- In “Don’t Uncover that Face! COVID-19 Masks and the Niqab: Ironic Transfigurations of the ECtHR’s Intercultural Blindness” (International Journal of Semiot Law (2020)), Mario Ricca (University of Parma) investigates whether the pandemic and specifically the mask mandates implemented across Western societies, in some of which there are various cultural and legal prohibitions against Islamic attire, will shift attitudes toward the Islamic face cover, also known as the niqāb.
- In a short piece written for Realnoe Vremya titled “Islam’s Chinese language: three Muslim Confuciuses” (December 1, 2020), Karim Gaynullin explores Muslims throughout Chinese history, with a special focus on three notable figures: Wang Daiyu (circa 1570-1660), Yusuf Ma Zhu (circa 1640-1719) and Liu Zhi (circa 1670-1739), who the author describes as pioneers of Islamic thought in China.
- In “The Ex Officio Power of the Arbitrator to Raise New Issues of Law in Islamic Finance Disputes” (Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law 28 (October 2020)), Mohamed A. Hassan (American University in Cairo) explores the tension between the arbitrator’s power to apply Islamic law even when not prompted by the parties on the one hand and the primacy of party autonomy on the other, ultimately concluding that the tension between “Islamic legal theory” and “international arbitration theory” can be resolved if the arbitrator’s duty to raise Islamic law claims ex officio is re-conceptualized as a power.