Showing papers in "Journal of Islamic Law and Culture in 2009"

Citizenship: an Islamic perspective

Abstract: Citizenship in its contemporary context has developed in tandem with the expansive role and functions of the nation state. The Islamic notions of belonging to a political community, territory, and a system of rule are all present in the source data of the Qurʾan and hadith. Yet they remain undeveloped and also burdened with accretional jurisprudence that has developed around the notions of dār al‐Islām and dār al‐ḥarb (abode of Islam, and abode of war respectively). The main purpose of this essay is to contextualise the Islamic notion of citizenship with its contemporary context, while also attempting to strip the authoritative guidelines of Islam from its archaic concepts and additions that on the whole tend to be less than helpful. This is one side of the picture I present. In another, yet quite fundamental sense, the rules of fiqh on residence and domicile within the wider dār al‐Islām are far less restrictive than the Immigration and citizenship laws of the present‐day Muslim countries.

Demanding deliberation: political liberalism and the inclusion of Islam

Abstract: This article considers the extent to which principles of political liberalism are compatible with the commitments of Islam, especially with respect to Muslim citizens dwelling in pluralistic liberal democracies. It first articulates three cardinal principles of liberty of conscience, explaining their importance and relevance for adjudicating on difficult political and religious problems in the contemporary world. The case then turns to issues of democratic citizenship, focusing on the demands of democratic deliberation in particular. It investigates the compatibility of Islam with desirable deliberative procedures and ends, and considers the potential of Muslim minorities to ameliorate some of the deepest, most pressing challenges to liberalism and the legitimacy of liberal democracy. It argues that Muslims have special capacities to enliven the promise of democratic polities, especially when their efforts are joined with those of more liberal, non‐Muslim citizens, and that principles of liberty of consci...

Beyond Jihad: the New Thought of the Gamāʿa Islāmiyya

Abstract: The last few decades have led to a veritable global conflation between “Islamic movement” and violence. Unnoticed in all of this has been an ideological evolution within certain Islamist circles themselves. One such instance is that of the notorious Gamâʿa Islâmiyya of Egypt, which in 1997 began a campaign not only to renounce political violence per se but to declare such violence to be Islamically improper and to present an Islamically reasoned argument to this effect. This article traces this evolution in the Gamâʿa's thinking and exams key aspects of its new ideological stand, including its critique of contemporary jihadism overall, not least of which the ideological outlook of al‐Qâʿida

Judge reform: facilitating divorce by Shariʾa courts in Israel

Abstract: The article deals with a reform initiated by shariʿa court judges (qadis) in Israel who have facilitated the ability of Muslim women to dissolve an unhappy marriage by the re‐interpretation of article 130 of the 1917 Ottoman Law of Family Rights. In analyzing the reform device and motivation, the study elaborates on the qadi's “administration of justice” in a special case of the Muslim minority in Israel as a non‐Muslim state. The study unfolds a growing trend of divorce among the Muslim community and the role of women organizations, State institutions, qadis and the Islamic Movement in facilitating a reform as an internal shariʿa‐based process of neo‐ijtihad from within the shariʿa courts involving processes of modernization, Israelization, Palestinization and Islamization.

Cultural worlds/culture wars: contemporary American Muslim perspectives on the role of culture

Abstract: This article surveys a range of current America Muslim intellectuals’ positions on the ideal relationship between Islam and culture, using as a starting point the suggestive ideal types laid out in H.R. Niebuhr’s classic work, Christ and Culture.

Secularism and modernity: alienation and the renewal of values in political Islam

Abstract: In recent years, the West and Islam have often been characterized as polar opposites. The secularism of the West is seen as modern and forward‐looking, whereas Islamic ideas have been portrayed as idealizing a fossilized past and unresponsive to change. Such depictions reduce a complex relationship between the West and Islam to a cartoon‐like “clash of civilizations” and ignore the convergences and divergences between them and the extent to which each responds to questions the other raises. This article explores the modern account of secularism as it emerges in the work of John Locke and reads it through the writings of an earlier generation of Islamic liberal reformers and Sayyid Qutb, a leading thinker in political Islam, in an attempt to complicate the discourses of both the secular and the modern. The article focuses on Qutb’s diagnosis of the alienation engendered in the modern world by secular reforms and his arguments for a renewal based on a distinctive Islamic identity. In doing so, it aims to co...

