Indonesia’s main Muslim group criticizes blasphemy sentence
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization has criticized the blasphemy conviction and imprisonment of a Buddhist woman who complained that the call to prayer from her neighborhood mosque was too loud. Officials from Nahdlatul Ulama, which claims 60 million members, said Thursday the woman’s complaint about mosque loudspeakers doesn’t constitute blasphemy under Indonesian […]
Christian Man Whipped Publicly for Selling Alcohol
A Christian man in Indonesia was publicly flogged on Friday for selling alcohol in violation of Islamic law. The whipping took place outside of a mosque in the provincial capital of the conservative Aceh province. He received 36 lashes for the offense. Doctors examined him after he received the first 10 lashes, and the beating […]
Will outlawing ‘instant divorce’ advance justice for Muslim women in India?
The Supreme Court of India recently struck down a specific divorce practice among its minority Muslims. The age-old practice known as “triple talaq” allowed a Muslim man to dissolve his marriage by uttering the term divorce three times, all at once. As a scholar who has conducted research among Muslim communities in India, I have seen firsthand how […]
Muslim Women and Islamic Law: Myths and Realities
Headline news often fills us with fearful images of Islam—pictures of heavily veiled women subject to radical implementations of “Islamic law” ranging from amputations to executions. This session looks to the Qur’an, history, and contemporary realities to provide a broader understanding of women’s roles in Islam and under Islamic family law. We discuss the symbolism […]
Politicians push for stricter Islamic law in Malaysia
A massive rally in the heart of Kuala Lumpur in support of proposals to allow Islamic courts to impose more severe punishments has raised fears of growing division in Malaysia’s multicultural society. The amendments to Act 355, expected to be discussed in parliament when it sits next month, will allow the Islamic courts, which rule […]
Scholar examines counter arguments to blasphemy in ‘mainstream’ Salafism
Many scholars, who are trained in the traditional Hanafi or Shafi traditions, would say that most of the instances that have been classified as punishable blasphemy in modern legal contexts would not, in fact, be viewed as punishable from the perspective of…
Five myths about sharia
By Asifa Quraishi-Landes June 24 at 12:47 PM Asifa Quraishi-Landes is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Law. Clearly, Americans fear sharia, Islam’s legal framework. At least nine states have passed “foreign law” statutes banning sharia in American courts — even though no U.S. court has ever ruled based on sharia. […]
Steven Bannon, Ben Carson Put Their Ignorance Of Islam On Display
Interviewed on the SiriusXM satellite radio show Breitbart News Daily yesterday, token brain surgeon Ben Carson told Breitbart Executive Chairman Steven K. Bannon that devout Muslims who embrace American democracy are “schizophrenic.” Embedded above, the interview focused on Carson’s plans to wage ‘civilizational jihad’ against the so-called Islamic State. Reflecting a profound and deliberate ignorance […]
JAMES LYONS: Reforming Islam
Perhaps one of the most crucial peace proposals of our time was made on Jan. 1, 2015, when Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi challenged leading Sunni jurists and theologians with initiating a reformation of Islam that has not happened in more than 1,400 years. Eventually, such a reformation must include the leading Shiite clerics as well. […]
Islamic finance’s global surge remains a missed opportunity for banks in US and Canada
Islamic finance is surging across the globe, gobbling up an ever increasing share of the more than $220 trillion in international assets outstanding. It’s a trend that has accelerated since the 2008 crisis shook confidence in conventional banking, prompting most of the world’s financial capitals from London to Dubai to join the battle to dominate […]