its condolences to the victims. CAIR Florida urged Muslims to donate blood and contribute funds in support of the victims' families.


title: Islam and violence

text: In Islam, while certain interpretations of Surah, An-Nisa, 34 in the Quran find that a husband hitting a wife is allowed., this has also been disputed.


title: Islam and violence

text: While some authors, such as Phyllis Chesler, argue that Islam is connected to violence against women, especially in the form of honor killings, others, such as Tahira Shahid Khan, a professor specializing in women's issues at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan, argue that it is the domination of men and inferior status of women in society that lead to these acts, not the religion itself. Public (such as through the media) and political discourse debating the relation between Islam, immigration, and violence against women is highly controversial in many Western countries.


title: Islam and violence

text: Many scholars claim Shari'a law encourages domestic violence against women, when a husband suspects "nushuz" (disobedience, disloyalty, rebellion, ill conduct) in his wife. Other scholars claim wife beating, for "nashizah", is not consistent with modern perspectives of Qur'an. Some conservative translations find that Muslim husbands are permitted to act what is known in Arabic as Idribuhunna with the use of "light force," and sometimes as much as to strike, hit, chastise, or beat.


title: Islam and violence

text: Other interpretations of the verse claim it does not support hitting a woman, but separating from her. Variations in interpretation are due to different schools of Islamic jurisprudence, histories and politics of religious institutions, conversions, reforms, and education.


title: Islam and violence

text: Although Islam permits women to divorce for domestic violence, they are subject to the laws of their nation which might make it quite difficult for a woman to obtain a divorce. In deference to Surah 4:34, many nations with Shari'a law have refused to consider or prosecute cases of domestic abuse.


title: Islam and violence

text: Islamic terrorism is, by definition, religiously-motivated terrorism which is engaged in by Muslim groups or individuals who profess Islamic, Islamic fundamentalist or Islamist motivations or goals. Islamic terrorists have relied on particular interpretations of the tenets of the Quran and the Hadith, citing these scriptures as justifications for their violent tactics, including mass murder, genocide, child-molestation and slavery. In recent decades, incidents of Islamic terrorism have occurred on a global scale, not only in Muslim-majority states in Africa and Asia, but also in Europe, Russia, and the United States, and these attacks have targeted Muslims as well as non-Muslims. In a number of the worst-affected Muslim-majority regions, these terrorists have been met by armed, independent resistance groups, state actors and their proxies, and politically liberal Muslim protesters.


title: Islam and violence

text: Different Muslim movements through history had linked pacifism with Muslim theology. However, warfare has been integral part of Islamic history both for the defense and the spread of the faith since the time of Muhammad.


title: Islam and violence

text: Peace is an important aspect of Islam, and Muslims are encouraged to strive for peace and find peaceful solutions to all problems. However, most Muslims are generally not pacifists, because the teachings in the Qur'an and the Hadith allow Muslims to wage wars if they can be justified. According to James Turner Johnson, there is no normative tradition of pacifism in Islam.


title: Islam and violence

text: Prior to the Hijra travel, Muhammad waged a non-violent struggle against his opponents in Mecca. It was not until after the exile that the Quranic revelations began to adopt a more violent perspective. Fighting in self-defense is not only legitimate but considered obligatory upon Muslims, according to the Qur'an. The Qur'an, however, says that should the enemy's hostile behavior cease, then the reason for engaging the enemy also lapses.


title: Islam and violence

text: Statistical academic studies have found that violent crime is less common among Muslim populations than it is among non-Muslim populations. The average homicide rate in the Muslim world was 2.4 per 100,000, less than a third of non-Muslim countries which had an average homicide rate of 7.5 per 100,000. The average homicide rate among the 19 most populous Muslim countries was 2.1 per 100,000, less than a fifth of the average homicide rate among the 19 most populous Christian countries which was 11.0 per 100,000, including 5.6 per 100,000 in the United States. A negative correlation was found between a country's homicide rate and its percentage of Muslims, in contrast to a positive correlation found between a country's homicide rate and its percentage of Christians. According to Professor Steven Fish: "The percentage of the society that is made up of Muslims is an extraordinarily good predictor of a country’s murder rate. More authoritarianism in Muslim countries does not account for the difference. I have found that controlling for political regime in statistical analysis does not change the findings. More Muslims, less homicide." At the same time, Fish states that: "In a recent book I reported that between 1994 and 2008, the world suffered 204 high-casualty terrorist bombings. Islamists were responsible for 125, or 61 percent of these incidents, which accounted for 70 percent of all deaths." Professor Jerome L. Neapolitan compared low crime rates in Islamic countries to low crime in Japan, comparing the role of Islam to that of Japan's Shinto and Buddhist traditions in fostering cultures emphasizing the importance of community and social obligation, contributing to less criminal behaviour than other nations.


title: Islam and violence

text: A statistical textual analysis of the Qur'an and Bible conducted by software engineer Tom Anderson in 2016, using the Odin Text analytics software, found that violence is less frequent in the Qur'an than in the Bible. According to Anderson: "Killing and destruction are referenced slightly more often in the New Testament (2.8%) than in the Quran (2.1%), but the Old Testament clearly leads—more than twice that of the Quran—in mentions of destruction and killing (5.3%). At the same time, Anderson states that: "I must also reemphasize that this analysis is superficial and the findings are by no means intended to be conclusive."


