- In “Moral Authority in Islamic Law: A Reflection of Khaled Abou Fadel” (GeoTimes, January 19, 2023), Rifqi Nurdiansyah, reviewing Fadel’s life and scholarship, writes: “Abou Fadel, born into traditionalist Sunni Islam, reconstructed the perception of Islamic law with a social context which inspired by western approach. “
- Influential Islamic scholar Sheikh Rashaad died at 96.
- In “Understanding Islamic Education in Russia: The Struggle over Identity and Belonging in Russia’s Muslim-Majority Regions” (CEPA, January 17, 2023), Alisa Shishkina (Center for European Policy Analysis) observes that “Russia’s long-running conflict with Ukraine and its full-scale war in 2022 have had an impact within Russia itself, including exacerbating problems that, for one reason or another, have festered for years. Among the most pressing is the question of the place of Islamic identities in Russian society.”
- In “Showing the Prophet Muhammad’s Paintings in a Classroom is Not Islamophobic” (Jurist, January 17, 2023), L. Ali Khan (Washburn University School of Law), writing on the recent controversy at Hamline University involving the display of a depiction of the Prophet, concludes: “In a classroom with diverse students, such as in US colleges and universities, functioning under robust free speech not available in many other countries, Islamophobia cannot be defined as blind submission to Muslim beliefs and practices. Islam does not impose its teachings on non-Muslims.”
- In “Can Islamic cryptocurrencies change the face of crypto in the Middle East?” (Captainaltcoin.com, January 20, 2023), Rene Peters observes that “widespread acceptance of blockchain technology comes with challenges, […] as Muslim scholars have been debating over what their faith stance shall be toward the crypto universe.”
- In “Non-Fiction: Demystifying the Council” (Dawn, January 22, 203), Sohail Akhtar (National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad) reviews Governance of Islam in Pakistan: An Institutional Study of the Council of Islamic Ideology (Sussex Academic Press, 2022) by Sarah Holz (Humboldt University).