are killing, stealing and lying morally justified?

[ali]

killing

if an intruder in your home threatens to harm you and your family and will not stop until he is dead is it morally wrong to kill him to prevent the deaths of you and your family?

stealing

if you know that your friend is likely to harm himself physically is it morally wrong to steal any weopons he may have so that he cannot go through with this plan?

lying

should the family hiding anefrank tell the truth about her location to the nazi's?

[shaad_lko]

killing

if an intruder in your home threatens to harm you and your family and will not stop until he is dead is it morally wrong to kill him to prevent the deaths of you and your family?

stealing

if you know that your friend is likely to harm himself physically is it morally wrong to steal any weopons he may have so that he cannot go through with this plan?

lying

should the family hiding anefrank tell the truth about her location to the nazi's?

moral justification entails normal circumstances, not the ones you just mentioned. Quran is pretty clear on this.

[ali]

deception
If a doctor needs to lie to a patient in order to get her to take the medicine she needs, then that could be good form of deception.

[ali]

Lying in Times of War

It is this third instance of permissible lying that Robert Spencer et al. make the most fuss about, especially the Prophet Muhammad’s statement that “war is deceit/deception.”

As mentioned by our very own Inconnu, the Prophet Muhammad made this statement during the Battle of the Trench. The Confederates were threatening to use their overwhelming numbers to destroy the fledgling Islamic city-state of Medina. They lay siege to the beleaguered city, and the entire religion of Islam was on the brink of being snuffed out entirely. It was in this particular circumstance that a man named Nuaym ibn Masud was instructed by the Prophet Muhammad to break the deadly siege. Nuaym said he could do this, but that “this requires me to lie.” The Prophet replied with those now infamous words “war is deception.” And so Nuaym went to the various factions making up the Confederates and convinced them of the supposed disloyalty of their own allies. This sowed discord and disunity in the enemy ranks, which the Muslims capitalized on to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. [11]

Two things are of note here. First, the fact that Nuaym protested that “this requires me to lie” implies that he was cognizant of the fact that the Prophet Muhammad and the religion of Islam forbid lying in general. Otherwise, he would not have said it. It thus indicates that the early Muslims were known for their honesty. Second, the context of the statement is imperative to understand: The city of Medina was under siege, and the defenders of the city were heavily outnumbered by a ratio of more than 3:1. This was a situation of “national importance.” Lives would have been lost had these lies not been said. It is strange that the extreme right-wingers like Robert Spencer can justify the nuclear annihilation of Japanese cities because “lives would have been lost” but can’t seem to understand why the Prophet Muhammad justified lying in this particular scenario. Which is worse? Nuclear annihilation or lying?

The idea that it would be necessary to lie during war is so self-explanatory that I feel a bit silly needing to draw this out. But because Robert Spencer makes a great fuss about this, let me go over the top with this. The idea that “war is deceit/deception” has been accepted since time immemorial. As our very own Inconnu writes:

In fact, “War is deceit” is one of the oldest military principles in history. It is found in none other than The Art of War by Sun Tzu, a Chinese strategist from the Sixth Century B.C. This book is the oldest military treatise in the world. In Part I, principle No. 18 says:

All warfare is based on deception.

This book forms the foundation of modern military thinking, and is listed in the United States Marine Corps Professional Reading Program. The book is required reading for CIA officers, and recommended reading for all U.S. military intelligence personnel. The book is required to be stocked in every major military library. Is Robert Spencer being unpatriotic and un-American by criticizing the foundation principle of our U.S. military, namely that “all warfare is based on deception”? But Spencer’s double standard is quite clear: it’s OK when Evangelical Christians in the U.S. military believe such a thing, but completely unacceptable if Muslims do.

Inconnu goes on:

How about the Trojan Horse, a story from one of the oldest poems in Western Civilization? …Why doesn’t Spencer condemn the Greeks, the Fathers of Western Civilization, for practicing deceit in times of war?

Not only did Sun Tzu write of deception in warfare, but Italian Renaissance thinker Niccolo Machiavelli wrote:

Though fraud in other activities may be detestable, in the management of war it is laudable and glorious, and he who overcomes the enemy by fraud is as much to be praised as he who does by force.

