ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS
- In response to the Supreme Court‘s overruling of Roe v. Wade, some Muslim American lawyers have argued that restrictive abortion laws infringe on Muslims’ religious liberty, as many of the restrictive abortion laws in several states contravene Islam’s understanding of abortion and its permissibility in certain contexts. Relatedly, some Muslims have stated that Islamic law is flexible on the issue. For more content and context on debates around the right to abortion and how Islamic has featured in these debates, consult our Resource Roundup: Abortion and Islamic Law.
- In response to the Supreme Court‘s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Sumayyah Waheed, senior policy counsel at U.S. civil rights group Muslim Advocates, stated: “This ruling empowers the religious right to continue to pursue policies that basically establish their religious positions into law. That is a complete violation of anyone who doesn’t feel that way, particularly religious minorities.”
- “The League of Islamic Council of Southern Thailand has issued a statement opposing three draft bills – the Cannabis and Hemp Bill, Progressive Liquor Bill and Civil Partnership Bill – as going against Islamic law, saying practising Muslims cannot abide by them.” A spokesperson stated: “Our organisation is the pillar for citizens. We must reveal our standpoint to society clearly. According to the Sheikhul Islam Office’s Fatwa, we will not support these laws because they are haram in Islam.”
- “A popular Indonesian bar chain is being investigated for blasphemy over a free alcohol promotion for patrons named Muhammad, police said Friday, after it sparked uproar in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.”
- “Justice and Development Party [Morocco] general secretary Abdelila Benkiran, during a meeting with members of the party’s National Committee on Saturday, dismissed calls for equal inheritance between the sexes, saying ‘the issue is settled by the text of the Quran.'”
- A sharī’a court in Malaysia “jail[ed] [a] woman for changing [her] ex-husband’s visitation dates with children.”
- The latest study released on the Global Halal Meat Market by AMA Research has predicted exponential growth in the halal meat market.
- “The Constitutional Court [of South Africa] has given legal recognition to Muslim women married in terms of [sharī’a] law, and also their children.”
- “The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has appealed to the Supreme Court against the Federal Shariah Court‘s decision about shifting to a [ribā] (interest) free economy.”
- “Religious and ethnic leaders from across Afghanistan discussed girls’ education at a gathering organised by the country’s Taliban rulers on Thursday – but without any women taking part.” 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
- “Thousands of pilgrims started arriving in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia […], among some one million Muslims expected to attend the 2022 […] pilgrimage season after two years of major disruption caused by the COVID pandemic.”
UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES
Global Calendar:
- 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.