The twenty-first century has been significantly shaped by the growing importance of religion in international politics resulting in rising polarization among nation states. This new dynamic has presented new challenges to international human rights principles. This book deals with some of these new challenges, particularly the growing demand by Muslim states for protection of Islamic religion from blasphemy and defamation. Member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), through resolutions at the United Nations, made efforts to introduce laws that globally protect Islamic religion from blasphemy and defamation. The bid by OIC member states faced opposition from Western countries. The conflicting claims of the two sides are discussed in this book. The book clearly shows the impact of blasphemy and defamation of religion laws on certain aspects of fundamental human rights principles.

Islam is a growing presence practically everywhere in Europe. In Italy, however, Islam has met a unique model of state neutrality, religious freedom and church and state collaboration. This book gives a detailed description of the legal treatment of Muslims in Italy, contrasting it with other European states and jurisprudence, and with wider global tendencies that characterize the treatment of Islam. Through focusing on a series of case studies, the author argues that the relationship between church and state in Italy, and more broadly in Europe, should be reconsidered both to secure religious freedom and general welfare. Working on the concepts of religious freedom, state neutrality, and relationship between church and state, Andrea Pin develops a theoretical framework that combines the state level with the supranational level in the form of the European Convention of Human Rights, which ultimately shapes a unitary but flexible understanding of pluralism. This approach should better accommodate not just Muslims' needs, but religious needs in general in Italy and elsewhere.

Written by leading experts in their field, this is the first comprehensive single volume analysis of Islam and public policy in the English language and offers further understanding of Islam and its wider social and political implications. It examines how Sharia law affects public policy both theoretically and in practice, across a wide range of public policy areas, including human rights and family law. The process by which public policy is decided through elections, debates, political processes, and political discourse - has an additional dimension in the Islamic world. This is because Shari'a (divine law) has a great deal to say on many mundane matters of everyday life and must be taken into account in matters of public policy. "This pioneering volume goes beyond formalistic analysis of Islamic states and standard discourses of public policy to underscore the actual significance and limitations of the influence of Islamist normative and legalist discourses on key areas of public policy in the Muslim world." Jomo K. S., editor of Islamic Economic Alternatives

This book is methodologically unique in scholarly literature on Muslim society. Its originality lies in the fact that the rich material offered by the "shari'a" courts is given a thorough analysis with a view to drawing conclusions about the present-day phenomena in Arab society and processes that the society has been undergoing in modern times.

Aharon Layish examines every aspect of the social status of Muslim women that finds expression in the "shari'a" courts: the age of marriage, stipulations inserted in the marriage contract, dower, polygamy, maintenance and obedience, divorce, custody of the children, guardianship, and succession. Each chapter opens with a short legal introduction based on all the sources of law applying in "shari'a" courts, followed by social analyses and a study of the attitudes and approaches of the "qadis, " or Muslim religious judges. Layish examines the relationship between "shari'a" and Israeli legislation: Do "shari'a" courts have regard to the provisions of Israeli law? What is the relationship between "shari'a" and social custom, and which is decisive in regard to Israeli Muslim women? To what extent does Israeli law actually affect Israeli Muslim women? What is the attitude of the "qadis, " toward Israeli legislation?

"Women and Islamic Law in a Non-Muslim State" is an important and original study that will be of interest to students and scholars of Islamic law, comparative law, sociology, and modernization.

The Hanbali School of Law and Ibn Taymiyyah provides a valuable account of the development of Hanbalite jurisprudence, placing the theoretical and conceptual parameters of this tradition within the grasp of the interested reader.Studying the vibrant yet controversial interaction between Ibn Taymiyyah and the Hanbali School of law, this book assesses to what extent this relationship was a conflict or reconciliation. The author takes a detailed exploration of the following issues: the strength of contributions made to this School by earlier paragons associated with Ahmad Ibn Hanbal the contextual constructs which shaped the tradition's development the methodology and literature synonyms within the classical School the manner by which Ibn Taymiyyah engaged with the Hanbali tradition the impact of his thought upon the later expression of the School's legal doctrines and its theoretical principles the contribution made by this School in general to the synthesis of Islamic law. Giving background material to the Hanbali School of law, this book is a vital reference work for those with interests in Islamic law, the history of the Hanbalite tradition and its principle luminaries.

