About the Book

Front Matter · Full-text chapter from the book Islam's Strict Prohibitions Against Killing Women, Children and Other Defenceless People · Read as PDF

About this Paper

A number of people have accused Islam of being a religion which glorifies violence. The main points of critique have been attacks on women, children and other defenceless people, for which Islam has been rendered responsible.

In the past, numerous groups, which effectively achieved to receive massive media attention, have claimed such attacks for themselves, have tried to legitimise their actions Islamically, and have, above all, exalted their so-called jihad to be the supposedly highest principle of Islam.

The key question to inquire is: Does their conduct comply with the foundational texts of Islam?

The paper at hand should contribute to an investigation of this question by analysing the early Islamic foundational texts.

This paper is written in easy-to-understand language and can be coherently read without prior knowledge about Islam or Islamic studies. It is not only intended for an academic readership but engages anyone interested in the topic.

About the Author

Abu Hamzah ibnu Musafir² has been studying Islamic theology since the mid-nineties, spending several years in the Arab world for that purpose. He enrolled in various faculties in Cairo as well as in Damascus.

During his studies, he memorized the Qur'an and other Arabic foundational texts, as well as Arabic poems. He published numerous writings in Arabic and other languages on different disciplines of Islamic theology.

His studies specialize in the foundations of Islam, the analysis and comparative study of various religious movements, theoretical and applied hadith studies, the fundamentals of narration and comparative religion studies.