Terrorism, Armed conflict, & "Women Living Under Muslim Laws" - WLUML

As far as I'm concerned - and from my own work in post-conflict situations - terrorism is a part of 'armed conflict.' Sadly, people who carry out violent attacks today make "innocent civilians" the target. The same in London as Darfur. Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) is an international organisation addressing some of the underlying issues of some types of instigated intolerance that breeds violence. Their International Coordination Office is based in London. Here's a link to WLUML's explicit Plan of Action against violence and collective intolerance. Let's read it, and - even for those of us who are not Muslim - let's support it. Let's support women's collective efforts for peace - including the Kampala Resolution on women, peace and conflict. Below is WLUML's statement on militarization/armed conflict and their impact on women in Muslim societies.

Militarization/Armed Conflict and Impact on Women in Muslim Societies

We believe that fundamentalist movements thrive by encouraging people to link their identity exclusively to membership of a collectivity defined by supposedly immutable characteristics of religion, ethnicity or nationality; then by erecting the barriers between such collectivities; and finally by intensifying the threat deemed to be posed by the ‘other’. The resulting ethnic or religious confrontations underlie some of the most brutal conflicts of our time. Thus our struggle against fundamentalisms flows directly into our work on militarization and armed conflict.

While war itself is not a new phenomenon, over the course of this century, the nature of war has changed dramatically. A century ago, the death and displacement of civilian populations was a by-product of war; today it emerges as the object of war, as the chilling euphemism "ethnic cleansing" makes clear. In World War I, 14% of all deaths in war were civilians; today the number is, incredibly, over 90%, the majority of whom are women and children. Moreover, the conflicts of the last fifteen years have caused massive and traumatic movement of populations, with the impact falling disproportionately on women and children who, today, constitute some 80% of all refugees, a very large percentage of them from Muslim countries.

As many of the women linked through WLUML cope with wars and armed conflicts in their own countries and as part of their daily lives, we as a network reaffirm our commitment to two kinds of initiatives: the movement to end impunity, and the painfully difficult work of building peace.