Islamic Law And The Challenges Of Modernity

Introduction: Islamic Law And The Challenges Of Modernity

Modernization And Legal Reforms In The Arab World

Can The Shari’a Be Restored?
Wael B. Hallaq (McGil University)
Inscribing The Islamic Shari’a In Arab Constitutional Law
Nathan J. Brown (GWU) And Adel Omar Sherif (Supreme Court Of Egypt)
A Typology Of State Muftis
Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen (University Of Copanhagen)
A Contextual Approach To Improving Asylum Law And Practices In The Middle East
Nadia Yakoob (Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy) And Amen Mir (Hale And Dorr)
Legal Reforms And The Impact On Women

Internationalizing The Conversation On Women’s Rights: Arab Countries Face The CEDAW Committee
Ann Elizabeth Mayer (University Of Pennsylvania)
Tahlil Marriage In Shari’a, Legal Codes, And The Contemporary Fatwa Literature
Barbara Stowasser And Zeinab Abul-Magd (both At Georgetown University)
Egyptian Feminism: Trapped In The Identity Debate
Lama Abu-Odeh (Georgetown University Law Center)
Muslim Women And Legal Reform: The Case Of Jordan And Women’s Work
Amira El-Azhary Sonbol (Georgetown University)

Additional Info
Since Europeans first colonized Arab lands in the 19th century, they have been pressing to have the area’s indigenous laws and legal systems accord with Western models. Although most Arab states now have national codes of law that reflect Western influence, fierce internal struggles continue over how to interpret Islamic law, particularly in the areas of gender and family. From different geographical and ideological points across the contemporary Arab world, Haddad and Stowasser demonstrate the range of views on just what Islam’s legal heritage in the region should be. For either law or religion classes, Islamic Law and the Challenges of Modernity provides the broad historical overview and particular cases needed to understand this contentious issue.