A Muslim Reformist in Communist Yugoslavia examines the Islamic modernist thought of Husein Dozo, a prominent Balkan scholar. Born at a time when the external challenges to the Muslim world were many, and its internal problems both complex and overwhelming, Dozo made it his goal to reinterpret the teachings of the Qur'an and hadith (prophetic tradition) to a generation for whom the truths and realities of Islam had fallen into disuse. As a Muslim scholar who lived and worked in a European, communist, multi-cultural and multi-religious society, Husein Dozo and his work present us with a particularly exciting account through which to examine the innovative interpretations of Islam. For example, through a critical analysis of Dozo's most significant fatwas and other relevant materials, this book examines the extent of the inherent flexibility of the Islamic law and its ability to respond to Muslim interests in different socio-political conditions. Since Dozo's writings in general and his fatwas in particular have continued to be published in the Balkan lands up to the present, this monograph should help shed some light on certain assumptions underlying modern Islamic thought and consciousness found in the region.

Islamic law has traditionally prohibited women from being prayer leaders and heads of state. A small number of Muslims today are beginning to challenge this stance, but they face considerable opposition from the broader Muslim community. 'Women and Leadership in Islamic Law' examines the assumption within much existing feminist scholarship that the patriarchal nature of pre-Islamic and early Muslim Near Eastern Society is the primary reason for the development of Islamic legal rulings prohibiting women from leadership positions. It claims that the evolution of Islamic law was a complex process, shaped by numerous cultural, historical, political and social factors, as well as scriptural sources whose importance cannot be dismissed. Therefore, the book critically examines a broad survey of legal works from the four canonical Sunni schools of law to determine the factors that influenced the development of the legal rulings prohibiting women from assuming various leadership roles. The passages that elaborate rulings about women's leadership are presented in translation as an appendix to the research, and are then subjected to a variety of critical analyses to identify the reasons, influences, and assumptions underlying those rulings. This is the first time works of all four schools of law have been subjected to this kind of analysis for the express purpose of determining the extent to which gender attitudes have influenced and determined the rulings. This book will therefore be a vital resource for students and scholars of Islamic Studies, Religious Studies and Gender Studies.

This book is a comprehensive analysis of the major intellectual positions in the philosophical debate on Islamic law that is occuring in contemporary Iran. In light of the relationship between global modernity and the religion of Islam, the purpose is to analyze to what extent these positions and their understanding of questions of epistemology, methodology and hermeneutics are engendered by the cognitive and ontological structures of modernity. Among the pivotal figures who are considered in this respect are primarily Abdullah Jawadi-Amuli (traditionalism), Muhammad Mujtahid-Shabistari (modernism) and Abd al-Karim Surush (postmodernism), but other individuals who belong to the intellectual elite of Iran are also included.

Series Information:
Culture and Civilization in the Middle East

In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the events of 9/11, 7/7, the War on Terror and the Caliphate and atrocities of the so-called Islamic State have dominated Western consciousness and wreaked havoc in parts of the Muslim-majority world. In their wake, a spate of books has been written explaining the phenomenon of Islamist radicalisation and Jihadism. Nevertheless, for normal citizens, as well as scholars of religion and legal professionals, the crucial question remains unanswered: how is mainstream Islam different from both Islamism and the Islamist Extremism that is used to justify terrorist violence? In this highly original book, which draws upon the author's experience as an expert witness in Islamic theology in 27 counter-terrorism trials, the author uses the idea of the Worldview, as well as traditional Islamic theology, to answer this question. The book explains not only what Mainstream Islam, Ideological Islamism and Islamist Extremism are in their broad philosophical characteristics and theological particulars, but also explains comprehensively how and why they are both superficially related and yet essentially and fundamentally different. In so doing, the book also illuminates the cast of characters and the development of their ideas that constitute Mainstream Islam, Ideological Islamism and the Non-Violent and Violent Islamist Extremists who constitute the Genealogy of Terror.

One of the primary aims of the book is to explore and formulate several Muslim legal theorists' pragmatic theories, communicative principles and linguistic views, construct them in the form of models and set them within a general uniform framework.

Questions the accepted classical Muslim view and current revisionist western view on the development of Islamic law. The first study in English to deal with the early development of the Maliki school of jurisprudence, and to demonstrate the methods used, linguistic and otherwise, in interpreting the Qu'ran.

