Paper from Working Group 4 - 56th Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs,11-15 November 2006

“ When your Lord said to the angels : ‘ I am appointing on the earth a deputy,’ they said : ‘ Will you place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood, while we celebrate Your Praise and extol Your Holiness?’ He said : ‘Assuredly I know what you know not’”. ( al-Qur’an 2:30)

Jamal al-Din al-Afghani ( 1838/39~97. better known as “al-Asadabadi” for the Iranian people ) was a champion of the anti-imperialist struggle in the 19^th century Middle East. He prepared the intellectual background for the ‘Urabist Movement in Egypt (1881-82), and later inspired the Tobacco Protest Movement in Iran ( 1891). His violent attack on imperialism and his belief in activism are well known.

Enough attention has not been paid, however, to the fact that this militant thinker had an obviously pacifist tendency and denounced war.

According to Muhammad al-Makhzumi, who recorded the words and ideas of al-Afghani in the latter half of his life, he was critical of the Social Darwinist idea of the “competition for survival ( = al-baqa’ , in Arabic)” among the nations, saying that it was, in fact, “ competition for ruin (=al-fana’ )”. What the so-called “civilization” brought about, al-Afghani argued, was nothing more than “huge towns, buildings, monopolies and weapons”. The advantages of the “civilization” were outweighed by the disadvantages of “war and its disasters”. Present “civilization”, which produces nothing but wars, is mere barbarism, and man is , under these circumstances, definitely inferior to animals and insects.

Is war, then, something inevitable, rooted in human nature? Al-Afghani denies this, and, in this context, he seeks evidence in the verses of the Qur’an. In the Chapter of Baqara in the Qur’an, God tells the angels that he is appointing man ( Adam ) as His deputy on the earth. At first, the angels are skeptical, because man will “make mischief and shed blood”. ( al-Qur’an 2:30) After God has taught Adam “all the names”, however, the angels change their mind and prostrate themselves before Adam. (al-Qur’an 2:31-34)

According to al-Afghani’s interpretation, the underlying message of these verses is that it is knowledge ( ‘ilm ) which serves as a guarantee against bloodshed. Why did the angels, who had been first skeptical about man’s suitability as God’s deputy on the earth, change their mind and prostrate themselves before Adam? It is because, al-Afghani argues, they realized that God had taught Adam “all the names”. They became convinced that now that man had obtained knowledge ( ‘ilm ), this would save him from committing mischief and bloodshed.

Currently, continues al-Afghani, we witness in many countries a deplorable situation, in which “ a part of the nation is driving the other part to the battlefield in the name of national interests”. War, however, can be stopped, if the people wishes. If “true knowledge” prevails among the masses, and they begin to say “Enough of war! From now on, all the conflicts should be settled by means of reason and justice”, (“however hard the kings and ministers try to intimidate them”), man will be liberated from the curse of war.

Thus al-Afghani, who was a vehement anti-imperialist and staunch supporter of national liberation movements, was, at the same time, very much aware of the imminent dangers of a world war, which is the direct result of the competition among the imperialistic Powers. In his argument, we can discern the Islamic roots of the concept of the “outlawing of war.”

It is worth noting that this type of militant pacifism, so to speak, based on anti-imperialistic consciousness, found its supporters in the West, too. Thus we find people like Wilfrid Scawen Blunt ( 1840-1922 ), a pioneer anti-imperialist thinker in Victorian England. In 1899, in the heyday of the British Empire, he published Satan Absolved, a political poem, which is based, interestingly enough, on more or less the same idea as that of al-Afghani.

Blunt, who was born as a member of the British “Establishment” and was essentially a conservative person by nature, nevertheless succeeded in developing an exceptionally deep understanding of Islam and of the situation in the Middle East, through his friendship with people like al-Afghani and Muhammad ‘Abduh and his experiences in the Middle East. ( He witnessed the ‘Urabist Movement and the subsequent British occupation of Egypt. ) These experiences eventually contributed to the crystallization of his ideas about imperialism, ( which are said to have influenced Hobson, subsequently). In his Satan Absolved, which is famous for its sharp criticism of Western imperialism and condemnation of war, too, we hear the echo of the voices of his Middle Eastern friends in an unmistakable way.

Incidentally, the first biography of Blunt was written in 1938 by Edith Finch, the wife of Bertrand Russell, who evidently shared Russell’s passion for the just and peaceful world.

In these days, under the shadow of the US-led “ War on Terrorism”, we are lured into the dichotomy between “Islam and the West”. We tend to have a distorted image about Islam as a “violent” or “fanatic” creed.

What we have seen above, however, suggests the possibility of building the “ culture of peace” based on international dialogue. One hundred years ago, people like al-Afghani and Blunt ( and later Muhammad ‘Abduh and Leo Tolstoy, in their turn ) managed to exchange views, influence each other, and shape a common world view. They were agreed on the necessity of building a peaceful world, free of colonial oppression and war. A similar process should revitalized by our hands.

Needless to say, the Japanese people, ( who are endowed with a unique asset for contributing to the creation of the “ culture of peace”, i.e. the Article 9 ), too, have a role to play in this process.

References

Muhammad al-Makhzumi, Khatirat Jamal al-Din al-Afghani al-Husayni, Bayrut, 1931.

Edith Finch, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, 1840-1922, London, 1938.

Andrew Rothstein, British Foreign Policy and Its Critics 1830-1950, London, 1969