How about more recent times? During World War II, there was a military operation called “Operation Fortitude.” It was a disinformation campaign to deceive the Germans about the Normandy invasion:

“Fortitude” was the codename given to the decoy (or disinformation) mission mounted by the Allies to deceive the Germans about the date and above all the place of the landings…[The Germans] had to be made to think that a whole group of [Allied] armies was present in Kent, opposite the Pas-de-Calais.

To deceive the German observation planes…the local estuaries, creeks and harbours were crammed with dummy landing craft, made out of bits and bobs…For the benefit of the Germans, a team of technicians maintained constant radio traffic between totally fictitious units.

Fortitude succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Long after June 6th, Hitler remained convinced that the Normandy Landings were a diversionary tactic to induce him to move his troops away from the Pas-de-Calais, so that a decisive attack could then be launched there. He therefore kept his best units in readiness there, until the end of July, desperately scanning an empty horizon, while the fate of the war was being decided in Normandy.

Dr. Joseph Caddell, Lecturer on Military History at North Carolina State University, wrote in 2004:

Deception in warfare is probably as old as armed conflict itself. The logic of confusing an adversary is obvious, and the rewards can be realized very quickly.

On the website of the Air University, the military education system for the United States Air Force, there is a list of numerous books, documents, and periodicals that chronicle deception in WW I and WW II. Here is just some of the examples of the books written about deception in warfare:

Barros, James and Gregor, James. Double Deception: Stalin, Hitler, and the Invasion of Russia. DeKalb, IL, Northern Illinois University Press, 1995. 307 p. Book call no.: 940.532247 B277d

Basic Deception and the Normandy Invasion. New York, Garland, 1989. 1 vol. Book call no.: 940.5485 C873 v.15

Breuer, William B. Hoodwinking Hitler: The Normandy Deception. Westport, CT, Praeger, 1993. 263 p. Book call no.: 940.54 B846h

Breuer, William B. The Secret War with Germany: Deception, Espionage, and Dirty Tricks 1939-1945. Novato, CA, 1988. 318 p. Book call no.: 940.5485 B846s

I think Inconnu makes his point very clear, but allow me to give another example: The U.S. military used deception during the invasion of Iraq:

Its war plan successfully deceived the Iraqis regarding disposition of allied ground forces

Is Robert Spencer being unpatriotic and un-American for criticizing the U.S.’s tactic of using deception in their invasion of a Muslim-majority country? If the U.S. military can be justified in its use of deception to invade and occupy a far weaker country, then how is the Prophet Muhammad to be faulted for using deception during war to defend his city-state from attack and destruction by a far superior force?

How about CIA officers trying to infiltrate the ranks of Al-Qaeda? Should they not utilize deceit in order to safeguard their cover?

This is of course a completely absurd line of attack Robert Spencer has employed against Islamic law. But to completely cripple Spencer’s argument, let us once again turn to the Judeo-Christian tradition that Spencer so valiantly defends and promotes in his book. Once again, a familiar pattern emerges: Spencer criticizes something about Islam that is found in his own religious belief system as well.

The Menorah: A Monthly Magazine for the Jewish Home expounds:

Deception in war…is legitimate according to Jewish law. Joshua used stratagem in capturing the city of Ai (Josh. viii), and the same was copied against Bejamin (Jud. xx). Ehud ben Gera killed Eglon, King of Moab, by disguise and deceit (Jud. iii., 20-22)…In our own times Gen. Fred Funston devised an artful plan to entrap Emilio Aguinaldo. Such deceit, however, is recommended in order to avoid needless bloodshed and hasten peace. [12]

Notice that the excerpt above seems to indicate that deceit is not only permitted in Jewish law but recommended in times of war. Rabbi Telushkin says the same in his book entitled A Code of Jewish Ethics, and even indicates that assassinations by stealth are permitted according to the Bible:

During a war, one may deceive enemies. The Bible relates how Ya’el, a Kenite woman, invited the fleeing Canaanite general Sisera into her tent: “Turn aside, my Lord, turn aside to me; have no fear,” she told him, before lulling Sisera to sleep and then killing him…The prophetess Deborah praised Ya’el for her deception of Sisera (Judges 5:24-26; see also Judges 4:17-21)

