The Role of Islamic Law in the Contemporary World Order

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45 of 48 DOCUMENTS

Copyright (c) 2001 Islam in America Conference DePaul University

The Journal of Islamic Law and Culture

Fall / Winter, 2001

6 J. Islamic L. & Culture 157

LENGTH: 4630 words

ARTICLE: The Role of Islamic Law in the Contemporary World Order

NAME: By Ali Ahmad *

BIO:

* Dr. Ali Ahmad is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria and a Visiting

Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute, Washington, D.C., 2000-2001.

LEXISNEXIS SUMMARY:

... As one of the major legal systems of the world, Islamic law plays a role in regulating the internal and external

affairs of a number of Muslim societies. ... At the minimum, a regime that drew its legitimacy and popular support from

Islam would lose some of its support if it refused to yield to the Islamic law principle of sanctity of envoys. ...Addressing international terrorism, which is one carried out across national boundaries of the perpetrators or directed

against nationals or instrumentalities of a foreign state, is a business of international law. ... During the period of Ibn

Taymiyyah in the 14th century AD, armed jihad reverted to a defensive mechanism to be used whenever there is a threat

of war to the Islamic territory. ... Moreover, their claim of loyalty to Islam would have been discredited if they succeed

in carrying out any terrorist activity, and they would be unable to recruit people or attract funds or sympathy based on

Islam. ... Therefore, American Muslims, who combine Islam's rich intellectual pluralism with American democratic

ideals, strengthened by their wealth and freedom from disabling and distorting local traditions, stand the best chance

among the communities of Muslims in this era to take up the challenge of restoring Islam's tradition of intellectual

discourse for addressing numerous problems that confront Muslims the world over. ...

TEXT:

[*157] As one of the major legal systems of the world, Islamic law plays a role in regulating the internal and externalaffairs of a number of Muslim societies. n1 The objective here is to examine briefly its potential in mediating

international tensions involving Muslim countries and its role in international consensus building and lawmaking

forums. I argue that for the international community in general, and the United States in particular, to achieve and

maintain long-term success in their missions with the Muslim world, it is imperative to engage Islamic law principles

rather than the current embrace of unrepresentative Muslim governments.

Despite the centrality of Islamic law in the private and collective lives of Muslims, it is noteworthy that

membership of the United Nations by all Muslim nations is an indication that Muslims have reconciled their theory of

Page 1



international law, known as siyar , with the U.N. system. However, coming at the heels of the World War II, the

preoccupation of the U.N. Charter is to maintain global peace and security, friendly relationship and, perhaps due to the

failure of the League of Nations, discount close cooperation among all states. n2 The U.N. system has succeeded in

stemming the tide of systemic armed [*158] conflict among states, although its experiment in addressing non-state

systemic threats, such as those posed by issues like the environment and international terrorism, has not been as

successful.

Even as they have joined the U.N. system, Muslim States by their conduct clearly indicate that Islamic international

law principles not related to peace and security as contained in the U.N. Charter are still valid and are being applied. n3

Many reasons exist, including the Islamic principle of sanctity of treaties, for the proposition that provisions of the U.N.

Charter prevail in case of a conflict with any other principle of Islamic international law. However, there is no

noticeable conflict in much of the issues addressed by the U.N. Charter or other treaties formed under its aegis. As I will

elaborate shortly, the relevant issues that come to mind in this regard are Islam's concept of armed jihad and the U.N.'s

principles of collective intervention and self-defense. n4 If there is any conflict or divergence, it is not due to the U.N.

Charter.

According to Islam's vision of a world that consists of friendly or non-threatening nations, the interstate relationship

is to be based on a standard of fairness and justice that is universal and not limited by state boundaries. Under Islam,determinants of states' actions impacting people outside their territories are not materially distinct from factors that

inform their decisions regarding their citizens. n5 This is because Islam envisions a more powerful human association

than the current system based on its assertion that differences in human societies do not transcend the need for fairness

among all creatures of Allah. n6 Islam teaches that a single moral order can traverse the [*159] universe and inform

all states' decisions. Thus, the standard of fairness under Islamic international legal theory belongs to the same moral

order in both the domestic and international legal structures. n7 The Charter of the Organization of Islamic Conference

