The rejected plan for the Muslim call to prayer to be broadcast via loudspeakers from Peterborough's (UK) mosque will be reconsidered, after it was revealed that the city council website had published a different application on its website when it announced the rejection. 14-year-old volleyball player Najah Aqeel, who had been denied from competing in … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
COVID-19 and Islamic Law Roundup
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
As companies continue to develop vaccines against COVID-19, questions about whether these vaccines contain pork-derived ingredients continue to occupy the minds of many Muslims. Salman Waqar from the British Islamic Medical Association stated that "[t]he ḥalāl aspect of it [the Pfizer vaccine] has been noted by several scholars, from Sunnī and Shī'a backgrounds in the … Continue reading COVID-19 and Islamic Law Roundup
Islamic Law in the News Roundup
Following the beheading of Samuel Paty, a French teacher of civics, for showing caricatures of the Prophet in class during a discussion on French secularism or laicité, French teachers reported finding conversations around the issue to be increasingly difficult and volatile. Japanese Muslims expressed their frustration with the difficulty to find burial facilities and locations … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
Weekend Scholarship Roundup
In her book review for Reading Religion (November 19, 2020) of Tamir Moustafa’s (Simon Fraser University) Constituting Religion: Islam, Liberal Rights, and the Malaysian State (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Nurfadzilah Yahaya (National University of Singapore) argues that the book showcases how Islamic law is utilized by the country’s political elites “in the service of Malay … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
Islamic Law in the News Roundup
Details of France’s proposed bill to counter what President Macron called “Islamic separatism” began to emerge: the bill seeks to criminalize disclosing data about a person’s location to those who might do harm, to provide for summary trials for perpetrators of online hate crimes, to empower judges to prevent individuals with a certain criminal history … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
Islam and Data Science Roundup
In “Are Christians More Likely to Invoke RFRA--and win--than Other Religions since Hobby Lobby?” (Mercer Law Review, forthcoming), Stephen Cranney (Baylor University) investigates the assumption that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) is successfully invoked by Christians rather than other religious minorities. Using a dataset consisting of post-Hobby Lobby cases invoking RFRA, Cranney finds that … Continue reading Islam and Data Science Roundup
Weekend Scholarship Roundup
In “Are Christians More Likely to Invoke RFRA--and win--than Other Religions since Hobby Lobby?” (Mercer Law Review, forthcoming), Stephen Cranney (Baylor University) investigates the assumption that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) is successfully invoked by Christians rather than other religious minorities. Using a dataset consisting of post-Hobby Lobby cases invoking RFRA, Cranney finds that … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
New debates about Islam in Europe
Talib Shareef, Yaya J. Fanusie, and Muhammad Fraser-Rahim, three African American Muslims with experience in a diverse array of American institutions, including the US Air Force, the CIA, and the Department of Homeland Security, respectively, recently wrote an article in Foreign Policy. There, the authors cite and evaluate the existing narratives in circulation on Islam … Continue reading New debates about Islam in Europe
Professor Mohammad Fadel on Muslims, Islam, and Bostock
Professor Mohammad Fadel, senior editor at SHARIAsource, explores Muslim perspectives on religious freedom pertaining to the Supreme Court's recent Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) decision on equal protection in "Professor Mohammad Fadel on Muslims, Islam, and Bostock". In this article, Fadel addresses disputes regarding the stances of some Muslims toward the rights of LGBTQ persons, … Continue reading Professor Mohammad Fadel on Muslims, Islam, and Bostock
Talāq, Sex Equality, and Due Process
By Limeng Sun This post is part of the Digital Islamic Law Lab (DILL) series, in which a Harvard student analyzes a primary source of Islamic law, previously workshopped in the DIL Lab. Case Summary: The Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, in a case of first impression, held that the enforcement of a talāq … Continue reading Talāq, Sex Equality, and Due Process