The workshop on 'Family and Family Law in Asia and the Middle East', convened by ISIM and the Working Group Modernity and Islam (30 June - 1 July 2000) at the Institute for Islamic Studies, Free... Show moreThe workshop on 'Family and Family Law in Asia and the Middle East', convened by ISIM and the Working Group Modernity and Islam (30 June - 1 July 2000) at the Institute for Islamic Studies, Free University of Berlin, aimed at creating a network of scholars and scholar-activists currently based in the West, who employ a social science methodology and perspective in the study of family law, its history, its regional developments and its interpretation by courts. Show less
Students of Islamic law sometimes observe that Islamic law is not law in the proper sense. This observation primarily refers to the distinction between 'jurists law' and 'judge-made law', the... Show moreStudents of Islamic law sometimes observe that Islamic law is not law in the proper sense. This observation primarily refers to the distinction between 'jurists law' and 'judge-made law', the latter being the only proper law. The observation also reflects that our knowledge of Islamic law is derived more from studying the fiqh texts on legal doctrine than from the actual workings of the qadi courts. One may wish to research the actual qadi judgments, but will quickly notice that few critical studies of these judgments are available. Show less
From 26-28 April 2000, twelve prominent Muslim thinkers from a wide range of regional backgrounds (Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Africa and the European diaspora) met at... Show moreFrom 26-28 April 2000, twelve prominent Muslim thinkers from a wide range of regional backgrounds (Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Africa and the European diaspora) met at an ISIM workshop to discuss some of the major intellectual and political challenges facing the Muslim world at present. Each of them presented a paper on an important aspect of the encounter with modernity, to which he or she had been devoting much thought recently. Several of the papers explicitly addressed the question of compatibility between Islam and modernity (or rather, as several participants emphasized, interpretations of Islam and conceptions of modernity). Some engaged in such sensitive issues as minority rights, women's rights and pluralism and called for the development of a contemporary religious discourse based on rights to balance the traditional emphasis on obligations or contributed to a theory of civil society. Others focused on (reformist revisions of) the relationship between the sacred texts, context and contemporary discourse. Show less
