Religion Law Commons^™

Al Shura In Light Of The Concept Of Reality, A Historical, Jurisprudence And Legal Study, Fawzi Adham

BAU Journal - Journal of Legal Studies - مجلة الدراسات القانونية

This research undertakes an in-depth study of the concept of Shura (Consultation) in Islam from historical, jurisprudential and legal perspectives. It begins by reviewing the concept itself, starting with a realistic understanding of it. This involves defining Shura in its current form, presenting the views of Islamic jurists on the matter, highlighting the methodological flaws in the current understanding, and offering a corrective approach to the pre-Islamic tribal view of Shura. The research also distinguishes between Shura and the concept of Mashurah. Furthermore, it presents the political concept of Shura based on the era of Caliphs Alrashidin, the Umayyad and …

The Role Of Religion In Ensuring National Security In Kazakhstan, Nurzhan Arystanbekuly Tursin Nur, Mukhan Issakhan, Shamshadin Kerim, Kovalev Dmitriy, Kalimash Begalinova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article explores the foundations of state policy aimed at ensuring religious stability in Kazakhstan. It analyzes the scientific basis of religious studies, principles of tolerance toward the country’s traditional religions, and the role of religion in maintaining national security. The methodology, goals, and objectives of the study are shaped by the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. The research examines state and interfaith relations, the development of freedom of religion, its integration into domestic and international law, and ways of resolving legal contradictions, traditions, and stereotypes. The theoretical framework relies on the works of domestic and foreign scholars devoted to …

The Role Of Islam In The Prevention Of Suicide: An Analytical Study Of The Reasons Behind Suicide Prevention In Islam, Hamza Hammad

An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

Objectives: The purpose of this research is to extrapolate and analyze the causes leading to suicide prevention in the Islamic religion, by deducing the relationship between the level of Islamic religiosity and mental health, specifically suicide, then extrapolating the factors or components that lead to suicide prevention in the Islamic religion, as well as analyzing the Islamic faith’s position on Suicide, then inferring the effect of belief in fate and destiny on psychological security and in reducing suicide. Methods: This study follows the inductive and analytical approach, based on extrapolating studies and statistics about suicide rates in the world as …

Governance And Islam In East Africa: Muslims And The State In Kenya And Tanzania, Farouk Topan, Kai Kresse, Erin E. Stiles, Hassan Mwakimako

Exploring Muslim Contexts

Explores the relationship between Muslim communities and the State in East Africa in political, institutional and legal contexts

• Focuses on the relationship between Muslims and the State in Kenya and Tanzania
• Asks which factors, both within and outside the Muslim community, shape and affect this relationship in contemporary times
• Presents 13 case studies exploring governance issues within and across the categories of politics, institutions and law in Kenya and Tanzania
• Identifies cross-cutting issues of governance and Muslim communities which are relevant beyond East Africa

Recent studies of Muslims in Kenya and Tanzania have tended either to examine governance of Muslims …

Islamic Republic: An Oxymoron From A Sharia-Based Religion To A Fiqh-Based Cult, Homayoon Rafatijo

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judging From Above: French Feminists & Their Influence On The Veil Debate, Emma Caroline Delapré

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

Over the past two decades, the international community has found itself questioning France’s application of laïcité and the egalitarianism it supposedly ensures, particularly regarding veils associated with the Islamic faith. Integral to the face veil debate is the advocacy of French feminists, especially those who identify as pro-ban. Overarchingly, pro-ban feminists argue that the practice of wearing face veils or coverings undermines a French citizen’s obligation to foster cohesion in the public sphere through the acceptance of republican norms. This viewpoint informs the analysis of the state of social division in France undertaken here. The tools of analysis include a …

Racecraft And Identity In The Emergence Of Islam As A Race, Cyra Akila Choudhury

University of Cincinnati Law Review

Can a religion, over time and through its social and legal resignification, come to be a race? Drawing on Critical Race Theory (“CRT”), Critical Discourse Theory, the work of Karen E. and Barbara J. Fields and Cedric Robinson, this article argues that Islam has emerged as a race and Muslims as a racial group. To support the claim, Part I examines the theoretical basis for the argument. Applying the concept of “racecraft,” the article theorizes that racism produces both the racial group and race. As many have already argued, race is not based in biology; it is not a fact …

Natural Law And Universal Human Rights, David F. Forte

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Abdullahi An-Na'im has set his life's quest on attempting to find a way that Muslim society can be attuned to the moral commands of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a Western creation. At present, the Shari'a and the Declaration are in obvious tension, if not conflict, in areas such as freedom of religion and the rights of women. An-Na'im finds that the Shari 'a is a creation of man derived in history from an interpretation of Islamic sources. Muslims today can legitimately develop their own interpretation relying on the root sources of Islam, but only so long as those …

Muslims’ Religious Freedom And Religiosity: Measurement And Impact, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Multiple measures of religious freedom and states’ regulation of religion are at work in sociology of religion. These scales apply one score to a country or to a subset of its policies. A uniform state score conceals the internal religious diversity and the heterogeneous experiences of religious freedom that can result. These, in turn, encourage ecological fallacies and mask the disparate impact that religious freedom for one’s own community and for other groups can have on individuals’ preferences and decisions. To demonstrate the value of measuring and studying religious freedom at the individual level, this study applies individual-level assessments of …

