Rules of War

[D.Mad]

Hello,

I'm a law student in philadelphia currently considering doing a scholarly paper comparing and contrasting the role of Private Security Contractors and "enemy combatants", under the US constitution, the Geneva Convention and hopefully Muslim Law.

I honestly don't know if the paper will be "pro" anything, but I can say that initial research indicates the U.S. use of Private Security Contractors for military purposes might be of questionable constitutionality, and that most PSC's would be considered "mercenaries" under the 4th addendum to the Geneva Convention, giving them no rights under that document whatsoever.

I am hoping someone can provide me with any of the following:

1) A recommendation for a reputable muslim scholar in the philadelphia area.
2) A basic idea of the traditional muslim rules of warfare. (I know that a muslim ruler in the 8th or 9th century was possibly the first to lay down the "no women, no children" rule of war, but have no source material. If anyone knows, please help.)
3. Any specific elements of Muslim Jurisprudence that might assist me on this.

I would prefer to have this paper as balanced as possible, so any assistance you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

Daniel

[Muhammad]

Hello Daniel,

Welcome to the forum :)!

I am not sure how helpful I am going to be, but regarding your second point above, we may have some relevant threads around the forum - presumably you are referring to Jihad:

http://www.islamicboard.com/396548-post13.html

http://www.islamicboard.com/discover...explained.html

http://www.islamicboard.com/refutati...e-meaning.html

Our sister site, load-islam, has some other articles which might also be useful. The list of articles on this subject is here:

http://www.load-islam.com/classified...assified_id=13

And a useful article might be:

http://www.load-islam.com/artical_de...Misconceptions

Lastly, you mentioned that,

I know that a muslim ruler in the 8th or 9th century was possibly the first to lay down the "no women, no children" rule of war, but have no source material.

This rule of war was taught by the last Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (peace be upon him), and this teaching has been mentioned in numerous narrations from the Prophet - some of which are listed here:

http://www.islamicboard.com/521094-post40.html

The article above about Islam and terrorism also illustrates how the Qur'an and the teachings of Muhammad (peace be upon him) forbade the killing of innocents.

I hope you will find this information useful, and I hope you will stay with us on the forum!

Peace :).