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Abstract
FootnoteWould it be permissible (halal) for Palestinian Muslims to sign a peace treaty with Israel? In the mid-1990s, with Oslo Accords in the background, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Bin Baz (1910–99), issued a fatwa affirming the permissibility and indeed desirability of such a treaty. In response, the ever-prominent Egyptian jurist Yusuf al-Qaradawi (1926–) issued a counter-fatwa in which he asserted that making peace with Israel would be impermissible (haram) and detrimental to the Palestinians. By the second round of this debate, the Bin Baz–Qaradawi dispute had captured the attention of the Arab and Muslim world. The present paper will examine each scholar's specific arguments and assessment of the facts on the ground. It will also situate this discourse in relation to classical and modern conceptions of jihad, including those advanced by contemporary scholars of Islam, particularly Sherman A. Jackson (in his article “Jihad and the Modern World”). It is argued that while Bin Baz might have been the peacemaker of the two in this particular case, his jihad doctrine – as presented in this very public scholarly debate – goes further in promoting a premodern, conquest-driven formulation of aggressive jihad and the Abode of Islam/Abode of War worldview that undergirds it. It is also maintained that Qaradawi's dismissal of the peace process was primarily the result of his particular reading of the facts on the ground; in fact, leaving aside the actual position of his fatwa, his theoretical framework could be utilized to some extent to support a robust jus ad bellum doctrine, one that accounts for modern institutions and developments.
*This paper is dedicated to Professor Sherman A. Jackson.
Notes
*This paper is dedicated to Professor Sherman A. Jackson.
1For earlier and later intra-Muslim debates on the legitimacy of signing peace treaties with Israel, see Yitzhak Reiter, War, Peace and International Relations in Islam: Muslim Scholars on Peace Accords with Israel (Sussex Academic Press, Eastbourne 2011). See also Sohail H. Hashmi's essay on the Sadat-era Egyptian debate, tentatively entitled, ‘A Complaint from God: Al-Azhar, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Debate on the Legitimacy of the Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty’ (forthcoming). I am grateful to Professor Hashmi for sharing with me an early draft of this essay.
2Sherman A Jackson, ‘Jihad and the Modern World’ (2002) 7/1 J Islamic Law Culture 1–26 (15).
3Fred Donner, ‘The Sources of Islamic Conceptions of War’ in James Turner Johnson and John Kelsay (eds), Just War and Jihad (Greenwood, Westport, CT 1991) 31–69.
4For further discussions of the history, nature, and limits of armed jihad in Islamic law, see, among many other works, Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2006); Sohail H Hashmi, ‘War’ in Jamal J Elias (ed), Key Themes for the Study of Islam (Oneworld, Oxford 2010) 336–55; and John Kelsay, Arguing the Just War in Islam (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 2007).
5Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi, Kitab al-ihkam fi tamyiz al-fatawa ‘an al-ahkam wa-tasarrufat al-qadi wa-l-imam, ed Abu'l Fattah Abu Ghudda (Maktabat al-Matbu‘at al-Islamiyya, Aleppo 1387/1967) 231, cited/trs in Jackson (n 2) 9.
6Many of Bin Baz's fatwas and works are posted online at <http://www.binbaz.org.sa> accessed 19 March 2012.
7Owing to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Qaradawi is now permitted to visit Egypt.
8Yusuf al-Qaradawi, The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam (al-Birr Foundation, London 1960).
9Although he contributes to various online sites, Qaradawi's official page is at <http://www.qaradawi.net> accessed 19 March 2012.
10 Al-Muslimun (Jeddah) 516 (21 Rajab 1415/24 December 1994).
11Reiter (n 1) 127–8.
12My translation of the Qur'an loosely follows MAS Abdel Haleem's The Qur'an: A New Translation (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2008).
13 Al-Muslimun (n 10). I am grateful to Deborah Margolis of Michigan State University and Michael Sayegh of Harvard University for their assistance in acquiring this and other documents cited here.
14 Al-Mujtama‘ (Kuwait City) 1133 (9 Sha‘ban 1415/10 January 1995).
15 Al-Mujtama‘ 1140 (29 Ramadan 1415/28 February 1995).
16 Al-Mujtama‘ 1141 (13 Shawwal 1415/14 March 1995).
17Bin Baz is often juxtaposed with Osama Bin Laden (1957–2011), who vehemently criticized Bin Baz for his stance on Israel. For Bin Laden's criticism of Bin Baz, see his statement on the “Betrayal of Palestine” (29 December 1994) in Osama Bin Laden, Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden, ed/intro Bruce Lawrence (Verso, London 2005) 3–14.
18Aside from Yusuf al-Qaradawi's Fiqh al-jihad (Maktabat Wahba, Cairo 2009), which I intend to discuss in a future study, see Sherman A Jackson's forthcoming essay on this work, tentatively entitled ‘Re-thinking Principles: Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Ayat al-Sayf’ in Ewan Stein and Elisabeth Kendall (eds), Rethinking Jihad (I.B. Tauris, London forthcoming 2013). I am grateful to Professor Jackson for sharing with me an early draft of this essay.
19If one considers Qaradawi's well-known and infamous fatwa permitting suicide attacks on Israeli civilians, then one might think of his jus in bello doctrine as being much more problematic. Nevertheless, even here one could think of this fatwa as having been derived – at least in part – from his particular assessment of the facts on the ground. According to Qaradawi, although civilians should generally not be harmed in theory, Israeli Jews forfeit their protected status because not only do they occupy Palestinian land, but also they are required to join the military. One of course might object that (1) many Israelis currently do not – and, in some cases, may never – serve in the military; and (2) Israeli newborns and toddlers could not justifiably be described as active “occupiers.” These are but a sample of obvious objections to Qaradawi's puzzling assessment.
20On this point, see Reiter (n 1) 124–7. See also Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Fatawa mu‘asira (3 vols, al-Maktab al-Islami, Beirut 2003) III, 198–9, where Qaradawi clarifies that the conflict with Zionism concerns justice and is not simply a religious war. I am grateful to Professor Mohammad Fadel for drawing my attention to this passage in Qaradawi's Fatawa. On Qaradawi's assessment of the salvific status of Jews and other non-Muslims, see Mohammad Hassan Khalil, Islam and the Fate of Others: The Salvation Question (Oxford University Press, New York, NY 2012) 131–2.
21This statement, which was posted on Qaradawi's official site <http://www.qaradawi.net>, is cited/trs in Reiter (n 1) 124.