ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS
- Jocelyn Hendrickson‘s book, Leaving Iberia: Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa (Harvard UP, 2021), has been shortlisted for the Canadian Historical Association‘s Wallace K. Ferguson book prize.
- As Muslims worldwide have begun observing Ramadan, Islamic scholars have explained why Muslims fast during this month.
- The Chief Minister of Karnataka (India) has stated that his government will look into demands to ban ḥalāl meat that is compliant with Islamic dietary law. Some have stated that the move is motivated by anti-Islamic sentiment, as one political figure has characterized the ḥalāl meat industry as “economic jihād.”
- Muslim butchers in Karnataka (India), while acknowledging the political effort to ban ḥalāl products, nevertheless stated that “[i]f the animal or bird does not die of stunning, halal method of slaughtering can still be done.”
- Jews and Muslims around the world have begun questioning whether it is permissible to consume plant-based pork.
- HalalFest, “founded by Irfan Rydhan as a Bay Area events company,” has held many ḥalāl food festivals since 2013.
- The United Arab Emirates surpassed China in becoming the largest exporter of ḥalāl poultry to Brazil.
- Aminah Abdullah, the mother of former Cabinet minister Jamaluddin Jarjis (Malaysia), contested her former daughter-in-law’s claim to the minister’s inheritance under Islamic law.
- The Taliban instituted a complete ban on the cultivation of opium, warning that those who violate the prohibition will be punished according to Islamic law.
- A group of religious scholars in Afghanistan have called the Taliban government to reopen girls’ schools, stating that the current ban has no justification in Islam.
- Despite promises to liberalize, the Taliban instituted various restrictive measures that have resulted in a roll back of women’s rights in Afghanistan. For more content and context on the recent developments in Afghanistan, consult our Editor-in-Chief, Professor Intisar Rabb‘s “Resource Roundup: Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Islamic Law.“
ON COVID-19 AND ISLAMIC LAW
- Many Islamic scholars have stated that receiving the COVID vaccine does not break one’s fast, as millions of Muslims began observing the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
- In Indonesia, the beginning of Ramadan was marked with a mass prayer, as COVID restrictions have been eased throughout the country.
UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES
Global Calendar:
- Lecture on Comparative Law: “Metacanons: Comparative Textualism at SCOTUS and in Islamic Law” by Intisar Rabb, UC Berkeley Law, April 13, 2022.
- Conference: Harvard Graduate Conference on International History, CON-IH, April 16, 2022.
- Persian Language Summer School by Aspirantum, Yerevan (Armenia), July 3, 2022 – August 27, 2022. Deadline: April 21, 2022.
- Call for Applications: 2022 Temple Bar Scholarship. Deadline: April 30, 2022.
- Postdoctoral position opening: Christian-Muslim communication, University of Konstanz. Deadline: April 2022.
- Call for Applications: The MESA Global Academy 2022-2023. Deadline: May 1, 2022.
- Conference: Clinical Legal Education, May 9-13, 2022.
- Webinar: AMECYS Friday Digital Author Series: Dr. Rania Kassab Sweis, Associate Professor of Anthropology, May 13, 2022.
- Conference on Kurdish Family Law, Harnack House in Berlin, June 2-4, 2022.
- Workshop: Intertextuality in Islamic and Jewish Law, June 21-23, 2022, University of Muenster.
- Conference: The Digital Orientalist’s Virtual Conference 2022, June 25, 2022.
- Call for Contributions: Special-Edition Journal, Pakistan, July 15, 2022.
- Society of Legal Scholars, 113th Annual Conference, King’s College London, September 6-9, 2022.
- Conference: Materiality, Rituals and the Senses in Shi‘i Islam, Georgia, October 19-21, 2022.
- Conference: American Society for Legal History 2022, November 10-12, 2022.
- Position opening: Assistant Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of Tennessee, Fall 2022. Deadline: until an appointment is made.
- Position opening: Columbia University, The Department of Art History and Archaeology Barbara Stoler Miller Assistant Professor, Indian and South Asian Art History. Deadline: until an appointment is made.
- Call for Applications: Interdisciplinary Scholars of Places, Movement and Cultural Practices Professor, New York University Abu Dhabi. Deadline: until the position is filled.
- Research Project: Historian/Researcher – Tudor Period/Elizabethan Era, and the Ottoman Empire during the Suleiman the Magnificent Period. Deadline: until the position is filled.
- Call for Submissions: The UCLA School of Law’s Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law (JINEL).
- Call for Manuscripts: Advances in the Study of Islam, Edinburgh University Press.
- Request for Open Submissions: AALS 2023 Annual Meeting, January 4-7, 2023. Submission deadlines vary.