The relationship between Islamic law and society is an important issue in Iran under the Islamic Republic. Although Islamic law was a pivotal element in the traditional Iranian society, no comprehensive research has been made until today. This is because modern reformers emphasized the lack of rule of law in nineteenth-century Iran. However, a legal system did exist, and Islamic law was a substantial part of it. This is the first book on the relationship between Islamic law and the Iranian society during the nineteenth century. The author explores the legal aspects of urban society in Iran and provides the social context in which political process occurred and examines how authorities applied law in society, how people utilized the law, and how the law regulated society. Based on rich archival sources including court records and private deeds from Qajar Tehran, this book explores how Islamic law functioned in Iranian society. The judicial system, sharia court, and religious endowments (vaqf) are fully discussed, and the role of 'ulama as legal experts is highlighted throughout the book. It challenges nationalist and modernist views on nineteenth-century Iran and provides a unique model in terms of the relationship between Islamic law and society, which is rather different from the Ottoman case. Providing an understanding of this legal system in Iran and its role in society, this book offers a basis for assessing the motives and results of modern reforms as well as the modernist discourse. This book will be of interest to students of Middle Eastern and Iranian Studies.

This volume shows how and why legal empowerment is important for those exercising their religious rights under various jurisdictions, in conditions of legal pluralism. At the same time, it also questions the thesis that as societies become more modern, they also become less religious. The authors look beyond the rule of law orthodoxy in their consideration of the freedom of religion as a human right and place this discussion in a more plurality-sensitive context. The book sheds more light on the informal and/or customary mechanisms that explain the limited impact of law on individuals and groups, especially in non-Western societies. The focus is on discussing how religion and the exercise of religious rights may or may not empower individuals and social groups and improve access to human rights in general. This book is important reading for academics and practitioners of law and religion, religious rights, religious diversity and cultural difference, as well as NGOs, policy makers, lawyers and advocates at multicultural jurisdictions. It offers a contemporary take on comparative legal studies, with a distinct focus on religion as an identity marker.

Within the global phenomenon of the (re)emergence of religion into issues of public debate, one of the most salient issues confronting contemporary Muslim societies is how to relate the legal and political heritage that developed in pre-modern Islamic polities to the political order of the modern states in which Muslims now live. This work seeks to develop a framework for addressing this issue. The central argument is that liberal theory, and in particular justice as discourse, can be normatively useful in Muslim contexts for relating religion, law and state. Just as Muslim contexts have developed historically, and continue to develop today, the same is the case with the requisites of liberal theory, and this may allow for liberal choices to be made in a manner that is not a renunciation of Muslim heritage.

Using a variety of historical sources and methodological approaches, this book presents the first large-scale study of single men and women in the Roman world, from the Roman Republic to Late Antiquity and covering virtually all periods of the ancient Mediterranean. It asks how singleness was defined and for what reasons people might find themselves unmarried. While marriage was generally favoured by philosophers and legislators, with the arguments against largely confined to genres like satire and comedy, the advent of Christianity brought about a more complex range of thinking regarding its desirability. Demographic, archaeological and socio-economic perspectives are considered, and in particular the relationship of singleness to the Roman household and family structures. The volume concludes by introducing a number of comparative perspectives, drawn from the early Islamic world and from other parts of Europe down to and including the nineteenth century, in order to highlight possibilities for the Roman world.

The book contributes to understanding the role of religion in the development of democracy in Indonesia - the world's largest Muslim nation.

This volume shows how and why legal empowerment is important for those exercising their religious rights under various jurisdictions, in conditions of legal pluralism. At the same time, it also questions the thesis that as societies become more modern, they also become less religious. The authors look beyond the rule of law orthodoxy in their consideration of the freedom of religion as a human right and place this discussion in a more plurality-sensitive context. The book sheds more light on the informal and/or customary mechanisms that explain the limited impact of law on individuals and groups, especially in non-Western societies. The focus is on discussing how religion and the exercise of religious rights may or may not empower individuals and social groups and improve access to human rights in general. This book is important reading for academics and practitioners of law and religion, religious rights, religious diversity and cultural difference, as well as NGOs, policy makers, lawyers and advocates at multicultural jurisdictions. It offers a contemporary take on comparative legal studies, with a distinct focus on religion as an identity marker.

