Reflections on Islam and Pacifism

Abstract

This paper contends that the discourses that assume or assert that Islam and pacifism are incompatible are mistaken. They are premised on a homogenising discourse of Islam and of pacifism, inattention to Islam as an extant (rather than abstract) phenomenon, logical inconsistencies, and a limited Qur’anic hermeneutic. In contrast, I argue that Islam and pacifism are compatible, because pacifism has different meanings, because of de facto pacifism in Islam, because the logic of Islam, in certain cases, points towards pacifism, because pacifism can be discerned in the Qur’an and Hadith, because there is a concept of the secular within Islam that allows for pacifism, and because it is the image of Muslim violence that is primarily responsible for the belief that Islam and pacifism are incompatible.

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