(O.I.C.) tacitly adopts this principle. n8

The current international system thrives on political realism or the philosophy of limiting moral discourse within a

particular boundary and denying it a proper place in international relations, and the only moral question in international

law is states' consent. n9 Consequently, the current international system is consent based, even as many states are not in

a position to effectively give or withhold their consent on many international issues, leaving their population in despair

and distrust of the system. Ironically, a few resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly also assume a universal

standard of fairness in the international system, and the International Court of Justice has [*160] suggested a basis for

such standard. n10 Ultimately, the divergence on this issue between both systems is superficial.

Even as there is little irreconcilable difference between the U.N. and Islamic law systems, one has noticed lack of

engagement of the latter in resolving international issues in places and matters that are most appropriate. For instance,

engagement of Islamic law as part of the negotiation tool during the American hostage crisis in Iran would have yielded

a different result. At the minimum, a regime that drew its legitimacy and popular support from Islam would lose some

of its support if it refused to yield to the Islamic law principle of sanctity of envoys. n11 Under Islamic law, envoys are

accorded full protection of the law, and reference to Islam's notion of diplomatic immunity would have persuaded the

Iranian government to shift grounds. Professor Christopher G. Weeramantry, a former judge of the Internal Court of

Justice and a scholar of Islamic law, drew the attention of the United States authorities to the potential role of Islamic

law in resolving the issue; but he was disappointed, due to what he later referred to as lack of understanding or lack of expertise by the task force that handled the matter. n12

Because the international community has not availed itself of the use of Islamic law principles, various elements

have filled the void and have been successful in abusing Islam, given the impacts of their negative actions on the

international system. For instance, international terrorists have used to their advantage, Islam's intellectual tradition in

order to declare war on the U.S. and have used [*161] the U.S. commitment to freedom to carry out the decree. A

review of Islam's history shows that it was built on and developed by a tradition of sophisticated intellectual enterprise.

n13 Islamic law is the epitome of the Islamic thought and its early princes, the jurists, possessed tremendous respect and

Page 26 J. Islamic L. & Culture 157, *157



influence. n14 The cynosure of Islam's authority is the Qur'an and the traditions of Prophet Muhammad, and Muslims

hold fast primarily to both. As in Judaism, there is no hierarchy in Islam to hand down doctrines, and every Muslim is

free to chose from several renditions of the law by the jurists, whose erudition determines their reputation and

adherents. Public opinion on a new doctrine is carried by the power of learning of a particular jurist. Over the years

however, this tradition of scholastic pluralism has been undermined and replaced either by autocratic authorities that

stifle this intellectual freedom in order to suppress other authoritative views, or by intolerant extremists that abuse the

freedom. Recent events have shown how a few individuals can assail Islam's tradition of independent learning and

intellectual freedom to issue spurious decrees of hate and violence.

Islamic law, whose validity is not dependent on its enforcement, plays an important role in the lives of Muslims

wherever they are and the extent of its personal application seems to be a personal choice of every ordinary Muslim.

n15 Many Muslims look up to Islamic law in their quest to find a way of dealing with the alluring influence of Western

culture. Moreover, the skewed structure of international economic and monetary policies and the entitlement to world

resources have given Muslims more reasons to look up to provisions of Islamic law for a response. One must recognize

that there are anti-American sentiments and a great distrust of the U.S. government in [*162] much of the Muslim

world as well as the Third World countries. n16 As the only non-liberal tradition of political consequence, Islamic law

provides an alternative means for Muslims to evaluate and critique the dominant system of international law and other

non-Muslim influences. However, even righteous displeasure with U.S. policies cannot justify resort to internationalterrorism in Islam. It is inconceivable that the role of Islamic law will be transformed and equated with denouncing all

things American.

