This book presents and analyzes fatwas—rulings of Islamic law—issued by religious sages and clerics on issues of war and peace in regard to the actual or future possibility of conducting a peace agreement between Muslim states and Israel. The analysis highlights Islamic law’s adaptation to changing political realities to the modern model of international relations, the changing concept of jihad, and the current role of political fatwas. It deals with the shari‘a interpretations regarding war and peace in theory and practice; the Hudaybiyya Pact of 628 between the prophet Muhammad and the Quraysh infidels; Egyptian fatwas from 1947 to 1979 regarding peace with Israel; the 1995 debate between the late mufti of Saudi Arabia ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Baz and the popular Islamist scholar Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi over the Oslo Accords; the Hamas hudna concept; the debate between Saudi Arabian muftis and Hezbollah sages over Israel’s second war in Lebanon in 2006; and a comparative study of the agreements that were signed between the Algerian leader Abd al-Qadir and the French in the 1830s. The rulings of Islamic law cited in this book are likely to serve as a textual and intellectual basis for the public discourse on peace between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab states.

Product Description: Religion and religious nationalism have long played a central role in many ethnic and national conflicts, and the importance of religion to national identity means that territorial disputes can often focus on the contestation of holy places and sacred territory...read more

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