The Islamist terror and subsequent Iraq War have let loose a huge debate around what is “Just War”? The Islamists claim that Just War is Jihad and it is perfectly legitimate to fight against oppression by unbelievers. The Iraq Just War claims are based (and debated) upon legal arguments arising from UN and parliamentary resolutions. As it so happens, both the UN and western parliamentary resolutions are broadly based upon Judeo-Christian religious heritage and in particular, the Just War theories going back to the 12th century teachings of St. Aquinas, who – it has been said – was influenced greatly by books written by religious scholars expounding on the legal reasons and justifications of Jihad. But there is another strand of human thought around the Just War theory, which goes back centuries and millennia before Just War was a twinkle in the eyes of the Abrahamic faith theologians. Let us explore that a bit.
Continued on at:
http://piquancy.blogspot.com/2008/04/just-war-or-war-that-is-just-war.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/5cwbw4
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Bhaskar Dasgupta
http://dailysalty.blogspot.com/ (for shorter daily comments)
http://piquancy.blogspot.com/ (for longer weekly essays)
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