Islamic Law in the News Roundup

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ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS

  • Among the people from whom US Senator Bob Menendez is alleged to have taken luxury gifts is “Wael Hana, the head of IS EG Halal Certified. The Edgewater-based company obtained exclusive rights to certify halal products to be exported from the U.S. and elsewhere to Egypt.”
  • Regarding Wael Hana, the person from whom Senator Menendez is alleged to have taken luxury gifts in exchange for favors, the New York Times reported: “The Egyptian government gave Mr. Hana’s company a monopoly over certifying American food exports to Egypt as compliant with halal standards, in adherence with Islamic law. Mr. Hana’s company, despite its name, had no experience with halal certification.”
  • Muslim jurists and organizations have debated – and continue to debate – the question of whether lab-cultivated meat can be permissible under Islamic dietary law.
  • “The All India Muslim Personal Law Board [in India] has launched a countrywide campaign to ensure that women must get their due share in inheritance” in accordance with Islamic law.
  • “A court in Islamabad summoned the jailed 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief [Imran Khan] on Monday in a case pertaining to his alleged ‘un-Islamic’ marriage with Bushra Bibi.”
  • The representative of Afghanistan in the United Nations condemned the Taliban‘s strict interpretation of Islamic law, stressing that “Afghan women and girls are enduring gender apartheid.” 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.”

 

CASES AND FATWĀS

  • A Sarawak woman from Malaysia who requested a leave to revoke her name as a Muslim convert was denied that request, as the Malaysian court held that the matter belonged to the appropriate sharī’a court and not the federal court.
  • In Khan v. Hasan, the New York intermediate appellate court held that a mahr agreement under which the husband agreed to pay a sum of money to the wife in the event of divorce was unenforceable under New York state law because the verbal agreement did not conform to New York’s laws on matrimonial agreements, which require such agreements to be in writing. The Court further held with regard to the question of applying Islamic law to interpret the alleged agreement: “It is without question that when courts must touch upon questions of religious concerns, they may not consider religious doctrine.”

UPCOMING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

PIL & Harvard Calendar:

  • Student work opportunity: Research assistant, Widener Library, Harvard University.
  • Book talk: “Taming the Messiah: The Formation of an Ottoman Political Public Sphere, 1600-1700” by Aslihan Gurbuzel, CMES, Harvard University, October 3, 2023.
  • Seminar: “Lives and Miracles: Narratives of Medieval Coptic and Muslim Saints” by Amina Elbendary, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, Harvard University, October 5, 2023.
  • Book talk: Nathan Thrall’s “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama” – A Book talk with Kenneth Roth, CMES, Harvard University, October 23, 2023.
  • Talk: “Chasing Floods: the Ottoman Introduction of Rice in the Balkan Peninsula” by Aleksandar Shopov, CMES, Harvard University, November 15, 2023.
  • Seminar: “Revisiting History: Nurullah Shushtari on Shī’ī Historiography, Taqiyya & The Pre-Savafid Era” by Shahrad Shahvand, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, Harvard University, November 16, 2023.
  • Talk: “The ‘Khitat’ of al-Maqrizi: Narrating History on the Tempo of ‘Kharab’” by Nasser Rabat, CMES, Harvard University, November 28, 2023.
  • Talk: “Locusts of Power” by Samuel Dolbee, CMES, Harvard University, November 29, 2023.
  • Seminar: “Ineffability and Adequation: Symmetries between ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī’s Theory of Language, Ontology and Mystical Epistemology” by Nicholas Boylston, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, Harvard University, November 30, 2023.

Global Calendar:

  • Position opening: Assistant Professor in Southeast Asian history, Brown University, October 2, 2023.
  • Call for Papers: 10th IDHN Conference, October 8, 2023.
  • Position opening: Associate or Full Indigenous and/or Black Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, October 10, 2023.
  • Call for Papers: Symposium on Copyright in Islamic Legal Tradition, ISAR Research Center, Istanbul, October 15, 2023.
  • Call for Papers: American Oriental Society’s 234th Meeting, October 15, 2023.
  • Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Cyrenaica on the eve of the Islamic conquest through epigraphy and numismatics, October 18, 2023.
  • Fall 2023 Works-in-Progress Workshop: Comparative Constitutional Law in the Global South, Columbia Law School, October 20-21, 2023.
  • Call for Papers: Law and Society Association Annual Meeting Unsettling Territories: Tradition and Revolution in Law and Society, October 24, 2023.
  • Research Fellowship: Crown Center for Middle East Studies 2024, Brandeis University, October 27, 2023.
  • Fellowship: The American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), 2024-25, November 1, 2023.
  • Position opening: Assistant Professor in Early Modern / Modern Islam, The Department of Religious Studies at Northwestern University, November 1, 2023.
  • Conference: MESA’s 57th Annual Meeting, Montréal, Québec, Canada, November 2-5, 2023.
  • Position opening: Assistant Professor in Islamic Southeast Asia, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at UC Berkeley, November 10, 2023.
  • Position opening: Assistant Professor in South Asian Cultural Studies, The Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University, November 15, 2023.
  • Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): The emirate of the Banū Tellīs in the 15th c. CE, November 22, 2023.
  • Call for Papers: Annual Conference of the British Association for Islamic Studies, December 14, 2023.
  • Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Shedding light on some Islamic sites and buildings in Cyrenaica, December 20, 2023.
  • Position opening: Adjunct Lecturer in Modern Middle East, Babson College.
  • 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.
  • Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): The jurisprudential corpus and the history of Ibadism in medieval Libya: additions and difficulties, January 24, 2024.
  • Position opening: Postdoctoral opportunity in History of Islam/Arabic Studies, Leiden University, February 1, 2024.
  • Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Looking for Libya in Coptic-Arabic historiographical sources, February 21, 2024.
  • Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Partnership for Heritage. Documentation and heritage management for the protection of the Nafousa Mountains, April 17, 2024.
  • Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Between Ṭarābulus and Aṭrābulus. The journey of the toponym and difficulties in determining its form, May 22, 2024.
  • Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Surveying and documentation of the archaeological city of Barca (Al-Marj), June 26, 2024.
  • Symposium on Copyright in Islamic Legal Tradition, Istanbul, June 28-29, 2024.
  • Search for Editor: International Journal of Middle East Studies, until an appointment is made.
  • MEM Fellowship for Graduate Students of Color.
  • Scholarship: Islamic Scholarship Fund CAMBA Law Scholarship 2023.
  • Internship opportunity: The Executive Office of the President, White House, various deadlines.
  • Position opening: Academic mentor and field researcher in Iraq, Cordoba Peace Institute-Geneva (CPI) & ETH Zurich, rolling basis.
  • Position opening: Academic mentor for researcher in Mogadishu, Cordoba Peace Institute-Geneva (CPI) & ETH Zurich.
  • Position opening: Assistant Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of Tennessee, Fall 2022. Deadline: until an appointment is made.
  • Position opening: Postdoc at the Center for Social Concerns and the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion at the University of Notre Dame, July – September 2023. 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.
  • Position opening: Associate Director, Center for Religious and Spiritual Life and Muslim Chaplain, Macalester College.
  • Call for Papers: Special Section – Lifewriting Annual and Islam.

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