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
This forthcoming article by SHARIAsource Senior Scholar Mohammad Fadel is due to be published in an upcoming special issue of the International Journal of Constitutional Law. It describes how the development of laws in Egypt through a “deliberative political process” has been negatively impacted by the country’s top court: “The Sounds of Silence: The Supreme … Continue reading Recent Scholarship: Fadel and Johnson on Constitutionalism
A female Muslim police officer, Kimberlie Webb, sued the City of Philadelphia under Title VII and the Pennsylvania Religious Freedom Protection Act, alleging religion- and gender-based discrimination. Specifically, the plaintiff objected to the City barring her from wearing a headscarf (ḥijāb) with her police uniform, and argued that the prohibition amounted to a failure to … Continue reading Islamic Law in U.S. Courts: Webb v. City of Philadelphia (3d Cir. 2009): Ḥijāb with Police Uniform
Plaintiff Jeffrey Coleman filed an action against the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) alleging violations of his constitutional rights under the First Amendment, the Eighth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and RLUIPA. The Plaintiff claimed that these rights had been violated in over 12 policies, including the policy that limited his purchase of prayer oil to … Continue reading Islamic Law in U.S. Courts: Coleman v. Jabe (W.D.Va. 2012): Religious Accommodation for Grooming in Prison
The Court affirmed a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, granting summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff, Jerry Charles, who alleged a violation of his rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) to practice his religion. Specifically, the plaintiff requested accommodations that would allow … Continue reading Islamic Law in U.S. Courts: Charles v. Verhagen (7th Cir. 2003): Department of Corrections Challenges RLUIPA