Addressing international terrorism, which is one carried out across national boundaries of the perpetrators or

directed against nationals or instrumentalities of a foreign state, is a business of international law. n17 It is a dynamic

phenomenon but the response of the international legal system has predictably been on an ad hoc basis, treating each

terrorist event or episode as it arose. n18 It can hardly be [*163] otherwise under the traditional legal structure that

hitherto pays superficial attention to issues that demand comprehensiveness--including fairness factors. The

unprecedented terrorist events of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington, DC promise to change the

traditional ad hoc and episode-based legal response to international terrorism to a more comprehensive one. n19

Historically, the Muslim world shares an unsavory connection with the scourge of international terrorism, and the

role of Islamic law in the search for a long-term international consensus is evident.

Interestingly, shaping international law rules against terrorism has been carried out without addressing the web of

Islam dubiously woven around it. The two concepts of Islamic law relevant in a discussion of international terrorism are

jihad and suicide. Although Islamic law sources are often open to wide interpretations consistent with a certain method

of legal reasoning, terrorists have employed subjective interpretative method to confer legitimacy to their cause. If they

have been challenged at all, it has not been squarely on the basis of Islamic law principles. Lack of Islamic law analysis

of terrorism by states [*164] either unilaterally or collectively has ascribed a postmodern definition of jihad to be war

against the United States, both its civilian and military interests. n20

Reducing and limiting the Qur'anic employment of the term "jihad", which literally connotes exertion of one's self

for a lofty purpose, n21 to warfare (to which the Qur'an definitively uses qital n22) renders meaningless a number of

Qur'anic verses. n23 In its widest and ordinary usage, jihad connotes striving to fight oppression without becomingoppressive. Jihad as warfare, which I refer to as armed jihad, is but a small portion of the wider concept of personal

exertion toward achieving lofty goals. Historically, armed jihad was initially deployed defensively, then it was waged

offensively to strategically secure the budding Islamic territory in order to gain and maintain power in a hostile region.

During the period of Ibn Taymiyyah in the 14th century AD, armed jihad reverted to a defensive mechanism to be

[*165] used whenever there is a threat of war to the Islamic territory. n24 However, membership of Muslim States

with in the U.N. decisively makes armed jihad a defensive mechanism. But even if the position is taken of an offensive

armed jihad, only a political authority governing a territory can make such declaration. Moreover, an armed jihad must

not involve unleashing environmental damage, such as damage to trees, animals, and water, not to talk of




noncombatants, and religious individuals and organizations such as people in monasteries, churches and synagogues.

n25

Involvement in a valid armed jihad is not suicidal, because there is a probability that some members of the military

will survive. International terrorists are increasingly employing suicide as a mode of carrying out their operations. If

armed jihad is permitted under certain conditions in Islam, suicide is completely outlawed. n26 Islam views life as a

trust property to the individual, who does not own that life and so cannot determine whether to continue with it or

terminate it at will. Islam's sanction for suicide is that it is a religious sin and [*166] that for rejecting Allah's award,

one will be denied salvation in the Hereafter, the main incentive for being a Muslim in the first place.

Challenging declarants of armed jihad on the basis of Islamic law would have exposed their incompetence, not

having a reputation of being jurists, or controlling a discrete political territory. By such a challenge, the stage would

have been set for an intellectual warfare in the Islamic tradition and which terrorists cannot win. Moreover, their claim

of loyalty to Islam would have been discredited if they succeed in carrying out any terrorist activity, and they would be

unable to recruit people or attract funds or sympathy based on Islam. An honest commitment to engaging Islamic law in

dealing with Muslims, rather than an aim of causing disaffection, is very promising and deserves critical evaluation.

One will have no difficulty agreeing with a commentator when he states: "The invocation of Islamic law would

constitute a powerful tool in the delegitimization of the Islamic framework within which Muslim terrorists operate andraise funds. The invocation of Islamic law would be of considerable help in the areas of extradition, prosecution and

punishment of Muslim terrorists. However, its most immediate effect would be to peel the label of 'Muslim' off the

perpetrators of this new type of war which goes on under the name of Islam." n27

Therefore, the right issue to raise in discussing the potential role of Islamic law in combating international

terrorism, primarily against the U.S., is to ask what constraints there are militating against its engagement in framing

U.S. policies toward Muslim countries? There are many advantages for considering this issue. The first is that policies

that take cognizance of Islamic law principles will possess determinacy and permanence in the U.S. relationship with