title: Islam and violence

text: Polls have found Muslim-Americans to report less violent views than any other religious group in America. 89% of Muslim-Americans claimed that the killing of civilians is never justified, compared to 71% of Catholics and Protestants, 75% of Jews, and 76% of atheists and non-religious groups. When Gallup asked if it is justifiable for the military to kill civilians, the percentage of people who said it is sometimes justifiable were 21% among Muslims, 58% among Protestants and Catholics, 52% among Jews, and 43% among atheists.


title: Islam and violence

text: According to 2006 data, Pew Research said that 46% of Nigerian Muslims, 29% of Jordan Muslims, 28% of Egyptian Muslims, 15% of British Muslims, and 8% of American Muslims thought suicide bombings are often or sometimes justified. The figure was unchanged – still 8% – for American Muslims by 2011. Pew in 2009 found that, among Muslims asked if suicide bombings against civilians was justifiable, 43% said it was justifiable in Nigeria, 38% in Lebanon, 15% in Egypt, 13% in Indonesia, 12% in Jordan, 7% among Arab Israelis, 5% in Pakistan, and 4% in Turkey. Pew Research in 2010 found that in Jordan, Lebanon, and Nigeria, roughly 50% of Muslims had favourable views of Hezbollah, and that Hamas also saw similar support.


title: Islam and violence

text: Counter-terrorism researchers suggests that support for suicide bombings is rooted in opposition to real or perceived foreign military occupation, rather than Islam, according to a Department of Defense-funded study by University of Chicago researcher Robert Pape. The Pew Research Center also found that support for the death penalty as punishment for "people who leave the Muslim religion" was 86% in Jordan, 84% in Egypt, 76% in Pakistan, 51% in Nigeria, 30% in Indonesia, 6% in Lebanon and 5% in Turkey. The different factors at play (e.g. sectarianism, poverty, etc.) and their relative impacts are not clarified.


title: Islam and violence

text: The Pew Research Center's 2013 poll showed that the majority of 14,244 Muslim, Christian and other respondents in 14 countries with substantial Muslim populations are concerned about Islamic extremism and hold negative views on known terrorist groups.


title: Islam and violence

text: Gallup poll collected extensive data in a project called "Who Speaks for Islam?". John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed present data relevant to Islamic views on peace, and more, in their book "Who Speaks for Islam?" The book reports Gallup poll data from random samples in over 35 countries using Gallup's various research techniques (e.g. pairing male and female interviewers, testing the questions beforehand, communicating with local leaders when approval is necessary, travelling by foot if that is the only way to reach a region, etc.)


title: Islam and violence

text: There was a great deal of data. It suggests, firstly, that individuals who dislike America and consider the September 11 attacks to be "perfectly justified" form a statistically distinct group, with much more extreme views. The authors call this 7% of Muslims "Politically Radicalized". They chose that title "because of their radical political orientation" and clarify "we are not saying that all in this group commit acts of violence. However, those with extremist views are a potential source for recruitment or support for terrorist groups." The data also indicates that poverty is not simply to blame for the comparatively radical views of this 7% of Muslims, who tend to be better educated than moderates.


title: Islam and violence

text: The authors say that, contrary to what the media may indicate, most Muslims believe that the September 11 attacks cannot actually be justified at all. The authors called this 55% of Muslims "Moderates". Included in that category were an additional 12% who said the attacks "almost" cannot be justified at all (thus 67% of Muslims were classified as Moderates). 26% of Muslims were neither moderates nor radicals, leaving the remaining 7% called "Politically Radicalized". Esposito and Mogahed explain that the labels should not be taken as being perfectly definitive. Because there may be individuals who would generally not be considered radical, although they believe the attacks were justified, or vice versa.


title: Islam and violence

text: Philip W. Sutton and Stephen Vertigans describe Western views on Islam as based on a stereotype of it as an inherently violent religion, characterizing it as a 'religion of the sword'. They characterize the image of Islam in the Western world as a religion which is "dominated by conflict, aggression, 'fundamentalism', and global-scale violent terrorism."


title: Islam and violence

text: Juan Eduardo Campo writes that, "Europeans (have) viewed Islam in various ways: sometimes as a backward, violent religion; sometimes as an Arabian Nights fantasy; and sometimes as a complex and changing product of history and social life." Robert Gleave writes that, "at the centre of popular conceptions of Islam as a violent religion are the punishments carried out by regimes hoping to bolster both their domestic and international Islamic credentials."


title: Islam and violence

text: The 9/11 attack on the US has led many non-Muslims to indict Islam as a violent religion. According to Corrigan and Hudson, "some conservative Christian leaders (have) complained that Islam (is) incompatible with what they believed to be a Christian America." Examples of evangelical Christians who have expressed such sentiments include Franklin Graham, an American Christian evangelist and missionary, and Pat Robertson, an American media mogul, an executive chairman, and a former Southern Baptist minister. According to a survey conducted by LifeWay Research, a research group affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, said that two out of three Protestant pastors believe that Islam is a "dangerous" religion. Ed Stetzer, President of LifeWay, said "It's important to note our survey asked whether pastors viewed Islam as 'dangerous,' but that does not necessarily mean 'violent." Dr. Johannes J.G. Jansen was an Arabist who wrote an essay titled "Religious Roots of Muslim Violence", in which he discusses all aspects of the issue at length and unequivocally concludes that Muslim violence is mostly based on Islamic religious commands.