The Role of Islam in the Legal System of Pakistan

1. There are cases where Lau makes comments that point to his own assessment of substantive Islamic law per se, but he still does not give the reader further information to judge his conclusions. For example, in a discussion of jurisprudence on “fundamental rights,” which she praises as “Islam`s main contribution to Pakistan`s legal system,” Lau comments that “the promotion of human rights based on liberal interpretations of Islam is dissatisfied with cases that relied on more orthodox interpretations of Islam.” (210) But how do we know that there is a difference between “liberal interpretations” and “orthodox” ones? We should take Lau at its word, as it does not give the reader any other information that we can process directly. Yet the very existence of Lau`s commentary here seems to prove that a full analysis of the issue cannot be carried out without dealing with the substance of Islamic law itself. Unfortunately, the occasions when he does so are rare and only of this superficial kind. (Another example appears on page 102 in his discussion of the responsibility of officials as a feature of Islamic law.) Most Muslims today live in political systems that operate according to the nation-state model. In contrast, classical Islamic jurisprudence developed in the context of empire and a robust and relatively independent scholarly class. Is there anything about the nation-state that makes “Islamization” impractical? In what contexts could “Islamization” be most successful? Is there a role for classical Islamic law in Pakistan and, more generally, for Muslims living within the framework of modernity? This event, co-organized with the Institute for Religious Liberty, addressed these and other issues. “We need someone or a group of people who can be a bridge between [Islamic] scholars and legal theorists in Pakistan and judges – so that they can meet and discuss things from a very academic angle. “Often we also tend to think of Sharia law as that autonomous legal system that is distinct from secular law or is in direct opposition to secular law, but the phenomenon we have historically observed in post-colonial Muslim nation-states is that Sharia and state law interact dialogically with each other.

The Asia Program fosters political debate and intellectual discussion on U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as political, economic, security, and social issues related to the world`s most populous and economically dynamic region. In recent decades, ambivalence toward modernity, as well as the promise of justice and morality, has led some Muslim-majority countries to efforts to partially “Islamize” the state. Pakistan presents an important case study. Pakistan`s Islamization agenda in the 1970s and 1980s promised more justice and other public goods based on laws supposedly rooted in revelation. This program has led to controversial results, such as Pakistan`s blasphemy law. Some argue that laws such as Pakistan`s blasphemy law have contributed to sectarian strife and undermining the rule of law. See all Google Scholar citations for this article. In reality, the Hanafi school of thought that Pakistan follows or claims to follow does not actually prescribe the death penalty for non-Muslims who insult the Prophet. But the fact that this law was introduced in parliament by a military leader, passed by parliament and upheld by this court forced all future leaders of Pakistan to implement this law. Do you have any conflicts of interest? * Conflicts of Interest Help The Wilson Center`s Middle East program is a critical resource for the policymaking community and beyond, providing analysis and research that helps inform U.S. foreign policy, stimulate public debate, and expand knowledge about issues in the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Continue reading “What anyone with detailed knowledge of Islamic law would notice is that there is a celebration of some type of pluralism. This means that Muslim jurists have found it easy to accommodate other religious groups, especially groups such as Christians and Jews, and you can also find accommodation for Zoroastrians. “The idea that we want to explain Sharia law to someone who doesn`t know Sharia is like cricket versus baseball and baseball versus cricket. I do not think that is possible. “[Pakistan`s anti-blasphemy law] and its enforcement actually contradicts Sharia law in many ways, Islamic law in many ways, in a way that I believe is inevitable because of its introduction into the context of a modern nation-state.” Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24. April 2015 – No HTML tags allowed – Website URLs are only displayed as text – Lines and paragraphs wrap automatically – Attachments, images or tables are not allowed “Statism is something that has certainly made it difficult for Muslims in the age we live in to really manage the transition from pre-modern statism to modern or postmodern statism.” Your email address will be used to notify you when your comment has been reviewed by the moderator and if the author or moderator of the article needs to contact you directly. “The idea that people want to abolish Sharia law means that you are asking Muslims to renounce their politeness, to abandon the values of their civilization. That will not happen.

Please list any fees and grants, employment through advice, co-ownership or close relationship with an organization at any time during the previous 36 months whose interests may be harmed by the publication of the response. Please also list any non-financial associations or interests (personal, professional, political, institutional, religious or other) that a reasonable reader would like to know in relation to the submitted work. This applies to all authors of the play, their spouses or partners. “The religious establishment or the class of ulema or scholars, they have this ambiguous relationship with the state. They understand that it is important to apply Sharia, but now that they live in the world of nation-states, they know that it can only be done practically or effectively through state institutions, so they have this feeling of need to apply Sharia, but at the same time, they realize that the draconian body known as the nation-state could actually adopt Sharia. “Its specific application has been challenged [of Pakistan`s blasphemy law]. For example, in the recent case of Asia Bibi, the Christian woman accused of insulting the Prophet, it seems very clear that these accusations are false.