[lqclamar]

Considering the concept of "Just War" (and the noted lack of it in Europe 33 A.D. - Present), you're either overstating Aquinas and Augustine's importance, or you're holding the Mahometans to a higher standard.

Not at all. Even when Europe has failed to live up to Just War, the fact remains that it exists in the mainstream of its theological doctrines. No comparable doctrine exists in the mainstream or radical circles of mahometan theology - in fact the opposite exists in the form of a doctrine that encourages and celebrates jihad as a duty.

[zimdog]

Even when Europe has failed to live up to Just War, the fact remains that it exists in the mainstream of its theological doctrines.

One that doesn't seem to be followed too often.

No comparable doctrine exists in the mainstream or radical circles of mahometan theology - in fact the opposite exists in the form of a doctrine that encourages and celebrates jihad as a duty.

Is Just War not a duty for Just People? Many readings of the concept of jihad equate the jihad al-saghir, or military war, with the Just War of St. Augustine. Certainly to even suggest that Pinochet's butchery approaches a Just War is to void the term of all meaning.