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 zakāt (almsgiving) donations to politically motivated establishments, which may not timely distribute Muslims’ donations to those in need.
- A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court of India seeking to declare talaq-e-hasan, an Islamic divorce whereby talāq is pronounced once a month, over a period of three months, unconstitutional.
- Dr. Mohamed Maait, Egypt‘s Minister of Finance, recently announced that “the state is keen to diversify sources and financing tools by attracting new segments of Egyptian and foreign investors wishing to invest in accordance with Islamic law.”
- In response to the possibility that the Supreme Court (United States) may overrule constitutional precedents finding a federal right to abortion, several Muslim American Organizations have made a joint statement urging Muslims, on Islamic law grounds, to oppose a possible abortion ban.
- In an amicus brief filed before the Supreme Court (United States) by pro-choice religious institutions concerning the status of the federal right to abortion, it is noted that “many schools of Islamic thought permit abortion[] under certain circumstances.”
- A Nigerian woman was murdered by a mob for allegedly blaspheming the Prophet. Asked to comment on blasphemy in Islamic criminal law and its punishment, Editor-in-Chief, Professor Intisar Rabb noted that historically blasphemy was equated with treason or sedition, or a decisive departure from membership in the Muslim community, and concluded: “Therefore, it is not mere blasphemy that warrants the death penalty, but rather only when it is combined with acts of treason and sedition.”
ON COVID-19 AND ISLAMIC LAW
- Many Muslim jurists have made the argument that “taking vaccines intramuscularly during fasting hours (dawn to dark) does not invalidate the fast and that vaccination should not be postponed.”
UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES
Global Calendar:
- Online lecture: ʿAlid and Kharijite Revolts, May 17, 2022.
- Symposium: The History of the Mamluk Sultanate in honor of Carl Petry, Northwester University, May 20, 2022.
- Postdoc opportunity: Islamic history and culture, University of Bergen. Deadline is May 22, 2022.
- Award: Annemarie Schimmel-Foundation for Islamic Studies Research Award. Deadline is May 31, 2022.
- Call for Papers: Gender as a Category of Analysis for the Study of the Medieval Middle East. Deadline is June 1, 2022.
- Legal Internship: ACLU Illinois, Fall 2022. Deadline is June 1, 2022.
- Conference on Kurdish Family Law, Harnack House in Berlin, June 2-4, 2022.
- Workshop: Formation, Establishment, and Evolution of the Mālikī Madhhab, University of Laussane, June 4, 2022.
- Position opening: Director, International Human Rights Program, University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Deadline is June 12, 2022.
- Position opening: Associate Professor in the History of the Middle East and Muslim Africa, University of Bergen, June 12, 2022.
- Summer School 2022: Philology and Manuscripts from the Muslim World. Deadline is June 17, 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.
- AMECYS Book Award Announcement (copyright 2020, 2021), June 30, 2022.
- Call for Contributions: Special-Edition Journal, Pakistan, July 15, 2022.
- Call for Papers: The Perspective of the Countryside in the Medieval Arab-Islamic World, August 1, 2022.
- Position opening: Associate Director and Chief Curator, The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, August 31, 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.