Author: Andrew G. Bostom
Publication: FrontPageMagazine.com
Date: March 28, 2003
URL: http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6929
Earlier this week, Iraqi Foreign
Minister Naji Sabri Ahmad al-Hadithi was quoted as saying that the already
brutalized US POWs captured in southern Iraq would, "be treated according
to the principles of Islam"..Unfortunately, this statement is not reassuring
at all. The classical Baghdadian jurists Abu Yusuf (from the Hanafi school
of jurisprudence, d. 798) and al-Mawardi (a Shafi'ite jurist, d. 1058)
were prolific, respected scholars who lived during the so-called Islamic
"Golden Age" of the Baghdadian-Abbasid Caliphate. They wrote the following,
based on their interpretations of the Qur'an and Sunna (i.e., the recorded
words and deeds of Muhammad):
"..that one can even ..finish off
the wounded, or kill prisoners who might prove dangerous to the Muslims..
As for the prisoners who are lead before the imam, the latter has the choice,
as he pleases, of executing them, or making them pay a ransom, for the
most advantageous choice for the Muslims, and the wisest for Islam. The
ransom imposed upon them is not to consist either of gold, silver, or wares,
but is only in exchange for Muslim captives.." Abu Yusuf Ya'qub Le Livre
de l'impot foncier Translated from Arabic and annotated by Edmond Fagnan.
Paris" Paul Geuthner, 1921, Pp. 301-302
"...As for the captives, the amir
[ruler] has the choice of taking the most beneficial action of four possibilities:
the first to put them to death by cutting their necks; the second, to enslave
them and apply the laws of slavery regarding their sale and manumission;
the third, to ransom them in exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth,
to show favour to them and pardon them."....Abu'l-Hasan al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam
as-Sultaniyyah. The Laws of Islamic Governance, trans. by Dr. Asadullah
Yate, (London), Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd., 1996, p. 192
Indeed such odious "rules" were
iterated by all four classical schools of Islamic jurisprudence, across
the vast Muslim empire. Specifically, Ibn Abi Zayd Al_Qayrawani (d. 996),
head of the North African Maliki school at Qairuan, and the famous Syrian
jurist Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) of the Hanbali school under the Mamluks,
wrote the following:
"There is no inconvenience to kill
white non-Arabs who have been taken prisoner". Ibn Abi Zayd Al_Qayrawani,
La Risala ou Epitre sur les elements du dogme et de la loi de l'Islam selon
le rite malikite. 8th ed. Translated from Arabic by Leon Bercher. Algiers:
1980, p. 163
".If a male unbeliever is taken
captive during warfare or otherwise, eg., as a result of a shipwreck, or
because he has lost his way, or as a result of a ruse, then the imam may
do whatever he deems appropriate: killing him, enslaving him, releasing
him or setting him free for a ransom consisting in either property or people.
This is the view of most jurists and it is supported by the Koran and the
Sunna." Ibn Taymiyya, in Rudolph Peters, Jihad in Classical and Modern
Islam, Princeton, NJ, 1996, p. 50
The grisly video aired on Al-Jazeera,
and many other Arab media outlets, suggests that indeed, the "primary option",
i.e., execution, may very well have been exercised with regard to those
US POWs captured in southern Iraq.
In stark contrast, under the Geneva
Convention, (Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of
War Adopted on 12 August 1949 by the Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment
of International Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War, held
in Geneva from 21 April to 12 August, 1949 entry into force 21 October
1950) PART II GENERAL PROTECTION OF PRISONERS OF WAR , Article 13, it is
stated explicitly [http://193.194.138.190/html/menu3/b/91.htm]:
".Prisoners of war must at all times
be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power
causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war
in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach
of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected
to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind
which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of
the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest. Likewise, prisoners
of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence
or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity."
Let us pray that humane elements
among the Iraqi regime prevail in deciding the fate of US POWs, and they
rely exclusively upon the dictates of the Geneva Convention, and not Islamic
jurisprudence.
(Andrew G. Bostom, MD, MS is an
Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University Medical School, and
occasional contributor to Frontpage Magazine.)