Muslim States as well as confer legitimacy on the relationship in the Muslim world in the long term. It will then be hard

for revolutionaries or extremists to upstage such a relationship even when they gain power. The pre

"September-eleventh" binary U.S. relation with Islam is erroneous. Islam is seen as belonging either to conservatism,

represented by governments in the Middle East, or radicalism, represented by dissidents or terrorists. There is a

tendency to believe [*167] that politicians have exploited to their advantage the general misconception of Islam by the

American people and the misconception of Americans by Muslims. n28

Thus, U.S. foreign policy toward Muslim countries, and by extension development of international law, will be

enriched and becomes more astute if it confers with scholars of Islamic law who are apologetic neither to those in power

nor to those committed to seizing power in Muslims countries by preaching violence. n29 It is beyond doubt that there

is a strand of Islam that comports with democracy and participation, transparency, human rights, freedom, and

pluralism. n30 Because conservatives in government are able to impede freedom at the behest of the U.S. and the

extremists are in the [*168] minority in the Muslim world, there is no long-term destabilization in foresight.

In addition to encouraging authorities in the Middle East to rethink their commitment to effective governance, an

Islamic-law based policy will help shape the structure of governance and will stabilize various countries in Africa and

Asia where Muslims are trying to assert or rediscover their Islamic identity and where extremists, whose rhetoric of establishing an "Islamic State" is not accompanied by a sound articulation of that concept in a globalized world, may

take advantage of this sentiment.

Aside of terrorism, another crucial area where involvement of Islamic law will be fruitful is in the protection of the

global environment, where humans have collectively unleashed horror on other living organisms. Collaborating with

some N.G.O.'s and the World Bank, certain Muslim communities in Tanzania and, lately, Indonesia, have looked

inward to Islamic environmentalism in assisting the local people in the management of their sensitive environments.

n31 Other than in few instances, the international consensus on the environment has not been satisfactorily implemented




in many Muslim countries, despite a robust conservation and environmental regime of Islam. The condition of the

environment of Muslim countries do not fare any better than other developing countries. Islamic law, which enjoins

moderation in use and consumption of resources even in the midst of plenty, can be properly deployed to address the

upsurge in uncontrollable consumerism in Muslim countries. n32 Embrace of Islamic law's provisions of

environmentalism by over a billion Muslims in the world will advance [*169] the effort of the international

community in achieving sustainable use of resources for a permanent well being of the global environment. n33

As indicated above, a profligate lifestyle of consumption of resources, even where one is affordable, is contrary to

Islam's environmentalism and that is an appropriate battlefield for Muslims to declare jihad. n34 Protection of the

global environment is an appropriate field for jihad and self-exertion in order to lead the way on how to halt the endless

war on defenseless non-human life forms of the earth and preclude their third-worldly claim to exemption from global

environmental commitments.

Already there has been a noticeable shift in both the process and content of U.S. foreign policies at the wake of the

September-eleventh events just as there is an unprecedented coalition of states and other responses at the U.N. n35 The

world has literally shifted even as we are [*170] yet to grasp the extent of this shift. n36 We have also noticed the

subsequent critical inquiry about provisions of Islamic law on all issues raised by the catastrophic events, instead of

being content with stereotypes. Yet, the proposition here is that to achieve a permanent platform for effective resolutionof issues of international concern with Muslim states, Islamic law, rather than parochial views of conservative

governments or violent responses of extremists, must remain a permanent factor.

Domestically, the U.S. should have further incentive for engagement of Islamic law. A sizable number of its

population is Muslim. Some of the Muslims are African Americans who are not latter day immigrants and who have

been indigenous to the country since the ante bellum America when they were denied their religious freedom. n37

Hence, Islam is part of, and not foreign to, America. But even as there is yet to be an acceptance of Muslims of any

persuasion as part of mainstream America, the country has come of age and barriers are breaking down. Therefore,

American Muslims, who combine Islam's rich intellectual pluralism with American democratic ideals, strengthened by

their wealth and freedom from disabling and distorting local traditions, stand the best chance among the communities of

Muslims in this era to take up the challenge of restoring Islam's tradition of intellectual discourse for addressing

numerous problems that confront Muslims the world over.

