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: alQāʿidah (aka AlQaeda) and the U. S. military. alQāʿidah 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 alQāʿidahs 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 alQāʿidah diverges from orthodox Islamic law. Specifically, both the U. S. military and alQāʿidah 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