Between Fitna and Aman: The Failure of Islamic Peace Education in Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21093/8b89q885Keywords:
Conflict Transformation, Discourse Analysis, Islamic Peace Ethics, Islamic Education, Islamic Political Thought, Pakistan–Afghanistan Relations, Religion and International Relations, SecuritizationAbstract
Despite the strong normative foundations of Islamic peace ethics, their influence on interstate conflict resolution remains limited in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations. Although both states have a strong Islamic identity, border tensions and security challenges have erupted once more, with violence occurring in both areas since 2021. This study focuses on the contrast between the ethical depth of concepts such as ṣulḥ (reconciliation), ʿadl (justice), and taḥkīm (arbitration) and their sparse institutional expression in interstate politics today. In terms of methodology, the study uses qualitative analysis of policy documents, official statements, and militant discourses generated from 2021 to 2025, alongside an examination of how Islamic pedagogical values are framed. The results show that Islamic ethical discourse continues to be politically relevant but mobilized selectively: state actors use it to legitimize sovereignty and security policies, while militant groups exploit ideological gaps in religious understanding to reinterpret Islamic concepts in favor of violence. Meanwhile, the institutionalization of reconciliation-oriented mechanisms remains hindered by modern interstate securitization and the lack of a structured Islamic peace education framework that bridges normative values with statecraft. The study contends that bridging this gap requires interpretive legitimacy, political willingness, and the revitalization of Islamic education—both formal and informal—to cultivate non-violent conflict resolution and counter militant hermeneutics. These findings contribute to discussions on religion, international relations, and Islamic educational discourse by presenting Islamic ethics as context-sensitive normative resources for peacebuilding.
References
Abu?Nimer, M. (2022). Religion in peacebuilding: An emerging force for change. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Peace, 562-572.
Asia, S. (2021). National Security Policy of Pakistan 2022-2026: An Overview. Policy, 2, 10-13.
Bar-Maoz, M. (2018). On religion and the politics of security: How religion’s involvement in domestic politics affects national securitymaking. The review of faith & international affairs, 16(2), 36-49.
De Coning, C. (2018). Adaptive peacebuilding. International affairs, 94(2), 301-317.
Demir, B. (2022). State Legitimacy and Religion in International Relations: A Study on Confucianism. Marmara Universitesi (Turkey).
Dr Nadia Zaheer, A., Dr Kinza Tasleem, C., Awais Ali, C., Aehtasham Tariq, S., & Wali, M. (2025). The Future of Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations: Challenges and Opportunities in Post-Taliban Diplomacy. Journal for Social Science Archives, 3(1), 1168-1183. https://doi.org/10.59075/jssa.v3i1.196
Fairclough, N. (2023). Critical discourse analysis. In The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 11-22). Routledge.
Fazaluddin, S. (2022). Conciliation in the Qur?an: The Qur?anic Ethics of Conflict Resolution (Vol. 9). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Fuadi, A. I. (2024). Reconfiguring religious authority and ethical governance in Islamic political thought: A comparative literature review. Sinergi International Journal of Islamic Studies, 2(3), 136-148.
Gurchani, S., Imran, T., & Malik, U. (2024). The Role of Islam in Shaping Pakistan's Political Identity and Governance. Global Social Sciences Review, 9(4), 135-144.
Haynes, J. (2025). Religion and international relations. The Wiley Companion to Religion, Politics, and Nations, 15-26.
Hegghammer, T. (2024). Can You Trust Anyone on Jihadi Internet. Fight, Flight, Mimic: Identity Mimicry in Conflict, 50.
Holtmann, P. (2014). Terrorism and jihad: Differences and similarities. Perspectives on Terrorism, 8(3), 140-143.
Jadoon, A. (2024). THE REINTERPRETATION OF JIHAD IN MODERN ISLAMIC DISCOURSE BETWEEN EXTREMISM AND PEACE. Journal of Religion and Society, 2(4), 687-700.
Kadayifci?Orellana, S. A. (2013). Inter?religious dialogue and peacebuilding. The Wiley?Blackwell companion to inter?religious dialogue, 149-167.
Kamal, O. (2021). After the collapse of the Taliban: A study of the US statebuilding failure. Webster University.
Kapshuk, Y., & Deitch, M. (2023). Religion, peace and justice: The effects of transitional justice on religious armed conflict resolution. Peacebuilding, 11(1), 78-103.
Kepplinger, E. (2025). The Maq??id as a means for a contemporary, ethically based Muslim thought: A comparison of the views of ??h? ?Abd al-Ra?m?n and ?aha J?bir al-?Alw?n?. Religions, 16(8), 1080.
Khan, M. F., Hassan, A., & Raza, A. (2023). Humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan: Changing global dynamics and Pakistan's policy choices. Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, 8(2), 516-528.