Another dimension of the September eleventh event is that the internal struggle for Islam between the conservatives

and the radicals [*171] has heightened, and the task before everyone (and perhaps a reconstituted O.I.C. Islamic Fiqh

Academy, or any other legitimate body) is to articulate how Muslims will embrace real democratization and at the same

time limit secularization to preserve ethical and spiritual values.

Islamic law, especially the aspect that applies to public life, has challenges of modernity to confront, having been in

abeyance for some time. International terrorism, which is clearly un-Islamic, or extremism, which does not represent

Islam's intellectual pluralism, are settled matters and should not be part of this challenge. Externally, involving Islamic

law in addressing international terrorism and management of the global environment is an indication of how it may

assist in addressing, on a long-term basis, wider issues of international concern.

Legal Topics:

For related research and practice materials, see the following legal topics:

Criminal Law & ProcedureCriminal OffensesCrimes Against PersonsTerrorismGeneral OverviewInternational

LawDispute ResolutionLaws of WarInternational LawSovereign States & IndividualsHuman RightsTerrorism

FOOTNOTES:




n1 See generally, FRANK E. VOGEL, ISLAMIC LAW AND LEGAL SYSTEMS: STUDIES OF SAUDI

ARABIA (2000), and NIZAR O. MADANI, THE ISLAMIC CONTENT OF THE FOREIGN POLICY OF

SAUDI ARABIA: KING FAISAL'S CALL FOR ISLAMIC SOLIDARITY 1965-1971 (unpublished Pd. D.

thesis, American University, Washington, D.C. (1977)).

n2 U.N. Charter art. 1(1).

n3 Islamic law consideration is still one of the important factors that drive foreign policy objectives of a

number of Muslims States. SHIREEN T. HUNTER, THE FUTURE OF ISLAM AND THE WEST: CLASH OF

CIVILIZATIONS OR PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE? 148 (1998).

n4 U.N. Charter art. 51.

n5 The monist normative approach to both domestic and international law derives from the injunction: "O

you who believe! Stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to youmake you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to Piety." Qur'an 5:9.

n6 "O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and

tribes, that you may know each other (not that you may despise each other)." Qur'an 49:13. "And if your Lord

had willed, He verily would have made mankind one nation yet they cease not differing." Qur'an 7:118. Because

of its moral content, the law seeks to and does bind the state and the individual.

n7 MUHAMMAD T. GHUNAYMI, THE MUSLIM CONCEPTION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND

THE WESTERN APPROACH, 91 (1968).

n8 Members of the O.I.C. are required to take "necessary measures to support international peace andsecurity founded on justice", instead of on "justice and international law" as contained in the U.N. Charter art. 1.

See Charter of the O.I.C., art. II(A)4, 914 U.N.T.S. 111-116 (1974).

n9 Since states are considered to be sovereigns, the only manner they can be bound is through their consent,

actual or assumed. Anthony D'Amato, What Counts as Law?, in LAWMAKING IN THE GLOBAL

COMMUNITY, 83, 99 (Nicholas G. Onuf ed., 1982).

n10 The call for a New International Economic Order was based on the assumption of a universal standard

of fairness. See e.g. Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order UNGA Res. 3201

(S-VI), 6 (Special) U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 1) at 3, U.N. Doc.A/9556 (1974); and Program of Action on the

Establishment of a New International Economic Order, UNGA Res. 3202 (S-VI), 6 (Special) U.N. GAOR Supp.(No. 1) at 5, U.N. Doc.A/9556 (1974). The ICJ suggests that "elementary consideration of humanity" could form

the basis of an international moral standard. Corfu Channel Case (U.K. v. Albania), I.C.J. 4, 22 (1949).

n11 See M.C. Bassiouni, protection of Diplomats Under Islamic Law, 74 AM. J. INT'L. L. 74 (1980).

n12 CHRISTOPHER G. WEERAMANTRY, ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE: AN INTERNATIONAL




Destroy World Trade Center, Hit Pentagon; Hundreds Dead Bush Promises Retribution; Military Put on

Highest Alert , WASH. POST Sept. 12, 2001, at A01.

n20 "The ruling to kill Americans and their allies--civilians and military--is an individual duty for every

Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it". From Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders,February 23, 1998. See http://www.washingtonpost/wp-srv/world/binladen Visited October 13, 2001.

n21 GHUNAYMI, supra note 7, at 164; MAJID KHADDURI, (trans.), Introduction, in ISLAMIC LAW

OF NATIONS: SHAYBANI'S SIYAR, 15(1966).

n22 Even in self-defense, Muslims were initially forbidden from fighting; the first verse permitting fighting

(in self-defense) uses the derivative word in Arabic Q.T.L., meaning combat and warfare rather than the

all-inclusive J.H.D.: "To those against whom war is made, permission is given (to fight), because they are

wronged Qur'an 22: 39. Several other verses where armed struggle alone is intended employ the same term. For

instance, "Fight in the cause of God those who fight you, but do not transgress limits, for God loveth not

transgressors." Id. 2: 190; "and fight the Pagans all together as they fight you all together". Id. 9:36. See furtherid. 2:191, 2:195, 2:246, 3:13, 3:195, 4:74-5, 4:89, 4:91, 9:5, 9:111, 63:4.

n23 For example, no one can impute warfare to the employment of the word "jihad" (strive) in the following

verse without rendering it meaningless: "We have enjoined on man kindness to parents: but if they (either of

them) strive (to force) thee to join with Me (in worship) anything of which thou has no knowledge, obey them

not." Qur'an 29:8 (emphasis added). See also id. 31:15.

n24 KHADDURI, supra note 21, at 59. Combating assimilative colonialism, such as one fought by the

Algerians against French occupation, or the Afghans against the Soviet Union, could qualify for a valid armed

jihad.

n25 During armed jihad Muslims are not permitted to commit transgression, and they are specifically not

allowed to kill animals or destroy trees. Reflecting the practice of the Prophet, Abu Bakr gave the famous order

to Yazid ibn Sufyan, the commander of an army that went to Sham or Great Syria: "And I instruct you [to fulfill

the following] ten [orders]: do not kill a woman, nor a child, nor an old man; do not cut down fruitful trees; do

not destroy [land or housing] in use; do not kill a goat or a camel unless for food; do not flood palm trees [with

water] nor burn them down . . ." MALIK IBN ANAS, MUWATTA' 918 (Abdel-Magid Turki ed. and trans.,

1994).

n26 "Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves: for verily God hath been to you most Merciful! If any do that in

rancour and injustice,--soon shall we cast them into fire: and easy it is for God." Qur'an 4:29-30. The Prophet

(S.A.W.) said: "He who commits suicide by throttling shall keep on throttling himself in the Hellfire (forever),and he who commits suicide by stabbing himself shall keep on stabbing himself in the Hellfire." MUHAMMAD

I. AL-BUKHARI, 2 SAHIH AL-BUKHARI: THE TRANSLATION OF THE MEANINGS OF SAHIH

AL-BUKHARI § 446 (M.M. Khan trans., 1985). One will draw a connection between Islam's prohibition of

suicide and the low rate of non-terrorist suicide among Muslims all over the world.

n27 Yasin El-Ayouty, International Terrorism Under the Law, 5 ILSA J. NT'L. & Comp. L. 485, at 491

(1999).




n28 Perhaps Americans now know about Islam in one month what they may not have known in ten years. In

a poll conducted and broadcast by the ABC television network, over 60% American respondents are uninformed

about Islam (Peter Jennings, Minefield: The U.S. and the Muslim World , ABC NEWS, aired October 11, 2001

10.00 P.M., E.T., <http://www.abcnews.go.com> Visited, Oct. 11, 2001). With an expected openness and candid

iteration between the U.S. and Muslim countries, one expects a smooth relationship of different civilizations. A

scholar rightly noted: "For there can be little doubt that the three antagonistic and militant civilizations of the

world are those of Christendom, Islam, and China. When these are unifies, or come to a mutual understanding,

then and only then, will the cause of civilization be secure." DUNCAN B. MACDONALD, DEVELOPMENT

OF MUSLIM THEOLOGY, JURISPRUDENCE AND CONSTITUTION, 6 (1903).

n29 One author characterizes Islamic extremists as outfits without any form of governmental power and a

little more than zeal for power using Islam as an instrument. He adds: "The real stake in these contests is not

Islam, but power. The battle centers on the seat of power. But this de facto political struggle in the name of

Islam must still be justified by the medium of 'Islam,' and it is here that the seat of authority becomes an issue."

