Islam: The Religion and the People

Chapter 14: War and Peace

Muslims, like most other people, have from time to time found it necessary—or even desirable—to wage war. Like other people again, they have tried in various ways to involve their religion in their wars and thus to obtain divine sanction, help, and even reward for their military efforts and sacrifices.

In their behavior over the centuries, Muslims, with rare exceptions, have not differed greatly from followers of other religions in their conduct of warfare. There are, however, significant and interesting differences in how they perceive the relationship between war and religion, and, perhaps more particularly, in how they themselves are perceived by others in this regard.

For some time now, two contrasting images have ...