ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS Dr. Sohail Hanif, who became National Zakat Foundation's Chief Executive in November 2021, appeared in a podcast for islamic21c.com to speak about "the power of zakat." The Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan asked the government to end interest-based banking by 2027. Some Muslim jurists have cautioned Muslims against making their … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In "Mut'ah Marriage Position In The National Law System And Islamic Law" (Veteran Justice Journal 3, no. 2 (2022)), Ainul Yakin (Universitas Nurul Jadid) "examines the position of mutáh marriage in the [Indonesian] national legal system and Islamic law. " Oliver Scharbrodt (Lund University) reviews Rachel M. Scotta's (Virginia Tech) … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Raha Rafii In December 2021, a dispute broke out at Government Pre-University College for Girls in the state of Karnataka, India, where six students demanded to wear the headscarf/ḥijāb on school grounds.[1] This action set off several protests and counter-protests over subsequent months in multiple districts, including students wearing saffron shawls to assert religious … Continue reading In Interim Order, Karnataka High Court Upholds Government Order Banning Hijab
ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS After Yul Edochie, the Nollywood actor and politician, announced that he has a second wife who has delivered a baby boy, debates about Nigeria's marriage laws and the interaction between Islamic polygamous marriages and civil marriages that do not permit polygamy have resurfaced. The Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In Familial Undercurrents: Untold Stories of Love and Marriage in Modern Iran (Duke University Press, 2022), Afsaneh Najmabadi (Harvard University) "uncovers her family’s complex experiences of polygamous marriage to tell a larger story of the transformations of notions of love, marriage, and family life in mid-twentieth-century Iran." Sohaib Baig (UCLA) … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Raha Rafii Grand Muftī Shawky Ibrahim Allam of Egypt’s Dār al-Iftāʾ issued a fatwā in December 2017[1] stating that any and all uses of cryptocurrency was ḥarām, or forbidden—including purchasing, selling, and leasing. The al-Azhar-affiliated Dār al-Iftāʾ was established in 1895 with the Grand Muftī as its head; throughout its history it served a … Continue reading Fatwās on Cryptocurrency: Egypt’s Dār al-Iftāʾ
ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS Some pundits have argued that the recent presidential campaign in France, and the candidates' statements about Islam "that seek[] to protect laïcité and regulate Islam contradictorily entangle[] state and religion ever closer." "Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb announced that congratulating Christians on holidays is not out of courtesy or formalities … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
By Raha Rafii Throughout the last few years, Muslim scholars have contested the validity of cryptocurrency in Islamic jurisprudence, particularly in light of its quick expansion in regions like the Gulf and Southeast Asia.[1] Cryptocurrency differs from standard forms of currency in that it exists only digitally and transactions are not processed through a central … Continue reading Fatwās on Cryptocurrency: The Syrian Islamic Council and the International Union of Muslim Scholars’ al-Qaradaghi
Please welcome our new Lead Blog Editor, Raha Rafii! Raha Rafii is currently an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, where she was previously a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow on the Law and Learning in Imami Shi‘i Islam ERC project. She received her PhD in 2019 from … Continue reading Welcome to our Lead Blog Editor, Raha Rafii!
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In Shari'a, Inshallah: Finding God in Somali Legal Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Mark Fathi Massoud (UC Santa Cruz) "addresses the connections between religious politics and legal politics—and the ways that religion shapes the foundation of our modern nations, even and especially those countries that call themselves secular." Read Massoud's … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
