"Ethics of War" - and Muhammad

While writing a post on 'Red Door' from our Scotland trip last year, I had another interesting encounter on that trip - which I never blogged about as I was unsure how factual it was. Also, I didn't want my Muslim and non-Muslim readers to feel offended. But it was interesting, and please read it merely as a conversation.

I didn't know the significance of April 16 in the history of Scottish people. It was April 16, and I was getting on a train from Glasgow to Edinburgh. There were few school kids at the station performing war plays. I was watching them with interest. As our train departed, the person beside me introduced himself as 'Chuck.' He was a history professor who started telling me about the English-Scottish wars. And how France backstabbed the Scottish people during the Jacobite rise and how brutally the English army butchered not only Scottish soldiers but also women who were nursing, confiscated cattle and burned houses, etc.

Then he turned and asked me: "Are you a Muslim?" I replied in the affirmative.

He said: "Let me tell you one thing. I am the professor of history. And, there is only one person in documented modern human history who established and practiced "ethics of war" - and that was Muhammad of Arabia—neither any of his nearest followers nor any distant of his enemies ever practiced ethics of war. To treat prisoners with respect, not to harm women, children, and elderly, not to destroy wells and food or harm cattle and horses, and not to initiate war if not intended, and not to expand war if not needed were his rules of war and virtues of his diplomacy. Not to offend you, he died, and with him, the values of Islam died".

I am curious to know how biased he was against English folks or how accurate his reading on the ethics of war was. I guess I need to study by myself. 

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