Daniel Peterson discusses a 2013 decision of Indonesia’s Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) and a series of lower court judgments issued following that decision in "Case Note: Constitutional Court Decision No 93/PUU-X/2012 on Shari’a Banking Dispute Resolution," Islamic Law & Law of the Muslim World eJournal (originally published in Australian Journal of Asian Law).
[This post is a sequel to part 1, addressing secularism and Nigeria's colonial legacy] Situated within a broader research project aimed at disentangling the complex struggles over religion-state relations in colonial Northern Nigeria, my article, “Secularizing Islam: The Colonial Encounter and the Making of a British Colonial Islamic Criminal Law in Northern Nigeria, 1903-58” tells … Continue reading The Making of a Colonial Islamic Law in Northern Nigeria
By Rabiat Akande The secularism debate remains the most vexed issue in Nigeria’s constitutional discourse. This debate centers on the question: Is Nigeria a ‘secular’ state? The first position in the debate, the ‘secularist’ position, answers the question in the positive. “Yes,” this position affirms, Nigeria is a ‘secular’ state. In the view of the … Continue reading Secularism and Nigeria’s Colonial Legacy
By Rabiat Akande The secularism debate remains the most vexed issue in Nigeria’s constitutional discourse. This debate centers on the question: Is Nigeria a ‘secular’ state? The first position in the debate, the ‘secularist’ position, answers the question in the positive. “Yes,” this position affirms, Nigeria is a ‘secular’ state. In the view of the … Continue reading Secularism and Nigeria’s Colonial Legacy
By Waheeda Amien On August 31, 2018, the Western Cape High Court in South Africa handed down a groundbreaking judgment in the case of Women’s Legal Centre Trust v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others.[1] In this case, a full bench of three High Court judges ordered the South African government to … Continue reading Commentary :: Recognition and Regulation of Muslim Marriages in South Africa
On Apr 16, Marzieh Tofighi Darian gave a talk on "Judicial Review in Iran: Whose Guardian: Constitution or Sharia?" in which she examined the role of Iran's Guardian Council in evaluating claims of sharīʿa compatibility and constitutional violations. She detailed the Guardian Council’s place in Iran’s constitutional design and the controversies that arise with Parliament … Continue reading Lunch Talk: Judicial Review in Iran
On Mar 28, Professor Mohammad Fadel of the University of Toronto gave a lecture on "Nushuz, Lawful Discipline and Spouse Abuse in the Maliki Madhab: A History and Its Relevance to Modern Islamic Law Reform." He discussed examples of Muslim judges from Mamlūk and Andalusian courts seeking out cases of spousal abuse rather than waiting for those cases to … Continue reading Lecture Series: Spousal Abuse and Islamic Law Reform
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Alabama to execute a Muslim inmate who had filed a legal challenge after prison officials told him he could only have a Christian chaplain present in the execution chamber—but not a Muslim imam. Domineque Ray’s lawyers had argued that the prison’s policy violated the Establishment Clause of the … Continue reading In the News: Prison Chaplains
Nadia Marzouki is the author of Islam: An American Religion, published in 2013. She was an Andrew Carnegie Centennial Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center and a research fellow at HKS’s Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative in 2017. She is currently a tenured research fellow (Chargée de Recherche) at the CNRS (Centre National de … Continue reading Interview :: The Social-Legal Implications of Islamic Law with Nadia Marzouki, Author of Islam: An American Religion
Last fall, Tunisia overturned a 1973 law that banned Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men. (It is generally accepted by Islamic scholars that men are permitted to marry women of certain monotheistic faiths that predate Islam, such as Judaism and Christianity; however, the opposite scenario—Muslim women marrying non-Muslim men—is a source of contention.) Supporters of … Continue reading In the News: Interfaith Marriages and Islamic Law in Tunisia
