Includes bibliographical references and index.

Transcendence and interpretation : introductory notes on the theology of the rule of law / Lior Barshack -- Shari'a, faith and critical legal theory / Marinos Diamantides -- One law against another? : Reading the veil cases : the foundational reference, Shari'a and human rights / Adam Gearey -- The gift of ambiguity : strategising beyond the either/or of secularism and religion in Islamic divorce law / Hassan El Menyawi -- What is Islamic law? : A praxiological answer and an Egyptian case study / Baudouin Dupret -- State of equalities : law, marriage and citizenship in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania / Satyel Larson -- Entrepreneurs and morals / Guèl Berna Oèzcan -- Religion, politics and the dilemma of national identity in Pakistan / Tasneem Kausar -- Theorizing Islam without the state : Islamic discourses on the minority status of Muslims in the West / Alexandre Caeiro -- Terror in the faculty lounge : addressing the politics of fear and the politics of difference in government security policies / Katherine E. Brown.

"The essays brought together in Islam, Law and Identity are the product of a series of interdisciplinary workshops that brought together scholars from a plethora of countries. Funded by the British Academy the workshops convened over a period of two years in London, Cairo and Izmir. The workshops and the ensuing papers focus on recent debates about the nature of sacred and secular law and most engage case studies from specific countries including Egypt, Israel, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Pakistan and the UK. Islam, Law and Identity also addresses broader and over-arching concerns about relationships between religion, human rights, law and modernity. Drawing on a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches, the collection presents law as central to the complex ways in which different Muslim communities and institutions create and re-create their identities around inherently ambiguous symbols of faith. From their different perspectives, the essays argue that there is no essential conflict between secular law and Shari`a but various different articulations of the sacred and the secular. Islam, Law and Identity explores a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the tensions that animate such terms as Shari`a law, modernity and secularization"--Provided by publisher.

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