Islamic Jus in Bello; perfidy and ruses of war

Abstract

Both perfidy and ruses of war are based on assuring the false belief to an adversary, but perfidy is prohibited being a misuse of law, like the improper use of ICRC emblems. While Ruses of war can be defined as the actions that are devised to make an opponent act recklessly and therefore are allowed if these acts are: not perfidious, do not infringe any rule of IHL, and have intent to deceive the adversary to a situation which is harmful to him corresponding to military advantage. Islamic law is an organized systematic legal system that already had set rulings for both perfidy and ruses of war long before modern international humanitarian law. From the Islamic point of view, the Holy Qur’an forbids breaking oaths after one has freely validated or verified them. The Prophet (PBUH) every time commanded his departing army to fight and prohibited them from cheating and breaking trust. The perfidy is prohibited even in reciprocity. Islamic jus in Bello prohibits almost all the practices which have been adding up to perfidious acts according to international law. There is a concept of “Ama’n” in classical Islamic literature, it means protection, which has detailed rulings. The violation of Ama’n is considered perfidy according to Islamic law. The first caliph of Islamic history Abu Bakr r.a, the conduct of Umar Farooq r.a, Ali r.a (fourth Caliph), and Muawiya r.a (Muslim leader) are most important. The jurists have a detailed discussion on the interpretation of these precedents, for example, Islamic scholars consider suicide attacks as perfidious as well as cyber warfare, based on falsehood is also forbidden.