Perhaps no other Western writer has more deeply probed the
bitter struggle in the Muslim world between the forces of religion
and law and those of violence and lawlessness as Noah Feldman. His
scholarship has defined the stakes in the Middle East today. Now,
in this incisive book, Feldman tells the story behind the
increasingly popular call for the establishment of the shari'a--the
law of the traditional Islamic state--in the modern Muslim
world.
Western powers call it a threat to democracy. Islamist movements
are winning elections on it. Terrorists use it to justify their
crimes. What, then, is the shari'a? Given the severity of some of
its provisions, why is it popular among Muslims? Can the Islamic
state succeed--should it? Feldman reveals how the classical Islamic
constitution governed through and was legitimated by law. He shows
how executive power was balanced by the scholars who interpreted
and administered the shari'a, and how this balance of power was
finally destroyed by the tragically incomplete reforms of the
modern era. The result has been the unchecked executive dominance
that now distorts politics in so many Muslim states. Feldman argues
that a modern Islamic state could provide political and legal
justice to today's Muslims, but only if new institutions emerge
that restore this constitutional balance of power.
"The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State" gives us the sweeping
history of the traditional Islamic constitution--its noble
beginnings, its downfall, and the renewed promise it could hold for
Muslims and Westerners alike. In a new introduction, Feldman
discusses developments in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and other
Muslim-majority countries since the Arab Spring and describes how
Islamists must meet the challenge of balance if the new Islamic
states are to succeed.
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