State Regulation Of Religion: The Effect Of Religious Freedom On Muslims' Religiosity, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Substantial scholarship argues that regulation of religion suppresses religiosity in a community by reducing individuals’ satisfaction with their religious experience. To date this research has assumed that regulations are enforced on and affect religious communities uniformly. It has also focused heavily on Western Christian populations and aggregated national data. We suggest that state regulation of religious communities and behaviours impacts citizens differently based on their affiliation. Using individual-level assessments of freedom and religiosity from Muslim-majority countries, we show that, at the individual level, restricting freedom suppresses religious belief and behaviour. Restrictions on religious minorities, however, can increase religiosity. As such, …

From The Ulama To The Legislature: Hermeneutics & Morocco’S Family Code, Rachel Olick-Gibson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examines the role that Islamic law has played thus far in reforming the Moroccan Family Code, also known as the Moudawana. When King Mohammed VI reformed this law in 2004, Morocco received immediate international praise for its liberal strides towards gender equality. Through this study I investigated the hermeneutical tools and methods of ijtihad employed both by the drafters of the Moudawana and by activists leading up to the 2004 reforms. I then investigate impediments to the implementation of this Code in providing substantive legal rights to Moroccan women and the role that interpretation of Islamic law plays …

Lost & Found: New Harvest, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context.

Set in Fustat (Old Cairo) in the 12th century, a great crossroads of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The Lost & Found games project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens …

Breaking The Perceptions Of Islamic Monolithism, Dr. Fatemah Albader

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reframing Radical Religion, Vanita Saleema Snow

Journal Articles

Like a thief in the night,1 politicians have stolen religion for their deceptive vices, using the term “radicalization” or “terrorism” to meet their needs.2 See Sahar F. Aziz, Caught in a Preventive Dragnet: Selective Counterterrorism in a Post-9/11 America, 47 GONZ. L. REV. 429, 481 (2012) (discussing how a police report equates “Muslim religiosity with radicalization toward terrorism”); David A. Bosworth, American Crusade: The Religious Roots of the War on Terror, 7 BARRY L. REV. 65, 65 (2006) (noting that American news and popular culture often portray religious people as “narrow-minded bigots out to destroy everything good and decent”); Ned …

Islam In The Mind Of American State Courts: 1960 To 2001, Marie Failinger

Faculty Scholarship

This project reviews how American state courts portrayed Islam and Muslims from 1960 until September 11, 2001. The purpose of this project is not to construct some overarching theoretical framework to explain American social and legal views of Islam and Muslims, though I will necessarily interpret what the cases say to some extent. Given the lengthy time period involved, the number of cases in which Muslims or Islam are referenced, and the fact that these cases come from many states, it seemed prudent to defer to others who have constructed critiques of the way American law as a whole has …

Post Secularism And The Woman Question, Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

I will discuss the “woman question in post secularism” by offering my critique of Saba Mahmood’s book “Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject”. But before I do so, let me just state that I am a legal academic and I am not a reader of the field of anthropology. I am unfamiliar with the theoretic jargon of the discipline- even less so of the jargon of the subfield, anthropology of religion from which Politics of Piety hails. Each discipline is autonomous more so fields of study within each discipline. Those fields usually coalesce around a celebrity …

Separate And Unequal: The Law Of "Domestic" And "International" Terrorism, Shirin Sinnar

Michigan Law Review

U.S. law differentiates between two categories of terrorism. “International terrorism” covers threats with a putative international nexus, even when they stem from U.S. citizens or residents acting only within the United States. “Domestic terrorism” applies to political violence thought to be purely domestic in its origin and intended impact. The law permits broader surveillance, wider criminal charges, and more punitive treatment for crimes labeled international terrorism. Law enforcement agencies frequently consider U.S. Muslims “international” threats even when they have scant foreign ties. As a result, they police and punish them more intensely than white nationalists and other “domestic” threats. This …

Humanitarian Islam, Engy Abdelkader

Pace International Law Review

In the aftermath of mass shootings by violent extremists and amid increasing anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination, many Muslim Americans have responded to these and other social, legal, and political developments with philanthropic initiatives inspired by orthodox Islamic teachings. This humanitarian impulse in Islam, which has shaped the religion since its founding, is relatively unknown to non-Muslim Americans. Humanitarian Islam is defined here in largely oppositional terms to so-called the “radical Islam.” In contrast to the violence, aggression, death, and destruction commonly associated with “radical Islam,” selfless volunteerism, benevolence, altruism, and charitable giving in service to others are characteristic of humanitarian …

There Is A Place For Muslims In America: On Different Understandings Of Neutrality, Mark A. Goldfelder

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

American neutrality is not about the government making sure religion is not visible or even treated benevolently. The American concept of neutrality just means that the government should not treat religion as special, for better or for worse, simply because it is religion. For example, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that laws touching religion must have a valid secular purpose, and not serve primarily to advance or inhibit religion. But that does not mean that religion should not be respected. The key to the American conception of religious neutrality lies in the understanding that religion is valuable—despite what strict …

