Weaves together international and comparative law, religion, international relations, comparative politics, and legal history to illuminate and address the theoretical and practical dimensions of a significant human rights problem.

Since at least the attacks of September 11, 2001, one of the most pressing political questions of the age has been whether Islam is hostile to religious freedom. Daniel Philpott examines conditions on the ground in forty-seven Muslim-majority countries today and offers an honest, clear-eyed answer to this urgent question. It is not, however, a simple answer. From a satellite view, the Muslim world looks unfree. But, Philpott shows, the truth is much more complex. Some one-fourth of Muslim-majority countries are in fact religiously free. Of the other countries, about forty percent are governed not by Islamists but by a hostile secularism imported from the West, while the other sixty percent are Islamist. The picture that emerges is both honest and hopeful. Yes, most Muslim-majority countries are lacking in religious freedom. But, Philpott argues, the Islamic tradition carries within it "seeds of freedom," and he offers guidance for how to cultivate those seeds in order to expand religious freedom in the Muslim world and the world at large. It is an urgent project. Religious freedom promotes goods like democracy and the advancement of women that are lacking in the Muslim-majority world and reduces ills like civil war, terrorism, and violence. Further, religious freedom is simply a matter of justice--not an exclusively Western value, but rather a universal right rooted in human nature. Its realization is critical to the aspirations of religious minorities and dissenters in Muslim countries, to Muslims living in non-Muslim countries or under secular dictatorships, and to relations between the West and the Muslim world. In this thoughtful book, Philpott seeks to establish a constructive middle ground in a fiery and long-lasting debate over Islam.

Proposes a new theoretical approach to religious liberty that both transcends and transforms current approaches to law and religion.

This unparalleled Companion provides a comprehensive and authoritative guide to Islamic law to all with an interest in this increasingly relevant and developing field. The volume presents classical Islamic law through a historiographical introduction to and analysis of Western scholarship, while key debates about hot-button issues in modern-day circumstances are also addressed. In twenty-one chapters, distinguished authors offer an overview of their particular specialty, reflect on past and current thinking, and point to directions for future research. The Companion is divided into four parts. The first offers an introduction to the history of Islamic law as well as a discussion of how Western scholarship and historiography have evolved over time. The second part delves into the substance of Islamic law. Legal rules for the areas of legal status, family law, socio-economic justice, penal law, constitutional authority, and the law of war are all discussed in this section. Part three examines the adaptation of Islamic law in light of colonialism and the modern nation state as well as the subsequent re-Islamization of national legal systems. The final section presents contemporary debates on the role of Islamic law in areas such as finance, the diaspora, modern governance, and medical ethics, and the volume concludes by questioning the role of Sharia law as a legal authority in the modern context. By outlining the history of Islamic law through a linear study of research, this collection is unique in its examination of past and present scholarship and the lessons we can draw from this for the future. It introduces scholars and students to the challenges posed in the past, to the magnitude of milestones that were achieved in the reinterpretation and revision of established ideas, and ultimately to a thorough conceptual understanding of Islamic law.

A comprehensive guide to Islamic legal scholarship, this Handbook offers a direct and accessible introduction to Islamic law and the academic debates within the field. Topics include textual sources and authority, institutions, substantive legal areas, Islamic legal philosophy, and Islamic law in the Muslim World and in Muslim minority countries.

Examines the interdisciplinary development of law and religion, with a particular focus on Professor Norman Doe's pioneering role.

This bibliography offers a new and indispensable tool for both researchers and practitioners in the field of Islamic law. It supplements the bibliographies published by Joseph Schacht (1964) and John Makdisi (1987) and includes some 1,600 Western-language publications which have appeared between 1980 and 1993. It contains a general and a regional section. With regard to the latter, the main focus is on the Middle East (including Afghanistan and North Africa), although publications in South and Southeast Asia have also been included. In order to facilitate its use, an authors' index and a subject index have been added.

The relationship between modern international law and Islamic law has raised many theoretical and practical questions that cannot be ignored in the contemporary study and understanding of both international law and Islamic law. The significance and relevance of this relationship in both academic and practical terms, especially after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, is now well understood. Recent international events in particular corroborate the need for a better understanding of the relationship between contemporary international law and Islamic law and how their interaction can be explored and improved to enhance modern international relations and international law. The articles reproduced in this volume examine the issues of General Principles of International Law, International Use of Force, International Humanitarian Law, International Terrorism, International Protection of Diplomats, International Environmental and Water Law, Universality of Human Rights, Women's Rights, Rights of the Child, Rights of Religious Minorities, and State Practice. The essays have been carefully selected to reflect, as much as possible, the different Islamic perspectives on each of these aspects of international law.

In this first comprehensive study of the problem of a universal definition of human rights, Robert Traer argues that contemporary theological discourse contains an affirmation of faith that unites members of world religious traditions with secular humanists in a common struggle to establish human rights as the basis for human dignity. Scholars of religion, law, and comparative religious ethics, as well as human rights advocates will find it an invaluable guide.