Mac Ginty, R. (2022). Everyday peace. In The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies (pp. 378-380). Springer.
Mamedov, I., & Jackson, L. B. (2025). Instrumentalising Islam: The religious soft power strategies of China, Russia, and the US. Review of International Studies, 1-19.
Mandaville, P., & Hamid, S. (2018). Islam as statecraft: How governments use religion in foreign policy. Brookings Institution Washington, DC.
March, A. F. (2019). The caliphate of man: popular sovereignty in modern Islamic thought. Belknap Press.
Marone, F. (2025). Spillover terrorism? Exploring the effects of the Israel-Hamas war on jihadist violence in Europe. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 33(4), 1265-1290.
Popalzay, A. W. (2025). Russia’s Strategic Engagement With the Afghan Taliban Post-2021: A Realist Appraisal of Geopolitical Interests, Security Calculus, and Regional Diplomacy. Journal of Eurasian Studies, 18793665251401936.
Rahman, S. N. H. A., Azli, R. M., Zhaffar, N. M., & Babge, S. N. B. (2025). Quranic Foundations of Maqasid Shariah in the Design of Islamic-Compliant Hotel Services in Malaysia. QiST: Journal of Quran and Tafseer Studies, 4(2), 675-692. https://doi.org/10.23917/qist.v4i2.11010
Ramsbotham, O., Miall, H., & Woodhouse, T. (2011). Contemporary conflict resolution. Polity.
Rashid, F. A. R. F. A. (2023). Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations: A Security Perspective from 1999 to 2023. Lahore Institute for Research and Analysis Journal, 1.
Richmond, O. P. (2016). Peace formation and political order in conflict affected societies. Oxford University Press.
Shafi, M., & Dinakhel, M. A. (2022). National Security Policy of Pakistan (2022-2026): Introduction and Impact on Political Landscape of Pakistan. Al-Azh?r, 8(02), 31-41.
Svensson, I., & Nilsson, D. (2018). Disputes over the divine: Introducing the Religion and Armed Conflict (RELAC) data, 1975 to 2015. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 62(5), 1127-1148.
ullah Al Azhari, F., & Al Azhari, S. I. (2025). Contemporary Challenges in Harmonizing Sharia, National Legal Systems, and International Law in a Rapidly Changing World. International Journal of Law and Social Science (IJLSS), 1(1), 130-150.
Van Dijk, T. (2015). Discourse and Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Approach. Cambridge Uni. In: versity Press. https://doi. org/10.1017/CBO9780511611951.
Wani, N. (2024). Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam: A Perspective Building. IJIIS (Indonesian Journal of Interdisciplinary Islamic Studies). In.
Wani, N. U. I. (2023). Peace and conflict resolution in Islam: A perspective building. Indonesian Journal of Interdisciplinary Islamic Studies (IJIIS).
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2015). Methods of critical discourse studies. sage.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 2026
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Please find the rights and licenses in SYAMIL Jurnal Pendidikan Agama Islam (Journal of Islamic Education). By submitting the article/manuscript of the article, the author(s) agree with this policy. No specific document sign-off is required.
1. License
The non-commercial use of the article will be governed by the Creative Commons Attribution license as currently displayed on Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
2. Author(s)' Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author(s), has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author(s).
3. User/Public Rights
SYAMIL spirit is to disseminate articles published are as free as possible. Under the Creative Commons license, SYAMIL permits users to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work for non-commercial purposes only. Users will also need to attribute authors and Register on distributing works in the journal and other media of publications. Unless otherwise stated, the authors are public entities as soon as their articles got published.
4. Rights of Authors
Authors retain all their rights to the published works, such as (but not limited to) the following rights;
Copyright and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,
The right to use the substance of the article in own future works, including lectures and books,
The right to reproduce the article for own purposes,
The right to self-archive the article (please read out deposit policy),
The right to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the article's published version (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal (SYAMIL Jurnal Pendidikan Agama Islam (Journal of Islamic Education)).
5. Co-Authorship
If the article was jointly prepared by more than one author, any authors submitting the manuscript warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to be agreed on this copyright and license notice (agreement) on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this policy. SYAMIL will not be held liable for anything that may arise due to the author(s) internal dispute. SYAMIL will only communicate with the corresponding author.
6. Royalties
Being an open accessed journal and disseminating articles for free under the Creative Commons license term mentioned, author(s) aware that SYAMIL entitles the author(s) to no royalties or other fees.
7. Miscellaneous
SYAMIL will publish the article (or have it published) in the journal if the article’s editorial process is successfully completed. SYAMIL editors may modify the article to a style of punctuation, spelling, capitalization, referencing and usage that deems appropriate. The author acknowledges that the article may be published so that it will be publicly accessible and such access will be free of charge for the readers as mentioned in point 3.