Islam's (In)Compatibility With The West?: Dress Code Restrictions In The Age Of Feminism, Lisa M. La Fornara

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Many secular Western countries have adopted some form of legislation regulating a woman's ability to wear traditional "Islamic" coverings. These governments often cite concerns for gender equality to justify the regulations. Although it is certainly true that some women are forced to wear hijab, many women cover by choice. These women's choices may be rooted in their faith, but the decisions are also commonly linked to other factors like culture. Thus, this Note argues, regulations that prevent a woman from choosing how to dress do not enhance her rights. Rather, the regulations replace a feared authoritarian man with an overly …

Uniting Foes Of A Single Nation: Religious Dispute Resolution For India And Pakistan, Abraham Reinherz

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article will bring forth the argument that a religious-based dispute resolution mechanism should be employed to, at a bare minimum, build bridges between the two countries that are dominated by Hinduism and Islam. This article is not suggesting that religious-based dispute resolution will be a panacea to the India-Pakistan conflict, but simply a method of putting the countries on a step towards reconciliation. Section II of the article will detail the historical background of the conflict. Section III will highlight existing ADR in both India and Pakistan. Section IV will go over the Islamic perspective on dispute resolution. Section …

There Is A Place For Muslims In America: On Different Understandings Of Neutrality, Mark Goldfeder

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Consociationalism Vs. Incentivism In Divided Societies: A Question Of Threshold Design Or Of Sequencing?, Clark B. Lombardi, Pasarlay Shamshad

Articles

Scholarship on constitutional design for post-conflict or divided societies focuses a great deal of attention on two issues: (1) the processes and timing by which constitutional rules should be established and (2) whether constitutions should reflect a consociationalist or incentivist approach to governance. Scholars are increasingly willing to entertain the possibility that constitutions drafted during period of transition from civil war or authoritarianism need not, and often should not, answer immediately all questions that constitutions tend to answer; however, they tend to assume that the question of whether constitutions should be consociationalist or incentivist is one that should not be …

Intellectual Property Rights In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia In Light Of Sharia And The Trips Agreement, Abdulrahman Alabdulkarim

SJD Dissertations

This study aims to illustrate the current state of intellectual property rights (IPR) in Saudi Arabia in light of certain international agreements, specifically TRIPS, as well as Sharia law, that have informed the Saudi legislature in its creation and handling of intellectual property matters. Various matters of IP today may be debated among Saudi's Islamic jurists, which in turn may bring such issues into conflict with Sharia. Such conflicts over matters of IP cannot be dismissed lightly by the Saudi legislators. They must determine the proper enforcement and protection of IRP as stipulated by modern Saudi IP laws and/or by …

Religious Difference In A Secular Age: The Minority Report By Saba Mahmoud (2016) Book Review, Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Minority Report is a text that tries to respond to the problem of essentializing Islam (the culturalism problem) by performing a flip so that all the bad attributes typically associated with “Islam” are now attributed to secularism instead. It is secularism that discriminates, that is sectarian, that encourages violence, that is repressive, sexist, etc. This Mahmood does by on the one hand hyper-politicizing secularism (depleting it of its universalist drive), and on the other under-politicizing it by ignoring its internal indeterminacy, complexity, open structure and varied distributive effects. The result is an account that moves between crude historicism-secularism is …

Salafism, Wahhabism, And The Definition Of Sunni Islam, Rob J. Williams

Honors Program: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

My capstone deals with the historical definition of Sunni Islam, and how it has changed in approximately the past 200 years. Around 1800, Sunni Islam was pretty clearly defined by an adherence to one of four maddhabs, or schools of law: the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali schools and are all based in nearly a millennium of legal scholarship. Since 1800, however, numerous reform movements have sprung up which disavow previous scholarship and interpret Islamic law their own way. However, certain reformist groups, such as Traditionalist Salafis and Wahhabis, claim that their version of Islam is the only “pure” …

In God We Trust, Andrew C. Nosti

SURGE

Almost everywhere I turn I can hear someone saying, “America is a Christian nation!” likely yelled or grumbled with impressive, and sometimes concerning, aggression. I can’t go through a week without this phrase popping up, usually closely accompanied by the notion that America’s founding has roots in Christian principles. [excerpt]

Islamic Law And Constitution-Making: The Authoritarian Temptation And The Arab Spring, Mohammad Fadel

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

The political dynamics that have characterized post-Mubarak Egypt have often been understood to be a battle between "religious" forces, represented by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters, and "secularist" forces, represented by a diverse group of civil society actors. Opposition of this latter group to the "religious" politics of the Muslim Brotherhood is therefore understood to be the primary cause of the events that led to the July 3, 2013 military coup that overthrew Egypt's only freely elected President, Mohammed Morsi. Without denying the salience of a religious-secularist divide in Egypt, this narrative of post-Mubarak politics fails to appreciate the …

Human Rights Practices In The Arab States: The Modern Impact Of Sharī’A Values, James Dudley

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Concept Of State And Law In Islam. Farooq Hassan. University Press Of America, 1981., Noor Mohammad

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.