Peace Movements in Islam

Juan Cole (Anthology Editor)

Paperback, 224 pages

9780755643189

History, Religion, and Politics

Contrary to the distorted and in many places all-too prevalent view of Islam as somehow inherently or uniquely violent, there is a dazzling array of Muslim organisations and individuals that have worked for harmony and conciliation through history. The Qur'an itself, the Muslim scripture, is full of peace verses urging returning good for evil and wishing peace upon harassers, alongside the verses on just, defensive war that have so often been misinterpreted.

This groundbreaking volume fills a gaping hole in the literature on global peace movements, bringing to the fore the many peace movements and peacemakers of the Muslim world. From Senegalese Sufi orders to Bosnian women's organisations to Indian Muslim freedom fighters who were allies of Mahatma Gandhi against British colonialism, it shows that history is replete with colourful personalities from the Muslim world who made a stand for peaceful methods.

Contents

1. A. Rashied Omar: Between Compassion and Justice: Locating an Islamic Definition of Peace

2. Juan Cole: The Qur'an on doing Good to Enemies

3. Asma Afsaruddin: A Different Kind of Striving: Jihad as Peacemaking

4. Alexander D. Knysh: Internal Peace versus Being in Society: Sufi Dilemmas

5. Rudolph Ware: Principled Pacifism in Islamic West Africa

6. Elizabeth F. Thompson: Rashid Rida and the 1919 Paris Peace Conference

7. Mohammad Hassan Khalil: Righteous Others in the Writings of Rashid Rida

8. Sherman A. Jackson: Islam and Peace: A Muslim Fundamentalist Perspective