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The relationship between religious identity, ethnic identity, and politics has always been a problematic one, especially in plural societies like Sudan. This article is an attempt to understand the reasons behind the insistence of the popular parties of the Muslim majority in Northern Sudan on establishing shar'ia law as the law of the land. By using secondary data on party programmes, public opinion, and an analysis of political events, I reconstruct the evolution of the debate in order to identify its prime movers. My conclusion is that this debate emerged as a result of the quest for a national identity by the majority group, who are predominantly Muslim and identify as Arab. Contrary to the common belief that principles of identity politics generally only apply to minority groups, I argue that the constant pressure from popular parties in Sudan to apply shari'a law shows that where the identity of the majority group is unclear or problematic, there is a tendency to use strong cultural symbols as an aid to political mobilisation by elites who claim to meet the presumed demands of the public. Raising the banner of shari'a is an effective way not only to exclude non-Muslims from playing central roles in national politics, but also to undermine the roles of other politically moderate Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This research pursues the explanation of the approach of Firas al-Sawah (born 1941), the Syrian sociologist and theologian toward religion. Adopting the phenomenological method, he has studied and understood religion from a mythological point of view. In this article, we will show that his theory has many deficiencies coming from his focusing on the historical and mythological point of view: secularizing the foundations of the religious beliefs and origins of religious traditions, relying on unregulated interpretation, reducing revelation to religious experience, paving the way for diverse readings of religion, giving a mythical explanation of sacred events and figures in the history of religions, presenting a vague interpretation of the monotheistic nature (Fitrah) of human beings. Having an analytical method and citing excerpts from his works, we will explain these disadvantages in his theory.

This research aims to know the relation between religion and environtment in a deep comprehensive understanding. How religion and environtment in some extents they are too related. In Islam for example, concept of shari’a seemingly agreed and supported the idea of nature and animal conservation. But, in some extent they are contradictive. This contradictive discouse could be seen from any kinds of texts of religious scriptures in how they deal with preservation of nature and animal (killing animal). The role of religious text we may say “yes” that it deal and closely related how the ecological views are constructed. How it overcomes the natural degradation, pollutions for instance. But, religion also should be understood as an orientation of the cosmos and how actually our human existence has an important role to the world. In broadest sense, we understand that religion also means of how people know the limits of reality and how humans interact with their own environment. Religion often talk about the cosmological stories, systems and symbols, ritual practices, norms and ethics, the history, and the institutional structure that transmits the view where human beings as an integral part in the world—and has a sense of responsibility towards nature. This article use the analytical approach in analyizing the issue of religion and environtment. Thus, the relation between Islamic law, Quranic verses and Shari’a are compactible in responding the issue of environtment

The study of the relations between religion and philosophy has a long history in the works of Muslim philosophers. Al-Farabi may be considered the pioneer of Muslim philosophers in presenting a coherent and comprehensive theory of the relations between religion and philosophy. Believing in the unity of the doctrines of these two systems of thought, he views religion as a manifestation of teaching and adopting of wisdom. Practical wisdom, as part of the absolute wisdom that speaks the language of truth and demonstrative proof (Burhan), is no exception. In the same vein, he regards the religious teachings of human voluntary actions as the doctrines of practical wisdom, which are instilled in the language of allegory and persuasion, introducing the practical aspect of religion, the Shari'a, as the philosophical teachings in regard with regional and temporal circumstances. He attempts to explain the validity, inclusiveness, and durability of the teachings of the Shari'a by elaborating trans-historical and supernatural elements. He, therefore, secures the validity and inclusiveness of the religious doctrines through revelation and guarantees the survival of shari'a by introducing jurisprudence (Fighaha) as a complementary part for concluding prophethood.