Words in both law and religion can shape power relationships and are often highly disputed. Shari`a lies within the overlap of these two spheres and provides a unique subject for the study of meaning in that liminal space. This book contributes important insights related to Islamic jurisprudence and secularism in the Turkish context and regarding the role of language in contested legal and religious contexts. The study begins by providing a historical framework for the ideas and terms covered, including concepts of religion in general, Shari`a in particular, and secularism in the Turkish state. It goes on to examine empirical research to describe and analyze contemporary Turkish understandings of religion and Shari`a. The author's research indicates that there is often a disconnect between supporting the adoption of Shari`a and supporting the regulation of everyday behavior through civil codes. Thus, "Shari`a" seems to have taken on new meanings as groups have sought either to appropriate or criticize it. It is a quintessential example of fractured and contextual meaning at the center of both religious and legal traditions. This book is essential reading for both academics and those interested in law, linguistics, history, political science, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, or Near Eastern studies.

David Vishanoff's thorough and original unpacking of the Sunni jurist al-Juwayni's (1028-1085) Kitab al-Waraqat fi usul al-fiqh introduces English-speaking readers to the main concepts, terms, principles, and functions of the classical Islamic discipline of legal theory. This volume offers an ideal entry to the otherwise dense and complex mainstream Sunni views that dominated Islamic legal thought in al-Juwayni's day -- and that are still widely accepted today. A critical edition of al-Juwayni's Arabic text is also included.

This book is situated in the wider theoretical framework of civil and commercial law in the context of the tensions and conflicts arising between the Islamic law and western legal systems. The book deals with the genre of Mukhtasar in Islamic law and the significance of its emergence in the development and formation of Islamic law. These compositions of Mukhtasar are authored texts by individual jurists claiming independently to personal hermeneutical interpretations in producing and reproducing them. These compositions of Mukhtasar do not simply reproduce the legal rulings of eponyms of schools of law in an abridgement as traditionally it has been understood. Most importantly, the purpose for which they were composed was to provide hermeneutical accounts of the formation of Islamic law incorporating all essential expanded additional elements which have developed over the course of time. The authors of these compositions of Mukhtasar continue the hermeneutical formation of Islamic legal system.

The second volume of the series "Key Concepts in Interreligious Discourses" points out the roots of the concept of ''human rights'' in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It shows how far the universal validity of ''human rights'' opposes in some crucial points with religious traditions. The volume demonstrates that new perspectives are introduced to the general discussion about human rights when related to religious traditions. Especially the interreligious viewpoint proves that a new kind of debate about human rights and its history is necessary.

Should an employee be allowed to wear a religious symbol at work? Should a religious employer be allowed to impose constraints on employees' private lives for the sake of enforcing a religious work ethos? Should an employee or service provider be allowed, on religious grounds, to refuse to work with customers of the opposite sex or of a same-sex sexual orientation? This book explores how judges decide these issues and defends a democratic approach, which is conducive to a more democratic understanding of our vivre ensemble. The normative democratic approach proposed in this book is grounded on a sociological and historical analysis of two national stories of the relationships between law, religion, diversity and the State, the British (mainly English) and the French stories. The book then puts the democratic paradigm to the test, by looking at cases involving clashes between religious freedoms and competing rights in the workplace. Contrary to the current alternative between the "accommodationist view", which defers to religious requests, and the "analogous" view, which undermines the importance of religious freedom for pluralism, this book offers a third way. It fills a gap in the literature on the relationships between law and religious freedoms and provides guidelines for judges confronted with difficult cases.

The first eleven essays in this collection treat the application of Islamic law in qadi courts in the Maghrib in the period between 1100 and 1500 CE. Based on preserved legal documents and the expert opinions of Muslim jurists (Muftis), the essays examine family law cases involving legal minority, guardianship, divorce, inheritance, bequests, and endowments. Cumulatively, the cases bear witness to the effectiveness and efficiency of the Islamic judicial system in this period. Contrary to popular perceptions, the cases demonstrate that Muslim jurists placed a high value on reasoned thought and were sensitive to the manner in which law, society, and culture interacted with, and shaped, each other. The final essay shows how the treatment of family endowments by colonial regimes in Algeria and India at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries shaped, or misshaped the modern western scholarly understanding of Islamic law.