"With admirable scholarly mastery, Onder Bakircioglu, explores the nature of jihad in Islamic thought about war and peace, demonstrating conclusively that there is no authoritative doctrine available to resolve interpretative controversies so central to current debates about Islamic extremism. An indispensable study for legal specialist, and indeed, for anyone concerned with a deep understanding of the bearing of Islam on the regulation of warfare."Professor Richard Falk (Professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University) "This is a scholarly, rigorous, thoroughly documented and intellectually honest account of the ambiguity and complexity of the Islamic doctrine of jihad. By persuasively demonstrating that war and peace are always outcomes of human agency, this book is an eloquent call to moral choice and political action, beyond stale polemics of absolute text or abstract doctrine."Professor Abdullahi A. An-Na’im (the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law)