"War is killing and all killing is wrong therefore war is wrong" Do you agree you must show that have thought about different points of view and you must refer to the religion which you are studying, you must give reasons for your answer.

"Slay not your children... the killing of them is a great sin"

(Surah 17:31)

This would suggest to Muslims that this form of killing is wrong but we must also look for where killing is allowed such as in battles where we know Muhammed slayed many of his enemies which would suggest that it is allowed for the killing of humans in war. The next part of the statement is, "therefore war is wrong." We know that this isn't the case as the entire

statement isn't correct as all war isn't killing and not all killing is wrong and due to this war isn't necessarily wrong. If we look at other cases, yes war is killing and in some contexts killing is wrong and due to these to views in Islam it would makes war wrong. If we look at the Sunnah (the prophets life) though we will see that he took part in wars and crusades to spread the word of Islam, if a Muslim saw this he would be encouraged to believe that it is Halal (permitted) for him to go out and fight in the name of Islam. He would also think that by doing this he is gaining Tahwid (oneness with Allah) as he is carrying out the actions of the prophet.

The Shi'te side of Islam is often seen as a more violent side of Islam and have their own army made of warriors who are willing to fight in the name of Allah. Many Shi'tes encourage martyrdom and are even reminded of it in prayer, when the prostrate themselves they rest their heads on a bit of soil from where Husayn died, Husayn was the grandson of the prophet and is viewed by Shi'tes to be the last true Khalifah (Steward). The Shi'te side of Islam is the side of Islam which is often seen in the west as all of Islam as in the news reels they don't say what side of Islam they are from but instead cast them over with the name Islam. As Shi'tes are more extremist and are often the Muslims who carry out the terrorist attacks the west due to media believe that all Muslims are like the Shi'te sector where in fact only one in ten Muslims are Shi'tes and that all of Islam is a violent religion which it isn't and just some extremist give this unjust name to the entire religion. A Muslim would be encouraged to go out and fight against rulers where Muslims are being withheld from carrying out their usual actions told to them by Allah, this they would see in the Koran;

"And fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah

altogether and everywhere; but if they cease, verily Allah doth see all that they do."

(Surah 8:39)

Muslims are allowed to kill people who speak out against Islam despite being a believer before we see this in the case of Salmond Rushdi who has had a death warrant on him where Muslims are told that it is permitted to kill him and that Allah will bless you for it. So this would tell a Muslim that it is Halal for them to kill Rushdi as it is seen as the greatest sin to speak out against Allah. When a statement is issued saying that it is Halal for this man to be killed it is known as a fatwa.

Other Muslims would agree with the statement as they might believe that war is wrong as it causes suffering to many people. These people are the sort of Muslims who would disagree with what happened on September the eleventh as innocent civilians died which is seen under the rules of Jihad which has been published by the Shariah (Islamic law) to be Haram (unlawful). These Muslims would believe that the slaying of humans is also Haram as Muslims believe that it is wrong for Muslims to try to bring forward the time of death as it says so in the Koran;

"When their time expires, they will not be able to delay for a single hour, just as they cannot bring it forward."

(Surah 16:61)

I believe that a lot of killing is wrong even if it is for sinning as it may be a terrible punishment for the sinner but it will have affects on the rest of the family as well as they are left to bare the consequences of their family members death. I also believe that the punishment for murder shouldn't be death as that is following the " Eye for an eye" tactic and as Ghandi said;

"An eye for an eye and the whole world would be blind"

I also believe that war is a good choice as in many cases it is the last resort and if we didn't have wars tyrant rulers would

be able to exploit these rules to their advantage and would be able to do whatever they wanted. We have to accept though with war that killing is often a side-affect as