jihad and the islamic law of war - The Royal Islamic Strategic ...

conclusion
as with any religion or system of law, when it comes
to the Islamic law of war there is a gap between the ideal and
its application in the world. It is possible to sift through the
long history of war and peace in Islamic civilization and find
examples where political powers and even religious scholars
have acted and espoused views which are anti-thetical
to the spirit and letter of the teachings of Islam outlined
above regarding war and peace. Indeed, it has happened
that Muslims have created situations amounting to forced
conversion, or killed innocents in battle, or treated the
members of other religions with contempt and cruelty. Yet
there is an important difference between the flouting of
high ideal and the institution of a vicious teaching. If abuses
have occurred in the application of the Islamic laws of
war, these exist in spite of those teachings, not because of
them. Moreover, a fair reading of Islamic history will
show that in the majority of cases the Islamic law of
war—with its principles of justice, sparing of innocents,
and idealization of peace—were largely held to,
and very often the conduct of Muslims in war exhibited
the highest standards of chivalry and nobility.
Moving forward from the time of the Prophet and
Companions to the Crusades, we observe the figure of
Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, known to the West as Saladin, a
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