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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 297.56242
EAN num: 9780674026391
ISBN number: 067402639X
Label: Harvard University Press
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: November 30, 2007
Publishing house: Harvard University Press
Sale Popularity Level: 122520
Studio: Harvard University Press
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Jihad, with its many terrifying associations, is a term widely used today, though its meaning is poorly grasped. Few people understand the circumstances requiring a jihad, or 'holy' war, or how Islamic militants justify their violent actions within the framework of the religious tradition of Islam. How Islam, with more than one billion followers, interprets jihad and establishes its precepts has become a critical issue for both the Muslim and the non-Muslim world.
John Kelsay's timely and important work focuses on jihad of the sword in Islamic thought, history, and culture. Making use of original sources, Kelsay delves into the tradition of shari'a--Islamic jurisprudence and reasoning--and shows how it defines jihad as the Islamic analogue of the Western 'just' war. He traces the arguments of thinkers over the centuries who have debated the legitimacy of war through appeals to shari'a reasoning. He brings us up to the present and demonstrates how contemporary Muslims across the political spectrum continue this quest for a realistic ethics of war within the Islamic tradition.
Arguing the Just War in Islam provides a systematic account of how Islam's central texts interpret jihad, guiding us through the historical precedents and Qur'anic sources upon which today's claims to doctrinal truth and legitimate authority are made. In illuminating the broad spectrum of Islam's moral considerations of the just war, Kelsay helps Muslims and non-Muslims alike make sense of the possibilities for future war and peace.
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John Kelsay has provided the best introduction I've found to the self-understanding and the social constructions of Islam and the way its consequent mindset has been used by both historical and contemporary extremists to justify jihad against its perceived enemies. He lays out with crystalline clarity the historical events and and resultant thought processes that have brought Islam to its place in today's world.
Professor Kelsay does not write entirely without bias but he keeps it well under control. One senses from time to time that he is trying quite hard to "stick to the facts" when there is much more that he could say were he willing to indulge his personal opinions.
The well-informed reader may not agree with all of Kelsay's conclusions about just war mentality in the contemporary Muslim world but one has to be impressed with the depth of his scholarship and the lucidity of his writing. Very highly recommended.
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