ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS After Yul Edochie, the Nollywood actor and politician, announced that he has a second wife who has delivered a baby boy, debates about Nigeria's marriage laws and the interaction between Islamic polygamous marriages and civil marriages that do not permit polygamy have resurfaced. The Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In Familial Undercurrents: Untold Stories of Love and Marriage in Modern Iran (Duke University Press, 2022), Afsaneh Najmabadi (Harvard University) "uncovers her family’s complex experiences of polygamous marriage to tell a larger story of the transformations of notions of love, marriage, and family life in mid-twentieth-century Iran." Sohaib Baig (UCLA) … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Raha Rafii Grand Muftī Shawky Ibrahim Allam of Egypt’s Dār al-Iftāʾ issued a fatwā in December 2017[1] stating that any and all uses of cryptocurrency was ḥarām, or forbidden—including purchasing, selling, and leasing. The al-Azhar-affiliated Dār al-Iftāʾ was established in 1895 with the Grand Muftī as its head; throughout its history it served a … Continue reading Fatwās on Cryptocurrency: Egypt’s Dār al-Iftāʾ
ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS Some pundits have argued that the recent presidential campaign in France, and the candidates' statements about Islam "that seek[] to protect laïcité and regulate Islam contradictorily entangle[] state and religion ever closer." "Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb announced that congratulating Christians on holidays is not out of courtesy or formalities … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
By Raha Rafii Throughout the last few years, Muslim scholars have contested the validity of cryptocurrency in Islamic jurisprudence, particularly in light of its quick expansion in regions like the Gulf and Southeast Asia.[1] Cryptocurrency differs from standard forms of currency in that it exists only digitally and transactions are not processed through a central … Continue reading Fatwās on Cryptocurrency: The Syrian Islamic Council and the International Union of Muslim Scholars’ al-Qaradaghi
Please welcome our new Lead Blog Editor, Raha Rafii! Raha Rafii is currently an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, where she was previously a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow on the Law and Learning in Imami Shi‘i Islam ERC project. She received her PhD in 2019 from … Continue reading Welcome to our Lead Blog Editor, Raha Rafii!
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In Shari'a, Inshallah: Finding God in Somali Legal Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Mark Fathi Massoud (UC Santa Cruz) "addresses the connections between religious politics and legal politics—and the ways that religion shapes the foundation of our modern nations, even and especially those countries that call themselves secular." Read Massoud's … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Waskito Jati Having remained under the jurisdiction of the Indonesian judicial system, the codified Acehnese Islamic criminal code (Qanun Jinayat) exemplifies the intricacies of incorporating classical Islamic concepts alongside modern and secular government regulations.[1] The case being discussed in this essay is one example wherein a child rape allegation turns into an allegation of … Continue reading From Child Rape to Zinā with a Child: Analysis of Consent to Sexual Intercourse and Minimum Age of Criminal Liability under Acehnese Qanun Jinayat
ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated a madrasa at Ayasofya, two years after the site was converted into a mosque. For more content and context on Ayasofya's conversion from a museum into a mosque, consult our "Recent Case Roundup: On the Turkish Decision on Hagia Sofia." Forty people were reported … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In "The Validity of Bitcoins According to the Islamic Law" (Law and Justice 6, no. 2 (2022)), Wardah Yuspin and Sakia Agia Salsabella (Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta) argue that "bitcoins produce more harm than good" and consequently that they are "prohibited by Islamic law." In "Legality of Immunisation in Islamic Law" … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
