Source: The Daily Beast
By Qasim Rashid
Palestinian men gather around a crater caused by an Israeli air strike on the al-Dallu family’s home in Gaza City on November 18, 2012. (Marco Longari / AFP / Getty Images)
As the volatility between Israel and Gaza continues to transform, one constant remains: rising “collateral damage.” Unrest in Israel traces back six decades but the concept of collateral damage stretches back several millennia. And while in modern times we are allegedly “more civilized,” 11-month-old Omar Masharawi’s funeral, three dead Israelis, and a horrifying 120 killed Palestinians, tell a different story.
Prophet Muhammad is history’s first major figure to condemn collateral damage in word and deed. His advanced rules of war established 1400 years ago a yet unmatched humanitarian standard. And herein lies the solution to modern conflict. The Qur’an first describes when fighting is permitted:
Permission to fight is given to those against whom war is made, because they have been wronged… Those who have been driven out from their homes unjustly only because they said, ‘Our Lord is God’ — And if God did not repel some men by means of others, there would surely have been pulled down temples and churches and synagogues and mosques… (22:40-41).
Thus, the permission—not commandment—to fight is defensive. And that fighting protects temples, churches, synagogues, and mosques—which is to say, universal religious freedom.
…
A ransom of education—an example Hamas and PIJ have forgotten, and one Israel doesn’t know.
History demonstrates that Muhammad’s rules of war—when applied with justice—lead to peace. If applied today, Muhammad’s rules can end not only collateral damage, but war itself.
Read the whole of the article.
Categories: Asia
and the fighters in Syria should study this article also. Many are ‘Islamists’ and ‘Jihadis’. How can they ignore the noble Prophet’s (peace be on him) rules of war?