Jonathan Gornall
January 24, 2009
Excerpts:
The extraordinary but largely forgotten story of Emir Abd el Kader, one of the key leaders of the tribal resistance to French aggression in Algeria, has now been told in a book by an American author. In Commander of the Faithful, John Kiser restores to the spotlight the reputation of the only Arab after whom a town in the US is named.
For Muhammad Ammar Khan Nassir, the editor of Pakistan’s monthly Al Sharia, Kader’s story as told by Kiser is “highly relevant to what is going on in the Islamic world. Abd el-Kader is the embodiment of the true moral, theological and rational ideas taught by Islam.”
In 2005, Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi, a research associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London and founding editor of Islamic World Report, wrote that, while “few doubt that the ongoing injustices in Palestine and other parts of the Muslim world give rise to legitimate grievances”, there was “nothing in Islam that justifies the killing or injuring of civilians, nor of perpetrating any excess as a result of hatred, even if that hatred is based on legitimate grievances.
“The pursuit of justice must be conducted in accordance with justice; the means should not undermine the end: ‘O ye who believe, be upright for God, witnesses in justice; and let not hatred of a people cause you to be unjust. Be just, that is closer to piety’.”
And this was the creed by which Kader, a scholar and warrior, lived his remarkable life.
Commander of the Faithful, by John W Kiser, is published by Monkfish Book Publishing Company, New York.
Complete source: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090124/WEEKENDER/320641721/1042/rss
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