Comparing Islamic and International Laws of War - Prof Lena Salaymeh

Professor Lena Salaymeh discusses how contemporary laws of war rationalize civilian deaths and in particular, two specific legal constructions relevant to warfare: the definitions of civilian and combatant and how they are distinguished. She discusses two significant parties in contemporary warfare: al-Qāʿidah (aka Al-Qaeda) and the U.S. military. al-Qāʿidah diverges from orthodox Islamic law on these two legal issues, while remaining within the Islamic legal tradition. To scrutinize the nature of this divergence, she compares al-Qāʿidah’s legal reasoning to the legal reasoning of the U.S. military and argue that the U.S. military diverges from orthodox international law in ways that parallel how al-Qāʿidah diverges from orthodox Islamic law. Specifically, both the U.S. military and al-Qāʿidah elide orthodox categories of civilians and expand the category of combatant, primarily by rendering civilians as probable combatants. Speaker: Professor Lena Salaymeh Discussant: Patricia Viseur Sellers Chair: Shreya Atrey