Sheikh Mohamed El-Moctar El-Shinqiti, Director of the Islamic Center of South Plains,Lubbock, Texas, states: “Literal interpretations are sometimes misleading and the jurisprudential legacy we inherited from our scholars is not satisfying on many issues because it was too influenced by the social norms of their times.
For example, killing was never mentioned in the Qur’an without well-defined qualifications, whether it is related to fighting a non-Muslim enemy or an aggressive Muslim party. It was always based on principles of justice not on difference of doctrines/faiths. The concept of just war is universal. Those who are familiar with Christian theology know that this concept was developed by St. Augustine three hundred years before Islam.