Daily Times

Muslims make up a majority of the population in 49 countries of the world. Some form of Sharia law is in force in some of these countries. Even in countries where Sharia law is not nominally in force it has had an influence on the development of laws comparable to that of Judaic law on Western legal tradition.

Terrorism and war crimes have been rampant in the Muslim world for quite some time now. Some of the countries that have never had Muslim majorities too have been affected by terrorist attacks by Muslims or those acting in support of their causes. From recent war crimes in Syria to the Saudi bombing of Yemen and from the civil war in Libya to the terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka various interpretations of Islamic legal philosophy have had a profound influence on the actions of governments as well as non-state armed groups.

International humanitarian law is referred to in Islamic legal philosophy as the al-qan?n al-dawl? al-ins?n? f? al-Isl?m . There is a general consensus that Islamic international law is in line with the development of modern international humanitarian law. One consequence of this is that all the Muslim majority countries are signatories to the Geneva conventions, which contain most of the codified international humanitarian law.

A major reason why conflicts in the Muslim world, particularly, and Islamist terrorism, generally, have resulted in unrestrained violence and breaches of international humanitarian law is that the Islamic international law has sometimes been interpreted wrongly to justify certain actions by various armed groups.

Teaching Islamic international law to Muslim armies and armed groups is an important responsibility of the Muslim states. In this context, academics and scholars of Islamic law have an important role

Fortunately, some scholarly organizations have maintained strict discipline in highlighting the authentic interpretation of Islamic international law and not allowed their work to be affected by temporal considerations.

The decision by the government of Pakistan recently to hand over captured an Indian fighter pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, to Indian authorities is one example of conduct influenced by an interpretation of Islamic international law. An indiscriminate bombardment of Yemen by Saudi forces that has killed and injured many civilians is another example of conduct associated with a certain interpretation of the law.

The point is that Islamic law has been interpreted in various ways and governments and armed groups have at times considered themselves at liberty to pick an interpretation that seemed to suit their intrests in a particular situation. They have thus been justifying their actions, including war crimes and terrorism by invoking interpretations that depart from the letter and spirit of the Islamic law. Others have invoked the same law to reject all forms of disproportionate political violence.

Islamic law forbids killing or endangering non-combatants in a war. It also calls for treating combatants with utmost dignity. It does not allow the destruction of livestock or property except in the interest of saving lives. Under Islamic law, warfare can be directed only against those who engage in combat. Women, elderly, children and scholars are immune even during hostilities.

The law also bans hurting the usafa (medical practitioners and reporters). Muslim armies cannot use indiscriminate weapons against civilian populations. In early days of Islam this consisted of a ban on shooting arrows in their direction. In the current age, bombing of civilians by aircraft and suicide bombings are illegal by the same token. Islamic law does not allow use of human shields.

The property of the Muslims as well as the enemy has to be safeguarded to the extent possible. Destruction of property is allowed only when it can result in saving lives.

Enemy soldiers taken prisoner cannot be tortured in custody or mutilated. Bodies of deceaed enemy soldiers have to be buried or handed to the enemy forces at the end of the conflict. Prisoners of war have to be handed over to the enemy either unilaterally or exchanged for captured Muslim soldiers.

Teaching Islamic international law to Muslim armies and armed groups is an important responsibility of the Muslim states. In this context, academics and scholars of Islamic law have an important role. While there may be some resitance to such efforts by vested interests it is clear that there is an intrinsic appeal in the Muslim world to following the dictates and injunctions of Islam.

While such efforts might not result in ending all fighting in the world, humanitarian provisions of Islam may at least bring down the scale of violence. This could have a profound effect on conflicts in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Syria.

The writer is a freelancer