Islam upholds humanity even in war

PESHAWAR, April 1: Participants of a workshop held here on Friday said that Islam had devised the best law for wars based on principles of justice and human rights. A three-day workshop on analysis of basic principles and compatibility of Islamic law in wars and international humanitarian law with its implications in the contemporary world started at the University of Peshawar (UoP). More than 30 faculty members from the department of Islamic and Seerat studies of different universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa participated. The workshop was jointly organised by the UoP Institute of Islamic and Arabic Studies and International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC). Speaking on the occasion, ICRC representative Dr Mushtaq said that Islam had set clear guidelines for war 1,400 years ago and prohibited killing women, children and senior citizens. He said that international humanitarian law had a very limited history and there was absolutely no doubt that many guidelines in it had been taken from the Islamic law. About the interference of foreign powers in a country, he said that international law clearly said that whenever military operation was started in a country against the rebels or terrorists, the host country could definitely ask for assistance from the outside world to control anarchy. This, he said, was mostly done through the approval of the United Nations. He added that even if the host country was operating against innocent people, the international community could consider a military operation against it after a debate and approval by the world body. Dr Syed Fazl-i-Hadi said that wars were being fought around the globe but unfortunately most of the time Muslims were the target of violation. Dr Hadi said that violation of international humanitarian law was often witnessed in wars and it had become a routine phenomenon to which nobody was paying attention. He said Islam had provi ded the first and comprehensive model of fighting norms and provided guidelines to the whole world but unfortunately Islam was being propagated as a religion of intolerance. Dr Hadi said that through such workshops we could build our capacity and spread the message that Islam was a religion of peace where humanity and its respect was the first priority even at times of war. Earlier, Director Institute of Islamic and Arabic Studies Prof Dr Qibla Ayaz delivered the welcome address. He said that the purpose of arranging the conference was to develop know-how about the body of international and Islamic law at times of war among the faculty members so that they could further explain it to their students.