Islamic Law and the Challenges of Modernity

One of the central demands of Islamists is the restitution of shari'a law, a demand that has been responded to by a shifting combination of rejection and accommodation in the nation-states of the Middle East. Presented by Haddad (history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations, Georgetown U.) and Stowasser (Arabic language, literature, and linguistics; Georgetown U.) present eight papers that explore some of the challenges raised by this demand, including the legal and political efficacy of state muftis (interpreters of Islamic law) in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt; Egyptian attempts to balance Western notions of constitutionalism with popular demands for shari'a ; and the possibilities of applying Islamic legal notions of asylum as a basis for nation-state acceptance of the right of asylum. Full one half of the articles examine legal questions related to women, including the largely European-derived personal status codes of the Arab governments, the incorporation of tahlil (or temporary marriage) into the personal status codes, and Islamic historic legal traditions that support greater freedom for women. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad is professor of history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Serice at Georgetown University. She has taught Middle East history and Islamic studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Hartford Seminary; and Colgate University. She is a past president of the Middle East Studies Association. Haddad's research interest has focused on twentieth-century Islamic thought and Muslims in the West. Her numerous publications include Contemporary Islam and the Challenge of History; Muslim Communities in North America; The Islamic Revival; The Muslims of America; Women, Religion, and Social Change; Muslims on the Americanization Path?; Muslims in the West: From Sojourners to Citizens; and Muslim Minorities in the West: 'Visible' and 'Invisible.' Barbara Freyer Stowasser (Ph.D., Islamic Studies and Semitic Languages, Universitat Munster) is professor of Arabic in the Department of Arabic at Georgetown University. Since 1993, she has served as director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. She served as the 34th president of the Middle East Studies Association (1998-99). Her publications include a book length study on Women in the Qur'an: Traditions and Interpretation (Oxford University Press, 1994), an edited volume entitled The Islamic Impulse (CCAS, 1987), articles published in American, German, Arabic and Turkish journals and periodicals, and book chapters in collected volumes. CCAS recently published Dr. Stowasser's A Time to Reap: Thoughts on Calendars and Millennialism, an exploration of how Islam, Christianity, and Judaism have historically treated periods of apocalyptic imminence.