Relationship Between Justice and Peace in Islam.

Fad

PLEASE READ THE WHOLE POST BEFORE DISMISSING ME AND TELLING ME TO DO MY OWN RESEARCH PLEASE .

Hi all, I'm doing my leaving cert this year and I'm doing Religon (Before you ask, yes you can do RE for points, I get that alot!) and as part of my final project we have a project to do and I had originally chosen Issues of Justice and Peace in the Hare Krishna faith, but that didnt quite work out. So I've decided to do the project on the Islamic faith instead (Which I know a good deal more about to begin with).

I'm in need of a little assistance though.

Would it be at all possible for you to point me in the right direction in terms of research, are there any particular websites that deal with this issue well (And make it clear to a non muslim) or books (Or particular references to the Koran, I'll go out and but one for reference if needs be) that deal with this subject well.

Thanks in advance, if this isnt alright, just lock the thread.

Fluffybums

Is there a mosque any where near you - there must be one or two in Dublin. Pop along and ask the mullah, my guess is that they would be only to glad to explain. Well, I'd hope so.

wes

Well firstly, what angle do you want to take?

A theological one, then the best thing would be to talk to a Imam or a scholar on the subjects. I am sure someone on here will be able to point you in the right direction on that.

If however, you want to look at the historical aspects, I guess you could look at the Ottomans or Mughals and see how they put there justice systems in place and how they conducted peace treaties and what not.

Fad

Probably should have posted the entire title.

"F. 2. An exploration of the relationship between justice and peace that is evident in the teaching
of one of the following world religions:
Christianity Buddhism Hinduism Islam Judaism"

Does that clear it up?

hivizman

Apologies if you've already done this, but I carried out a Google search using the search expression "Peace and Justice in Islam" (this worked better than "Justice and Peace in Islam"). Three interesting items came up, all by fairly liberal Muslims.

The first of these is a paper "Peace and Justice in Islam" by Zaid Shakir of the Zaytuna Institute. This is an American organisation dedicated to the study and advancement of Islam, and is associated with the American convert to Islam Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson, who often pops up in documentaries on Islam on television. The paper is written for a Muslim readership and so it may be better if you look at the second item first.

This is "The Concept of Justice in Islam" by Charles Le Gai Eaton. This former British diplomat converted to Islam, and he wrote several interesting books (for example, Islam and the Destiny of Man) trying to introduce and explain Islam to non-Muslims.

The third item is "The Quest for Justice and Peace: Contributions of Islam to Peace Building and Conflict Resolutions" by Murad Wilfried Hoffman, a German convert to Islam. This is somewhat more critical, pointing out that people fully manifesting the ideal combination of peace and justice have been rare. The paper is interesting in discussing more modern issues, and it gives a lot of references to the Qur'an.

All of these articles take the line that Islam is synonymous with peace in a literal sense (the word "Islam" comes from the same arabic root as the word for peace) and that justice is a key attribute of Allah (one of whose "beautiful names" is "the Just"). However, it may be a good idea to try to obtain a more critical angle, and there are certainly some websites that challenge the notion that Islam is essentially a religion of peace and justice.

I'd endorse Fluffybums' and Wes's suggestion that you should try to speak to an Imam or scholar at one of the mosques in Dublin or elsewhere, but you will probably get more out of such a talk if you have done some advance preparation.

Good luck with your research and with the project.

Simon.d

Alongside the good bits, you could also include a section on the not so positive aspects of some of the more fanatical interpretations[snip]

[Hobbes]While you make a point, this is not the forum for that sort of stuff.[/Hobbes]

Fad

Hi thanks for all your help so far (I whole-heartedly encourage more! please and thanks)

I really need to get some work done this week, so I'm getting myself temporarily sitebanned until monday.

So I cant respond to anything anyone posts but I'll check back here to see if anyone posts anything.

Thanks for everything so far.