…In short, in the proper circumstances, deception is not only tolerated, but applauded. [13]

In the example of Ya’el and Sisera, we have Biblically-sanctioned treachery and assassination. To bring this topic closer to home for Robert Spencer, let us quote from the Christian tradition. The British and Foreign Evangelical Review says of Ya’el and Sisera:

That there was treachery, is admitted on all hands. The whole question resolves itself into this: Did Sisera deserve to be treacherously dealt with? Was Jael [Ya'el] justified in taking the advantage of him [as] she did? …If the deceptions of war we noticed just now [in the Bible] are not immoral, then we regard Jael’s act as morally defensible…She must use stratagem to kill him. [14]

In a section entitled When Deceptions becomes Legitimate, The British and Foreign Evangelical Review writes:

Again, we find in the conquest that the Israelites were directed [by God] to practise certain deceptions upon their enemies…The moral aspect of these cases of deception on the part of God…[are justified by the] general understanding that in such circumstances “everything is fair” that can secure an advantage…There is no moral delinquency, therefore, in denying the whole truth to men, that is, in practising deception upon them, when it is understood that deception is part of the risk of war. [15]

Should we berate Christians for their belief in lying during war and that “‘everything is fair’ that can secure an advantage”? Can one imagine Robert Spencer’s reaction if a Muslim said that “everything is fair” if it secures an advantage for Islam?

Dr. Hans Martensen, the nineteenth century Catholic bishop who penned the epic book Christian Dogmatics: Compendium of the Doctrines of Christianity, writes in his book entitled Christian Ethics:

Mutual deception cannot in this respect be condemned, since both sides are agreed in employing against each not force alone, but craft, together with all the artifices of war. [16]

Dr. Mortensen is stressing an important point here, which I will return to later: deception is mutually expected in war.

In any case, it could be said–using the emotive language of Robert Spencer–that deception in war is part of Christian ethics. Christian professor Dr. Michael Heiser concurs that the “act of deception” and even “outright lie” is tolerated in war, even “HOLY war.” In a post entitled “Does God lie,” Prof. Heiser says that God uses deception, and even argues that Jesus himself used deception:

We know that there are specific statements asserting very clearly that God does not tell lies (e.g., Num. 23:19; Titus 1:2). However, God does use deception. Some of you no doubt will want to define lying so that it includes deception, but that is not only unwise, it puts you (and God) in a theological pickle…Why did Jesus demand deception (withholding the truth) on occasion? Why is that permissible?

Why is it that Robert Spencer takes great offense to the Islamic prophet using deception in war to defend his city-state and religion from being wiped off the map, but on the other hand takes no issue with the Biblical prophet Joshua using deception in war, by the Command of God no less, to invade the city of Ai? In a book entitled The Art of Darkness: Deception and Urban Operations, we read:

In roughly 1200 BC, Joshua captured the city of Ai by means of deception. [17]

The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, after citing numerous examples of Biblically sanctioned deception during war, concludes:

Many people have been honored for deceiving the enemy during wartime and saving innocent lives, and this was war! [18]

The gentleman Robert Spencer doth protest too much methinks.

http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/08/sil...istian-belief/

[Hawkeye]

deception
If a doctor needs to lie to a patient in order to get her to take the medicine she needs, then that could be good form of deception.

Wrong, you assume that only lying will work. Also once you start lying there is no end to it and it affects your character and when your character is gone everything is gone.

[Hawkeye]

Lying in Times of War

It is this third instance of permissible lying that Robert Spencer et al. make the most fuss about, especially the Prophet Muhammad’s statement that “war is deceit/deception.”

As mentioned by our very own Inconnu, the Prophet Muhammad made this statement during the Battle of the Trench.

Why was it that Allah could only find this way out of a difficult situation?

[shaad_lko]

my question is to Ali, what is the source of this statement that the Prophet said "War is deceit/deception" and in which books does it occur?

JazaakAllah.

[hasena]

Aslam o Alaikum!
all depends upon intentions and there is a difference among deception, lying and giving comfort, dont mix them all together*