Christians, Jews and Muslims agree on warfare morality

Despite all the current talk, many Muslims say the Arabic word "jihad" doesn't mean "holy war" but simply "struggle" and refers to all efforts for personal righteousness or social justice. War-making is only a minor aspect.

A war edict from one low-ranking cleric (Osama bin Laden) or a single regime (Afghanistan's Taliban) is a far different matter from the considered consensus among Islam's recognized authorities. That's equally true when novel ideas are proposed among some Jews or Christians.

But obviously there's a growing Muslim populist movement that advocates indiscriminate use of terror against civilians to achieve political aims. Sept. 11 moved this into anomic anarchy lacking any announced demands or justifications.

Experts say this phenomenon poses a serious challenge against classical Islam, spurning the teaching on military morality from the founding Prophet Muhammad and his immediate successors, the Rightly Guided Caliphs.

No talk of holy war

Like the Quran, Islam's holy book, the Bible doesn't speak of "holy war." But that's obviously how the biblical writers viewed the Israelite campaign to establish a God-given realm in the Holy Land and then defend it against hostile forces. However, the Bible says God also chastised Israel through enemy armies.

Surprisingly, in light of today's Mideast dispute, the Quran and Bible agree that the Israelite presence in the Holy Land was God's doing.

In the Quran's account, Moses instructs the Israelites, "Call in remembrance the favor of Allah unto you, when he produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave you what he has not given to any other among the peoples. O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you" (5:20-21).

In another Quran passage God commands the children of Israel to "dwell securely in the land (of promise)" (17:104).

There's wide agreement between Islam and Christianity's concept of "just war" as formulated by the great North African bishop St. Augustine and later refined by Thomas Aquinas. Judaism has produced similar thinking.

The basics: War must be a last resort after peaceful negotiations collapse, have proper intent to defend the realm and righteousness, be directed by lawful authority, and waged so innocent people are protected and evil results don't outweigh the desired benefits.

Many churches are underscoring the latter points as the United States responds to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Strict pacifists

"The Geneva Convention and similar documents did not add much in terms of war conduct to what the Prophet taught nearly 14 centuries ago," remarks Professor Jamal Badawi of Halifax, Nova Scotia, chairman of the Islamic Information Foundation.

Islam's first caliph, Abu Bakr, famously instructed his army never to kill children, women, the aged or the clergy. By extension, the Muslim tradition has interpreted that to protect all noncombatant civilians. Abu Bakr even forbade his troops to destroy the enemy's plants and animals.

Muslim history has included successful military campaigns to expand the "dar al-Islam" ("territory of Islam") by reaching into the "dar al-harb ("territory of war," referring to non-Muslim regions).

Muslims quickly point out that Christians did the same thing during their medieval Crusades to repel Muslim advances in the Mideast. The Crusaders' atrocities greatly embarrass modern-day Christians, and President Bush infuriated Muslims with offhand use of the word "crusade."

Despite the warfare in the Old Testament, many early Christians were strict pacifists, citing Jesus' "love your enemy" teaching. They also shunned soldiering because it required fealty to Rome's pagan emperors.

But once Christians became responsible for government law and order, the faith generally accepted military activity if it was properly conducted. In the majority view, Jesus' admonition applied to relationships between individuals, not nations.

After all, neither Jesus (Matthew 8:5-10) nor John the Baptist (Luke 3:14) nor Paul (Acts 10) told Roman soldiers to quit their occupation.

For more on the Muslim tradition, read "Islam and War" by John Kelsay of Florida State University.