Religions of Peace: Formations of Principled Pacifism and Nonviolence in Modern Islam

This project draws upon both fresh and existing case studies of principled pacifism and nonviolence in the modern Islamic tradition to develop an analytical intellectual history and a rigorous theoretical typology. This new typology represents a fundamentally new departure in the study of these branches of the Islamic tradition, and will both communicate original findings and fruitfully systematise existing research on the one hand, and on the other provide an inter-disciplinary methodological basis for future research. It brings together research and researchers in Islamic studies and moral philosophy so as to develop a much-needed general critical account of the varied roles played by principled pacifism and nonviolence in modern Islam. In its aims, scope, and methods, this project is the first of its kind and makes meaningful contributions both to scholarship and the public understanding of religion.

This inter-disciplinary effort analyses explicitly Islamic forms of principled pacifism and nonviolence within their respective historical, theological, and hermeneutic contexts. Rather than arguing prescriptively for the existence of a single authoritative and coherent Islamic approach to pacifism and nonviolence, this study explores multiple approaches while relating them to one another and to the wider contexts of which they form a part. This includes both engagement with characteristically Islamic practices and hermeneutics on the one hand, and an awareness of inter-religious and inter-cultural influence, dialogue, and syncretism on the other. Case studies will range from notable historical figures (incl. Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Mahmoud Mohammad Taha) to influential contemporary scholars and activists (incl. Muhammad Abu-Nimer, Rabia Terri Harris, Ramin Jahanbegloo, Chaiwat Satha-Anand, Mustapha Barghouti).

This project's descriptive approach recognises the multifarious roles played by principled pacifism and nonviolence in modern Islam in terms of their heterogeneous understandings, experiences, justification, and normative consequences. While thoroughgoing recognition of this multiplicity in itself represents a meaningful contribution to work in the field, this project goes further. Beyond recognising the broad gamut of Islamic pacifisms to be found in the modern period, this project develops a systematic typological account of principled pacifism and nonviolence as families of phenomena in modern Islam.

To do so, this study draws upon the large and growing literature on the philosophy of pacifism and nonviolence. These philosophical debates provide a rigorous and richly elaborated set of conceptual, normative, and methodological tools which have to date been markedly under-represented in writing on peace and nonviolence in Islam. While this philosophical literature has historically engaged deeply with other religious traditions (particularly Christianity and the Dharmic traditions of South Asia), no comparably substantive dialogue with Islamic thought has to date been achieved.

This project will help to redress this historical imbalance. It will both enrich the existing literatures on pacifism and nonviolence in Islamic studies by applying the rigorous frameworks developed by political and moral philosophers on the one hand, and open new avenues for philosophers to explore the insights and intellectual heritage of Islamic thought. As a result, this project builds capacity in qualitative research methodologies while encouraging inter-disciplinarily. Through its core activities and their dissemination, this project will furthermore develop the research community both by supporting new researchers and by integrating them with established networks.

In addition to the project's outputs in terms of traditional academic dissemination - from conference papers to peer-reviewed journal articles to the preparation of a monograph - the project will also include networking and impact-generating activities targeting third sector professionals and organisations committed to understanding and promoting knowledge about religion and society, including those in inter-governmental agencies, public, charitable and voluntary bodies. What is more, this project promises to shift an unhelpfully polarising public discourse toward a more flexible, nuanced, and constructive position. It thereby offers beneficial impacts not only to specialists but more directly to society at large.

The project's core concerns are by their very nature of interest to professionals working in the fields of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and wider humanitarian action. The project entails direct and sustained contact with leading proponents of Islamic pacifism and nonviolent action on an international level. Both through its series of interviews and its symposium at the University of Manchester, the project will build links with founders and directors of a range of non-governmental humanitarian organisations, including the Salam Institute (contact: Muhammad Abu-Nimer), the Thai Peace Information Centre (contact: Chaiwat Satha-Anand), and Muslim Peace Fellowship (contact: Rabia Terri Harris). The project will also invite participation and cooperation with the United Nations-mandated intergovernmental and international organisation the University for Peace (contacts: Robert Serry, the Hague; Franco Pittau, Rome; Amr Abdalla, Costa Rica), with particular respect to augmenting its practitioner-oriented programmes in Islamic Peace Education for teachers, madrassas, and civil society participants.

The widest public impact of this project will be to engender a more nuanced public engagement with an unnecessarily polarised political discourse: that of Islam as a 'religion of peace' - a hotly contested rhetoric widely invoked by numerous world leaders (including George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Mahathir Muhammad, Barack Obama, David Cameron, and François Hollande). An immediate effect of the systematic approach to Islamic pacifism and nonviolence taken by this project is to demonstrate that the binary positions respectively taken by public apologists for and critics of this essentialist thesis are founded upon empirically false premises. Rather, a nuanced, descriptive, and multi-dimensional account will be presented which obviates the felt need for an invidious forced choice between pacifism and militancy. To support this goal, project outputs will be presented in non-academic forums to enhance their visibility and discoverability. The project will include a public lecture to disseminate findings at the 2021 Parliament of the World's Religions (contact: Myriam Renaud), and will also include overtures to mass media organisations both print (e.g. The Guardian [contact: religious affairs correspondent Harriet Sherwood], The Times of London [contact: religious affairs correspondent Kaya Burgess]) and broadcast (e.g. the BBC [contact: commissioning editor Daisy Scalchi]).