Reimagining Islamic Ethics in Contemporary International Relations

Abstract

The deplorable plight of Rohingya Muslim boat refugees who have been refused entry by their neighboring Muslim countries was a disheartening episode for the ummah. The subsequent involvement of the Turkish government in dispatching ships of the Turkish Armed Forces to rescue the refugees has reopened the discourse on the necessity for a confederation of Muslim nation-states acting in concert within the global context as an operative framework of Islamic ethics in international relations. The episode invites Muslims to rethink the role of their own religious tradition in providing relevant ethical guidelines for international affairs that simultaneously address the reality of the modern nation-state.