In November of 1999, Nigerians took to the streets demanding the re-implementation of shari'ah law in their country. Two years later, many Nigerians supported the death sentence by stoning of a peasant woman for alleged sexual misconduct. Public outcry in the West was met with assurances to the Western public: stoning is not a part of Islam; stoning happens "only in Africa"; reports of stoning are exaggerated by Western sensationalism. However, none of these statements are true. Shari'ah on Trial goes beyond journalistic headlines and liberal pieties to give a powerful account of how Northern Nigerians reached a point of such desperation that they demanded the return of the strictest possible shari'ah law. Sarah Eltantawi analyzes changing conceptions of Islamic theology and practice as well as Muslim and British interactions dating back to the colonial period to explain the resurgence of shari'ah, with implications for Muslim-majority countries around the world.

“A delightfully original take on…the prospects for liberal democracy in the broader Islamic Middle East.”—Matthew Kaminski, Wall Street Journal As the Arab Spring threatens to give way to authoritarianism in Egypt and reports from Afghanistan detail widespread violence against U.S. troops and women, news from the Muslim world raises the question: Is Islam incompatible with freedom? In Islam without Extremes, Turkish columnist Mustafa Akyol answers this question by revealing the little-understood roots of political Islam, which originally included both rationalist, flexible strains and more dogmatic, rigid ones. Though the rigid traditionalists won out, Akyol points to a flourishing of liberalism in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire and the unique “Islamo-liberal synthesis” in present-day Turkey. As he powerfully asserts, only by accepting a secular state can Islamic societies thrive. Islam without Extremes offers a desperately needed intellectual basis for the reconcilability of Islam and liberty.

In cities awakening to global exchange under European imperial rule, Muslims encountered all sorts of strange and wonderful new things—synthetic toothbrushes, toilet paper, telegraphs, railways, gramophones, brimmed hats, tailored pants, and lottery tickets. The passage of these goods across cultural frontiers spurred passionate debates. Realizing that these goods were changing religious practices and values, proponents and critics wondered what to outlaw and what to permit. In this book, Leor Halevi tells the story of the Islamic trials of technological and commercial innovations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He focuses on the communications of an entrepreneurial Syrian interpreter of the shariʿa named Rashid Rida, who became a renowned reformer by responding to the demand for authoritative and authentic religious advice. Upon migrating to Egypt, Rida founded an Islamic magazine, The Lighthouse, which cultivated an educated, prosperous readership within and beyond the British Empire. To an audience eager to know if their scriptures sanctioned particular interactions with particular objects, he preached the message that by rediscovering Islam’s foundational spirit, the global community of Muslims would thrive and realize modernity’s religious and secular promises. Through analysis of Rida’s international correspondence, Halevi argues that religious entanglements with new commodities and technologies were the driving forces behind local and global projects to reform the Islamic legal tradition. Shedding light on culture, commerce, and consumption in Cairo and other colonial cities, Modern Things on Trial is a groundbreaking account of Islam’s material transformation in a globalizing era.

Muslims form one-fifth of the world population, yet people know very little about Muslims, their culture, religion, and history. This is not a textbook on Islamic lawthe Shariahbut it analyzes the Shariah in its correct perspective as a way of life that a Muslim is required to follow in order to gain the pleasure of God, seeking His rewards and avoiding the punishments, thus introducing to those non-Muslims the correct understanding of the Shariah. After 9/11 and 7/7, Shariah, in any form, has become very suspicious, and a new word, Islamophobia, has entered the English lexicon. Against this background, this book examines the concept of Islamic law that can be safely accommodated within the British legal system. A strong case has been made for legal pluralism that can be introduced without affecting human rights, and a robust case has been made for allowing Muslim matrimonial and family matters to be settled using the British Arbitration Act of 1996

Islam’s Sacred Law is one of the most complex, detailed and comprehensive legal theories that Islam, as a Western religion, has produced in its capacity as a doctrine of social justice. However, few available texts have dealt with the treatment of women under the actual system of justice that adheres to Islam’s Sacred Law. This book fills this void by providing a much needed comprehensive study of the application of the Sacred Law to women under the Islamic Republic of Iran’s justice system. It will be a fascinating guide to all those interested in comparative law, criminal justice and the sociology of law.

This edited volume offers a collection of papers that present a comparative analysis of the development of Shari’a in countries with Muslim minorities, such as America, Australia, Germany, and Italy, as well as countries with Muslim majorities, such as Malaysia, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Tunisia. The Sociology of Shari’a provides a global analysis of these important legal transformations and analyzesthe topic from a sociological perspective. It explores examples of non-Western countries that have a Muslim minority in their populations, including South Africa, China, Singapore, and the Philippines. In addition, the third part of the book includes case studies that explore some ground-breaking theories on the sociology of Shari’a, such as the application of Black, Chambliss, and Eisenstein’s sociological perspectives.

Taking an inter-disciplinary approach which straddles law, anthropology sociology and women's studies, Mir-Hosseini shows how women can turn even the most patriarchal elements of Islamic law to their advantage and achieve their personal marital aims.