Satellite TV and the Internet revolutions have reinvigorated religious discourse in public spaces. Across the world, religious TV channels and Internet religious websites have taken up the roles of traditional religious spaces such as churches, mosques, synagogues, gurdwaras and temples. Islamic religious content through fatwa (religious verdict) programmes and other online and satellite TV genre has attracted considerable attention over the last fifteen years. Such programmes have become influential platforms in constructing people's opinions. On Islamic-oriented satellite TV channels, fatwa provision has nowadays become a sophisticated phenomenon exceeding the traditional scope of religious teaching. To understand fatwa and its possible impact, it is necessary to gauge the plethora of platforms available for audiences and users as sources of understanding their religious needs starting with satellite TV programmes to the unlimited online platforms for the diffusion of their religious decree. This research attempts to understand the extent to which fatwa programmes on satellite TV and radio are significant in shaping people's opinion. Through the implementation of an extensive survey questionnaire on a sample of the Qatari society in addition to interviews with experts and religious scholars, findings show that fatwa on satellite programme can be very important in helping viewers better understand their religion. The results also indicated that respondents included in the survey showed apathy when it comes to the implementation of rulings coming from muftis on TV. In short, respondents may watch fatwa or religious programmes on satellite TV or they may listen to them on the Qur'an radio in Qatar but they do not necessarily consider them as totally authentic. Authentic scholarly views on matters of religious seem to be more credible when they originate from a reputable Imam whom they see face to face. Moreover, results show that satellite TV has facilitated the emergence of the pan-Arab mufti or global Faqeeh. It has also facilitated the emergence of independent muftis and freed fatwa from the official religious authorities in various countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines why ordinary people sympathize with a terrorist network in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Holding literalist religious outlook resonating with al-Qaeda’s marginal interpretation of Islam constant, it is maintained that anti-Americanism and its varieties matter a great deal in explaining attitudes toward al-Qaeda. Using Pew Global Attitudes Surveys conducted in Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia, the authors run conditional mixed process estimations combining seemingly unrelated regressions with selection models to account for the missing values and endogeneity problems. The analysis reveals significant variation both cross-nationally and in the effects of varieties of anti-Americanism on favorability of al-Qaeda. While the dislike of certain aspects of American culture generates sympathy toward al-Qaeda, anti-Americanism as a general attitude does not. More interestingly, dislike of American democracy, technology, and policy has either negative or no effect on favorable views of al-Qaeda. Literalist religious outlook generates positive views of al-Qaeda, but religiosity has a negative impact. These findings imply that we need to draw careful distinctions between politicized Islamic preferences and personal religiosity as well as the different types of anti-American sentiments in understanding Muslim political attitudes about terrorist groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses Mauritanian society’s attitude towards death in general and the dead in particular. Although religion has a degree of influence on death and handling of the dead, the practices that Mauritanians have traditionally adopted with respect to these two issues reflect the multi-ethnic and cultural norms of this population. The article focuses on those traditions and prevalent rituals of Mauritanian society, examined within their ethnic diversity and spatial distribution, while in doing so assessing these practices fromsharīʿa1[Islamic Law]’s perspective. Using an anthropological and historical approach, this article identifies various components of Mauritanian society and discusses how they appeal to religious precepts to overcome some of those popular uses as they pertain to the deceased. This research article reveals that regardless of the injunctions of Islam on the matter, some traditional beliefs are everlasting because they are firmly anchored and widespread in the society, thus making their elimination quasi-impossible in the short term. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While scholars of the Islamic revival have devoted attention to the increased prominence of Islamic law [the shari'a] in the once-secular public sphere, less attention has been paid to a countervailing trend. By mapping the evolution of Islamic law over the twentieth century, the author demonstrates that the shari'a is a product of decades of negotiations between Islamic institutions and more secular authorities including government ministers, doctors and social movements. This evolution suggests that secular authority and secular forms of knowledge have influenced but not displaced religious authority and religious forms of knowledge. The opposite is also true. This finding raises questions about the binary distinction between secular and sacred authority and suggests the coevolution of religion and secularism in modern Muslim societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about Shari’a law and legal pluralism have come to the fore of political discourse in many western multicultural societies including Australia. The mass media, in particular newspapers, have been active in reporting on Shari’a related news items and in doing so, have made a significant contribution to shaping political debate across western nations from governmental to grassroots levels. Understanding how newspapers report on Shari’a will provide important insights into how political discourse about Islam, western Muslims and Shari’a is formed. Utilizing the example of newspapers in Sydney, Australia, this article draws upon methodologies used to analyse the negative portrayals of new religious movements in the press. The article aims to analyse the way that Shari’a has been reported in key newspapers in Sydney over the last five years. It explores a variety of issues influencing the reporting of Shari’a including reporting of Shari’a at the local and international levels, the division between ‘good’ Shari’a (Islamic finance) and ‘bad’ Shari’a (family and criminal law) and differences between newspapers and media owners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Tariq Al-Bishri, it is not true that it is the Islamic current that controls the state in Egypt as a political project is in the process of crystallizing. His main proposal is for the three forces dominating the structure and dynamics of political life in Egypt – namely the army and judiciary, the Muslim Brotherhood, and liberals – to collaborate and avoid posing religion and the state as two opposing entities. Having to deal with the Shari'a as the source or reference for legislation need not be a polarizing issue as religion is being dealt with as ‘the dominant culture’; moreover, much work has already been done along this line throughout the 20th century. Al-Bishri argues that democracy within a society becomes vacuous if it is detached from solving its socio-economic challenges. To this end he prioritizes four main issues: (1) freeing the Egyptian national will from American and Israeli pressures; (2) reforming and rebuilding government administrative bureaucracy; (3) organizing civil society; and (4) drafting a constitution. Al-Bishri considers that ‘after Islamists assume power in Egypt’ it is imperative for the existing political and cultural forces in Egypt to cooperate as none of them has enough power to negate the others or lead on his own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is increasingly common to speak of 'civil marriage,' that label falls far short of capturing the complexities of marriage. This Essay asks what might it mean for U.S. law to take seriously the civil and religious, contractual and covenantal, individual and communal claims about marriage. Muslims, Jewish, and Christian claimants alike struggle to navigate their religious beliefs about marriage and divorce and the expectations (and requirements) of the state regarding family law. The Essay suggests a way forward through a more explicitly pluralist approach that takes the interplay between law and religion seriously. Key Points for Family Court Community: Many legal discussions wrongly break marriage into simple categories of 'civil marriage' and 'religious marriage' and mistakenly assume that these elements of marriage can be separated., For many people, the religious aspects of marriage and divorce are more important than the civil aspects., Recent controversies over shari'a tribunals for family law in the United Kingdom and Canada will not remain isolated, and more controversies about marriage and divorce will soon arise in the United States for religious individuals., We should be 'conscious pluralists' regarding family law and consider both religious and civil aspects of marriage and divorce in law-creating and decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did the shari‘a courts treat cases of illicit intercourse between men? This study answers that question by examining a successful conviction of a youth named Muhammad accused of sexual liaisons with men resulting in his expulsion from his neighbourhood in 1735. Placing this unique case into its socio-legal context, two readings are possible. One argues that this case represents a form of neighbourhood policing of possible male prostitution. However, policing of same-sex intimacy was rare and, as this article shows, within the Hanafi tradition, jurists failed to achieve scholarly consensus on the status of sodomy. A second reading suggests that anxieties over the use of beardless boys (amrad) in Sufi boy gazing ceremonies (sama‘) spurred contemporary critics to charge Sufi mystics with both sexual deviance and heresy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims at offering a brief view over the British Shari'a Muslim Arbitration Tribunals from a perspective that draws on both the Islamic cultural environment and the British legal framework within which these British institutions operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review of Irene Oh's The Rights of God focuses on women's rights in Islamic theory and practice. Oh suggests that religious establishments, and the texts they disseminate, often press believers to recognize and reject social problems, such as racial and gender discrimination. Islamic scholars and texts have played a more ambiguous role in efforts to recognize women's rights within Muslim states. Modernist intellectuals have used Islamic texts to support the advancement of women's rights, but members of the more conservative religious establishment have typically curbed or rejected these efforts. Muslim women themselves have established various responses to the question of Islam's compatibility with women's rights. While some embrace the value and compatibility of both, others reject the propriety of either Western conceptions of rights, or the Islamic tradition, as harmful for women. Muslim reformers and feminists have much to learn from comparative studies with other faith communities that have undergone similar struggles and transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the differences between religious Law and civil Law in Islam; its historical development and its present political reality. The three main questions discussed are the definition of Shari'a, the diversity of Islams and the characterization of political Islam today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is possible to shed light upon crises experienced in religious area from Islamic intellectual tradition. However, here the past should be taken up as a map of thought, not as a guide. It would run contrary to the scientific method to make use of knowledge at hand with a view to supporting prior judgments or to adding historical colors into our fixated opinions. It is with these conditions that contributions can be made to the reconstruction of the intellectual fundaments of Islamic thought through improving al-Mâturîdi's views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very little research has examined the emergence of Western Muslims into the elite professions that are central to the operation of the capitalist free market and that serve as a central location of economic and political power. Less research still has examined how this is shaping citizenship among Muslims and the future of Islam in the West. These professions include finance, trade and auditing and supporting free market infrastructure including commercial law, consulting and the entrepreneurial arms of government public service. Many Muslim men and women in these professions maintain a commitment to their faith and are often at the forefront of identifying opportunities for the application of Islamic principles to the free market through the development of social engineering mechanisms such as Islamic finance and home loans, Islamic wills, marriage contracts, businesses and context-specific solutions for Muslim clients. These may have a potentially profound impact on belonging and practice for current and future generations of Western Muslims. The political and economic clout (and broader potential public appeal) of these new Muslim elites often significantly outweighs that of Imams and Sheikhs and thus challenges traditional textually based Islam. This article, grounded in empirical research, seeks to build upon very limited research looking at Muslim elites, exploring these developments with specific reference to professionals working in Islamic finance and law across the Western contexts of Australia and the United States, two countries with capitalist free markets and significant Muslim minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]