MEHDI MOZAFFARI, AUTHORITY IN ISLAM: FROM MUHAMMAD TO KHOMEINI, 106 (1987).

n30 See generally FARID ESACK, QUR'AN, LIBERATION AND PLURALISM: AN ISLAMIC

PERSPECTIVE OF INTERRELIGIOUS SOLIDARITY AGAINST OPPRESSION 147 (1997), ABDULLAHI

A. AN-NA'IM, TOWARD AN ISLAMIC REFORMATION: CIVIL LIBERTIES, HUMAN RIGHT, AND

INTERNATIONAL LAW 34-68 (1996); LAWYERS COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, ISLAM AND

JUSTICE: DEBATING THE FUTURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH

AFRICA 115-125 (1997).

n31 In a small Muslim-populated island in Zanzibar, Tanzania, an area that is renown for coral and sea

turtles was subjected to overfishing through dynamite. The fishing practices of the community has changed,

resulting in an upward count in the community's reserve due to an environmental education program based on

Islamic environmentalism. A similar program based on the same strategy is being undertaken, through the

World Bank, in Indonesia. See Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES), TheApplication of Islamic Environmental Ethics to Promote Marine Conservation in Zanzibar: A Case Study 1

(unpublished document on file with the author).

n32 See Ali Ahmad and Carl Bruch, Maintaining Mizan: Protecting Biodiversity in Muslim Communities in

Africa, 31 Envtl. L. Rep., xx (2001 forthcoming).

n33 When Muslim States decide to take regulatory advantage conferred by Islamic law, which places water,

air, the wilderness, and most natural resources in the public domain rather than subject them to underlying

private proprietorship, they would have contributed positively to the global environmental consensus because

the content of harm prevention, which is a fundamental object of Islam's environmental policy, resulting from

these elements will be determined by reference to the abiding interest of the public rather than the transientfinancial interests of individual owners.

n34 It must be made clear that it is not all armed conflicts engaged in by Muslims that amount to jihad, as

we are led to believe. Indeed, jihad is not all about armed conflict. No Muslim State has declared jihad against

degradation of the environment, a typical battle field for a quintessential Islamic jihad involving forbearance and

struggle against self indulgence. It is not easy, but retreating from the current urge for infinite production and

consumption, excessive materialism, and the culture of waste generation will indeed constitute jihad par




excellence in this age.

n35 See William Drozdiak, Crisis Forces Shift in Policy As Bush Assembles Coalition , WASH. POST, Sept.

17, 2001, at A9. Apart from UN General Assembly and the Security Council resolutions condemning the

September 11 attacks, the Security Council unanimously adopted legally binding Resolution 1373 requiring allcountries to immediately implement measures to crack down on terrorism, including criminalizing willful

financing and funding of terrorism and freezing terrorist-related funds. Lynch, Anti-terrorism Resolution

Adopted in UN , WASH. POST, Sept. 29, 2001, at A1.

n36 In a changing world, one of many options for the only superpower is to adapt and brace up for a new

role that is determined, not by use of hegemonic power, but by a consideration of a threshold universal standard

of equity and fairness among states. It is the prerogative of the U.S., if it is in its "national interest", to offer

unqualified support to any country of its choice against U.N. resolutions supported by other Western countries,

or to court governments that engage in violations of rights of their citizens contrary to international expressions

and guarantees for such rights. The successful abuse of Islamic law by terrorists and the appeal that such has

simply because it is expressed in Islamic terms cannot be permanently curtailed unless policies that address the

issues of universal fairness are addressed.

n37 Sulayman S. Nyang, Islam in America: An Historical Perspective, 2 AM. MUSLIM Q. 7, at 10 (1998),

SYLVIANE A. DIOUF, SERVANTS OF ALLAH: AFRICAN MUSLIMS ENSLAVED IN THE AMERICAS

15 (1998).


The Role of Islamic Law in the Contemporary World Order

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