ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS
- Scholars of Islamic law have continued to debate the question of whether the use of cryptocurrencies is permissible under Islamic law. For more content and context on Islamic debates over the permissibility of using cryptocurrencies, consult the contributions by our Research Editor Raha Rafii here and here.
- Some Muslim rights advocates have criticized efforts to liken recent state laws in the United States restricting abortion access to sharī’a, pointing to how Islamic law permits abortions in various cases.
- Thousands of Muslims in Bangladesh and India protested statements made by two members of India’s governing party which were deemed to be derogatory to the Prophet, calling for collective boycotts.
- Human rights groups have called attention to certain inmates in Iran convicted of theft, who “are at imminent risk of having their fingers amputated” according to Iran’s interpretation and application of Islamic criminal law.
- “Mobiquity, part of Hexaware, a full-service digital transformation enabler, launche[d] a global digital Islamic banking MVP (minimum viable product) for the Muslim community.”
- Indonesians of different faiths have mourned the loss of Islamic scholar Ahmad Syafi’i Ma’arif, who preached “co-existence over tolerance.”
- A new American opera, Omar, has made its debut, which centers around the story of the enslaved Omar bin Said, forcibly brought to the United States from Senegal, who “had studied the Qur’ān intensely.”
- Saudi Arabia recently implemented changes to bookings for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, announcing that applicants from the West, including Europe, America and Australia, would need to use the official website rather than private travel agencies to make their bookings.
- “Egypt has formed a judicial committee to redraft a controversial personal status law that was shelved last year after a backlash from women’s rights proponents.”
- The Islamic Development Bank opened its first regional headquarter in Cairo, Egypt.
- A high-level Taliban official criticized the Taliban government for banning girls from attending secondary school, prompting some observers to speculate that the Taliban may be experiencing internal power struggles. 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
- This year Saudi Arabia announced that it would host less than half the number of Muslims for the pilgrimage to Mecca when compared to numbers from pre-pandemic years.
UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES
Global Calendar:
- 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.
- Webinar: “Turning Arab: Identity and Islam in the Middle Eastern countryside, 1000 – 1500” by Yossef Rapoport, University of Bonn, June 27, 2022.
- AMECYS Book Award Announcement (copyright 2020, 2021), June 30, 2022.
- Prize: Biennial Prize for Best Dissertation, Middle East Medievalists (MEM), June 30, 2022.
- Position opening: Visual Resources Librarian for Islamic Art and Architecture, Harvard College Library, July 8, 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.