ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS
- “The Muslim Lawyers’ Association of Nigeria has raised concern over what it described as a decline in the number of justices with specialised knowledge of Islamic personal law available to hear Sharia-related appeals at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.”
- According to a new report by the Guardian, “When prompted, AI chatbots will edit images to remove the hijabs from Muslim women, a violation of one of the world’s most common and visible expressions of faith.”
- “Kazakhstan‘s largest bank by assets has secured shareholder approval to apply for a licence to conduct Islamic banking operations, in a move that would give Sharia-compliant finance access to the country’s largest banking platform.”
- “The establishment of the Malaysia-Indonesia Halal Council marks a step toward creating an ASEAN and eventually a global halal council, Head of Indonesia’s Halal Product Assurance Organizing Agency (BPJPH) Ahmad Haikal Hasan said.”
CASES AND FATWĀS
- “Saudi Arabia‘s top religious authority called on soldiers in the kingdom to be ready to lay down their lives to fight the Iran-backed Houthis until the group is ousted from power.”
- In Pakistan, the “Supreme Court has ruled that Nikah registrars must strictly use the prescribed Nikahnama and ensure that all relevant columns are properly and carefully filled.”
- “Chess is currently banned in Afghanistan… Despite the ban, Afghan teams took part in both the open and women’s sections of the Chess Olympiad, a decision that was not welcomed by the ruling Taliban. Three of the players were arrested at the border on their return and placed under house arrest. They could potentially face severe punishment.”
- “Afghanistan’s Ministry of Justice has announced the publication of new regulations governing the Afghanistan Ulema Council in the country’s official gazette.” 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.”
- “Rashid bin Abdullah, Bahrain‘s Interior Minister, has once again intensified his confrontational policy by raising the charge of “Velayat-e Faqih” against imprisoned scholars.”
- In India, “The Gujarat High Court granted anticipatory bail to five family members of a man booked for instigating him to divorce his wife using triple talaq.”
- “An Iranian court’s decision to uphold a sentence of 74 lashes against the popular singer Parastoo Ahmadi for performing without a hijab has sparked outrage among rights groups, who described it as ‘a form of torture’.”
- In India, “A marriage claimed to be valid under Muslim personal law cannot confer immunity from penal law for establishing physical relations with a minor wife, the Delhi High Court has held.”
UPCOMING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
- Conference: Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, November 21–24, 2026
- Conference: The Institutional Embedding of Shiʿi Imams: Kinship, Caliphs, Courts and Companions (700-900), University of Leiden, January 13–15, 2027
- Conference: Rupture or Continuity in Sharīʿa: (De)Colonizing Sharīʿa? International Conference, Centre for Islamic Studies (ISAM), Istanbul, Turkey, June 9–11, 2027
Opportunities:
- Position Opening: Assistant or Associate Professor, History, University of California at Berkeley, October 15, 2026
- Position Opening: Assistant Professor in the Pre-Modern History of the Islamicate Middle East or Central Asia, University of Chicago, October 19, 2026
- Position Opening: Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, October 21, 2026