An analysis of apostasy/irtidād: considerations for Muslims in contemporary Western societies

Abstract: In this paper I analyse the issue of apostasy – irtidād - as related to Muslims living as minorities in contemporary Western societies. I demonstrate that, contrary to a widely held belief, there is no clearly defined penalty for the act of apostasy qua apostasy that finds justification in the Quran itself. There are, however, clear precedents of penalties being imposed for apostasy in early Islamic discourse under the condition of fitna, a contested term, which I show has some resonance for Muslims living as minorities in contemporary Western societies.

Christian–Muslim dialogue: old wine into new bottles

Abstract: Christian‐Muslim dialogue used to be argued within the domain of theology. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the deterioration of Islamic minority rights in European countries, the dialogue has been replaced by waves of Islamophobia. What contributed to this decline in human relations and majority/minority relations?

Islamo‐fascism and America’s long war

Abstract: Despite its many failings, the discourse of Islamo‐fascism continues to influence American foreign policy debates. Many Bush Administration policies have consequently remained in tact because the frame of political debate has remained largely unchanged. This is problematic for any number of reasons, but primarily because the challenge of Islamic militancy has very little to with the competing values which is the essence of the Islamo‐fascist discourse. Rather, America’s long war with Islamist militant groups is deeply rooted in the pursuit of American strategic interest, and is a byproduct of the American government’s long‐term support for a dysfunctional regional order in the Middle East and South Asia. Clarifying the nature of these ideological debates – and more accurately understanding the nature of the problem that needs to be solved – is the first step toward developing a more constructive foreign policy and extricating the Obama Administration from the legacy of its predecessor.

Between Realism and Resistance: Shi'I Islam and the Contemporary Liberal State

Abstract: On the question of commitment to the nonliberal state, Shiʿi doctrine, which can best be gleaned from the voluminous works of modern Grand Ayatollahs, can be ambiguous. Nevertheless, some forms of what might be dubbed orthodox Shiʿism appear more compatible with modern notions of liberalism than others. This Article divides modern Shiʿi thought on the nation‐state, and the devout believers relationship thereto, into four categories. The Article concludes as a general matter that at least three of those categories appear possibly compatible with liberalism, and a fourth almost appears to recommend liberalism as a preferred form of political order. Nevertheless, the association of liberalism with Western thought at a time when so much of the global Muslim community is deeply hostile to the West and its ideas creates a substantial obstacle to its broader adoption. 1Special thanks to my research assistant Robin Belinsky for her extensive research into the writings of Grand Ayatollahs Sistani and Fadlallah.

For Muslim minorities, it is possible to endorse political liberalism, but this is not enough

Abstract: This article discusses the inclusion of Muslim citizens under the conception of liberal citizenship. More precisely, it considers the Rawlsian version of citizenship, which relies on the ideal of public reason and shows that Muslim and Rawlsian views make similar demands on the relationship between normative principles and empirical context. The article then explains how these two views may be linked, but insists that this result is not sufficiently satisfying. In other words, Rawls’s political liberalism is possible, but this possibility is too weak: all Muslim minorities could endorse liberal citizenship, but many should not, given the norms of revision of their doctrine, which cannot be challenged by political liberalism. For political liberalism, this raises a moral problem.

A contextual reading of Sharīʿa in the Quran: Implications for contemporary Western societies

Abstract: In this paper I analyze the use of the term sharī‛a in the Quran to show that the term sharī‛a should be understood in a much wider context than is generally as ‘way or path’. The term sharī‛a occurs only once in the text of the Quran. A close reading of the section of text in which this term occurs demonstrates first, that sharī‛a is being used interchangeably with the word kitāb and can thus be thought of as synonymous with qur’ān and secondly, the context in which the term sharī‛a is used is in opposition to other communities – in particular, Jews and Christians (banī isrā’īl). This context has significant resonance for Muslims, as well as others, living in contemporary Western societies.