ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS
- The Supreme Court of the Philippines updated the training prerequisites for “Shari’ah Bar” candidates to enhance the quality of Islamic legal education.
- Referring to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham‘s (HTS) policies vis-a-vis Islamic law, one commentator noted that the organization’s enforcement of Islamic law in the Idlib region of Syria has been moderate: “They were obviously conservative elements in HTS that supported Sharia, but overall they avoided the enforcement of Islamic law in daily life.”
- Morocco‘s Minister of Endowments, Ahmed Toufiq, proposed reforms to the Family Code to align legal provisions with Islamic law, focusing on lineage, inheritance, and polygamy.
- In Malaysia, a member of the legislature and Bersatu Youth chief Wan Ahmad Kamal stated that damaging property, including that of non-Muslims, contradicts Islamic teachings and pledged to defend the rights of all Malaysians.
- A Malaysian man in the state of Terengganu was publicly caned under Islamic law after being convicted of engaging in close proximity with a woman who was not his spouse, a punishment that highlights the enforcement of sharia-based moral regulations in the country. For more content and context on harsh interpretations and applications of Islamic criminal law, consult our Editor-in-Chief, Professor Intisar Rabb’s “Resource Roundup: Islamic Criminal Law.” For more news blurbs relating to harsh applications of Islamic criminal law, consult our “Islamic Criminal Law in the News Roundup.”
CASES AND FATWĀS
- To commemorate the victims of the devastating 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, The Conversation Indonesia has published a special edition focusing among other things on Acehnese women, which noted how West Aceh’s 2010 regulation “requir[ing] women to wear skirts, prohibiting the use of trousers despite their roots in traditional Aceh’s attire,” “ostensibly implemented under Islamic law,” restricted women’s freedoms. Consult the original 2010 regulation for more content and context.
- In the UK, in a move that has sparked significant controversy within British legal and political circles, a High Court judge cited a fatwā issued by an Islamic council to support the argument that the Muslim litigants in the case believed that discontinuing life support for their child with severe brain damage would constitute a grave sin. For more content and context, consult the case of Tafida Raqeeb v. Barts NHS Foundation Trust on our SHARIAsource portal.
- Sajad Shakoor, a California prisoner, has advocated for Islamic law accommodations, including the provision of ḥalāl meals, aligning with the passage of SB 309, which ensures that prisoners’ religious dietary needs are met. His efforts highlight the growing recognition of religious rights within correctional facilities, offering hope to Muslim inmates facing challenges in practicing their faith. For more content and context, consult SB 309 prepared by the California State Senate on our SHARIAsource portal.
UPCOMING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
PIL & Harvard Calendar:
- Call for Submissions: Journal of Islamic Law Special Issue, January 13, 2025.
- Islamic Law Speaker Series: “The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Islam and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton University Press, 2024),” Malika Zeghal, Program in Islamic Law, February 11, 2025.
- Islamic Law Speaker Series: “The Genealogy of the Death Penalty for Apostasy and Blasphemy in Islam” by Mohsen Kadivar, Program in Islamic Law, March 11, 2025.
- Islamic Law Speaker Series: “A Cultural History of the Arabic Book: Digital Explorations of Writerly Practices and Text Reuse” by Sarah Savant, Program in Islamic Law, April 8, 2025.
Calendar:
- 2025 Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting, San Francisco, January 7-11, 2025.
- Hurst Summer Institute 2025, University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, January 15, 2025.
- EUME Berliner Seminar: “The Politics of Choice: The 2003 Entry Law to Israel, the Phenomenology of Singlehood and Love Across Borders Among Palestinians” by Towibah Majdub, January 22, 2025.
- Fellowship: The University Center for Human Values in Law and Normative Thinking 2025-26, Princeton University, January 22, 2025.
- BRAIS Prize 2025: Call for Submissions, January 24, 2025.
- Call for Editors: Law & Society Review, 2025-2026, February 1, 2025.
- Call for Editors: Book Review Editor for Law & Society Review, 2025-2026, February 1, 2025.
- Call for Abstracts: Middle East Medievalists, November 22-25 (Deadline: February 5, 2025).
- Writing Workshop: The American Institute for Maghrib Studies Graduate Student Writing Workshop, February 27-28, 2025 (Application deadline: January 3, 2025).
- Conference: The 2025 Annual Conference of the Humanities and Social Sciences at LUMS, Lahore, April 18-20, 2025.
- Workshop: Annual Comparative Law Work-in-Progress Workshop, May 1-3, 2025 (Call for Papers deadline: February 5, 2024).
- Call for Papers: “ Islamic and Jewish Law in the Modern Economy,” University of Villanova School of Law, Villanova, Pennsylvania, May 5-6, 2025 (Abstract submission deadline: January 31, 2025).
- Conference: Eleventh Conference of the School of Mamluk Studies, Queen Mary University, UK, May 8-10, 2025 (Paper proposals: October 31, 2024; Panel proposals: November 30, 2024).
- LSA 2025 Annual Meeting: Chicago, Illinois from May 22-25, 2025 (Early registration: December 3, 2024; registration: January 3, 2025).
- Conference: Law, Culture, and Humanities 27th Annual Conference, Georgetown University, June 17-18, 2025 (Call for Papers deadline: January 31, 2025).
- Conference: The Middle Ages in the Modern World, London Strand Campus, King’s College London, June 24-26, 2025 (Call for Papers deadline: January 13, 2025).
- Summer Language Intensive Program: Istanbul University Institute for Islamic Studies, July 7 – August 8, 2025.
- Conference: MESA 2025, Westin Downtown, Washington DC, November 22-25, 2025.
- Position opening: Senior Lecturer in Law, History, and Society, Vanderbilt University, 2025.
- Search for Editor: International Journal of Middle East Studies, until an appointment is made.
- 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.
- Call for Papers: Special Section – Lifewriting Annual and Islam.
- Call for Manuscripts: Advances in the Study of Islam, Edinburgh University Press.