Resources

1. The Teachings of Jesus and Muhammad on Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy

The Introduction to this interfaith study guide explains its purpose and provides an overview of its contents.  The teachings of Jesus that are compared with those of Muhammad were selected by Thomas Jefferson as “the most sublime moral code ever designed by man.”  Jefferson placed great importance on the freedoms of religion and expression, and while he admired Jesus he was critical of institutional Christianity.

2. Religion, Legitimacy and the Law: Shari’a, Democracy and Human Rights  

The original version of this paper was presented by Rudy Barnes, Jr. at a Continuing Legal Education program at the 2012 South Carolina Bar Convention in Columbia, SC.  It provides an overview of religion, legitimacy and the rule of law in the US and Islamic cultures.

 

3. The Interfaith Fellowship: A model of purpose and process for interfaith dialogue

 

4. Military Legitimacy: Might and Right in the New Millennium, by Rudy Barnes, Jr. (1996)

This book addresses the role of legitimacy in military operations that are an extension of politics by other means (Clausewitz).  Its relevance is to the relationship between religion, politics and state-orchestrated violence.

 

5. Back to the Future: Human Rights and Legitimacy in the Training and Advisory Mission, Rudy Barnes, Jr.,Special Warfare (January-March 2013)

This article addresses the interrelated roles of religion, legitimacy and human rights in contemporary military operations other than war.

6. Religion, Law and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy This paper was submitted to The Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL) at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in connection with a conference on the Ethics of Negotiation in Armed Conflict held on April 14-16, 2016