ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS
- “Iran’s top Sunni cleric Molavi Abdolhamid condemned deadly violence against protesters, saying it was both illegal under international law and forbidden under Islamic law.”
- In response to Rep. Nancy Mace‘s (R-SC) claim that “New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani ‘is bringing Sharia law to America,'” Politifact “reviewed media coverage of Mamdani’s campaign and interviewed experts and found no evidence that Mamdani seeks to implement Shariah.”
- In Saudi Arabia, “an Umrah company and its overseas agent have been suspended by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah for failing to provide accommodation services for pilgrims.”
- According to Malaysian Mufti Dr. Mohd Sukki Othman, “maintaining cordial relations between former spouses after divorce is permissible….’This relationship falls within the concept of ‘amar makruf nahi mungkar’, which entails promoting good and preventing harm to the children and family. The relationship must have boundaries. If it exceeds official needs—for example, frequent casual meetings, intimate joking, or private one-on-one encounters without reason—Islamic law forbids it.'”
- In the United Arab Emirates, “the Endowments and Minors’ Funds Authority (Awqaf Abu Dhabi) announced the debut of sustainable financing…generated through the Life Endowment Campaign.”
CASES AND FATWĀS
- “The Hisbah Commission in Yobe state [Nigeria] has placed a ban on physical conversations between men and women in vehicles.”
- “Saudi Arabia has enacted binding regulations prohibiting public facilities from using names that contradict Islamic Sharia, aiming to standardise naming across public assets.”
- In the United Arab Emirates, “the legal age of adulthood will be lowered from 21 lunar Hijri years to 18 Gregorian years.”
- In Texas, “Keller City Council members ceremonially reaffirmed their commitment to “’onstitutional governance and equal application of the law’ [in] a resolution originally drafted to reject sharia law…., stating that Keller ‘shall not recognize sharia law, sharia courts or any foreign legal system as a source of civil authority, adjudication or municipal governance.’ Moments before the council meeting…officials had revised the resolution, removing explicit mentions of sharia.”
- “The Taliban have publicly flogged a man and a woman in northern Takhar province over alleged ‘illicit relationship and running away from home,’ the group’s supreme court announced.” 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.”
- “Qatar’s Ministry of Justice has released a new issue of its Legal and Judicial Journal, featuring in-depth legal research, comparative studies, and analysis of rulings and fatwas issued by the Court of Cassation.”
UPCOMING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
PIL & Harvard Events:
- Workshop: Arabic TEI (Textual Encoding Initiative), April 2–3, 2026
PIL & Harvard Opportunities:
- Call for Applications: 2026–2027 PIL Research Fellowship, February 13, 2026
Global Events:
- Conference: Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, January 6–9, 2026
- Book Talk: How Commerce Became Legal: Merchants and Market Governance in Nineteenth-Century Egypt by Omar Youssef Cheta (Syracuse University), January 21, 2026 @ 7:00pm
- Conference: Faith, Values, and the Rule of Law—An Interdisciplinary Conference, Seton Hall University School of Law, February February 4–5, 2026
- Conference: AI Methodologies and Applications in Middle Eastern and Islamic World Studies, Kuwait University, February 4–5, 2026
- Conference: Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, Amherst, MA, March 19–21, 2026
- Conference: Humanities of AI—Intelligence and Imitation: Mind, Mechanism, Mimesis, Johns Hopkins University, April 24-26, 2026
- Conference: American Society for Premodern Asia Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, April 24–27, 2026
- Conference: Middle East History and Theory Conference (MEHAT), University of Chicago, May 1–2, 2026
- Workshop: The Law and Humanities Workshop for Junior Scholars, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, June 8–9, 2026
- Conference: Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities Annual Conference, Chicago, June 17–18, 2026
Global Opportunities:
- Call for Applications: Lilly Scholar in Residence Short-term Fellowship for Technology & African and Middle Eastern Religious Cultures, Library of Congress, January 9, 2026
- Call for Proposals: 2026 Sponsored Event Program, American Society of Comparative Law, January 20, 2026
- Call for Applications: Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship, Northwestern University, January 26, 2026
- Call for Submissions: Fusayfsa’, the Smith College student-led Middle East Studies Journal, January 30, 2026
- Call for Papers: Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities Annual Conference, Chicago, January 31, 2026
- Call for Papers: 40th Annual Middle East History and Theory Conference (MEHAT), University of Chicago, January 31, 2026
- Call for Papers: Humanities of AI Workshop—Intelligence and Imitation: Mind, Mechanism, Mimesis, Johns Hopkins University, January 31, 2026
- Call for Papers: Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (MEIS) Graduate Student Virtual Symposium, University of Alberta, February 2, 2026
- Call for Applications: Kamel Center Senior Postgraduate Fellowship, Yale Law School, February 20, 2026
- Position Opening: Visiting Assistant Professor of Medieval Middle East, Colby College, July 1, 2026