Book Review: The Muslim Legal Dilemma of Peace with Israel

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Book Review: The Muslim Legal Dilemma of Peace with Israel
War, Peace & International Relations in Islam: Muslim Scholars on Peace Accords with Israel. Yitzhak Reiter. Published by Sussex Academic Press, 2011. $29.95 pp.272

It is always useful to have God on your side whenever you become engaged in a meaningful enterprise, especially when cardinal decisions related to peace and war are involved. In a religiously devoted society like the Muslim one, God’s support is especially essential as well in political controversies such as the debate over the issue of peace with Israel. The present book unfolds a wonderful array of Islamic rulings (fatawa, singular fatwa) for and against such a move and analyzes their background and significance within the wider context of Islam and international relations.

Fatwais a tool of guidance for the ordinary Muslim individual, especially in times of inner conflicts as a result of political and social changes. Since Islam, like Judaism, is an all-encompassing religion, it has relevance to most aspects of daily life and, therefore, a word of guidance from a respected religious authority (termed mufti) is often needed. Over time, this institution has become more established and, as might have been expected, developed into a bone of contention between the state and dissident factions, as it is well manifested in the present book.

Professor Yitzhak Reiter is a senior fellow of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for Peace at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and of the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. He teaches in the Conflict Studies Program of the Hebrew University and at the Department of Political Science of Ashkelon Academic College. Between the years 1978-1986 he served as Deputy Advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister on Arab Affairs. Professor Reiter’s expertise is in the fields of the politics of Israeli Arabs, and Jerusalem and the holy places in the context of the conflict, on which he has written several books and articles. In addition, he has been active in various initiatives related to Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, as well as to the Jewish-Arab dialogue within Israel.

The book starts with three theoretical chapters discussing the attitudes of Islamic legal sources (that is, the Koran and the Prophetic Tradition – Sunnah) to peace and war, the interpretation of such attitudes throughout history from the days of the early Caliphs to to our own times against the background of the historical developments that took place with regard to the Muslim state, and the debate among Muslim scholars throughout the ages – especially nowadays in the context of the conflict with Israel – regarding Prophet Muhammad’s treaty with his arch-enemy, the Meccan tribe of Quraysh. Then follow several chapters that present and analyze the legal debate and the various fatwas issued in relation to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979, the Oslo Accords of 1993 between Israel and the PLO, the Israeli-Hizbullah conflict of 2006 and the issue of Israel-Hamas armistice (hudnah). Towards the end, the author also inserts a study of the agreements made in the 1830s between the French and the Algerian resistance leader ‘Abd al-Qader and discusses their significance to the case of Arab-Israeli peace. One important aspect of the book is the provision of the source material in its original language. Thus, the Arabic reader can have a first-hand impression of the rulings and discern the nuances related to the debate, which are brought to the English reader by the author.

Reiter skillfully handles the source material which consists of fatwas of renowned Muslim clerics, mostly Sunni, both state-employed and independent, who wield considerable moral influence over vast constituencies and whose fatwas should be taken seriously. The bottom-line (if one may indeed use such an expression here) is that a long-term peaceful co-existence between a Muslim country and Israel is definitely possible as long as the Muslims’ interests dictate that. This conclusion is undoubtedly encouraging. Thus, Israel, for its part, should always see to it that peace remain in the Muslims’ best interest in terms of gain and loss.

Two main examples of pro-peace fatwas are those of Jad al-Haqq ‘Ali Jad al-Haqq, Mufti of Egypt, and ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ‘Abdallah Ibn Baz, Mufti of Saudi Arabia. As chief legal authorities in their respective countries, with a large number of fatwas on record, they enjoyed the esteem of vast audiences both within and outside the boundaries of their respective states. The former legalized the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979 from a religious point of view presenting several arguments such as the religious obligation to respond to an enemy’s peace offer, especially if it meets the Muslims’ interest, as had been done by the Prophet himself vis-à-vis his pagan enemies (while Jews have a higher status in Muslim eyes). He further explained that the peace treaty had followed other agreements made by Arab-Muslim states with Israel before, thus emphasizing the latter’s being regarded as an established fact.

‘Abd al-‘Aziz Ibn Baz defended the Oslo Accords signed by Israel and the PLO in 1993 and by that challenged fatwas issued against the Accords by radical muftis such as the famous Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Ibn Baz’s arguments, expounded in three fatwas, did mention the Prophetic precedence but focused mainly on the right of discretion of each Muslim ruler (PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in this case) to determine whether peace with the enemy is beneficial to his people.

All in all, reading of this book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the issue of peace in the Middle East, as well as for any person enchanted by the endless twists and turns between religious ideologies and worldly political necessities.

Arnon Groiss has followed Middle Eastern politics during his four-decade career at Israel’s Arabic Radio and has specialized since 2000 in Middle East schoolbook research. Initially a graduate of the Hebrew University, he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University’s Department of Near Eastern Studies and holds an MPA degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Book Review: The Muslim Legal Dilemma of Peace with Israel

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