Islam, Law, and the Modern State: (re)imagining Liberal Theory in Muslim Contexts. By Arif A. Jamal. London: Routledge

Abstract

As a part of the International Consortium for Law and Religious Studies (ICLARS) series on law and religion, Arif A. Jamal’s Islam, Law and the Modern State, which emerged out of his doctoral thesis, is a renewed contribution which comments on the relationship between Islam and the modern state through the prism of legislation as far as policy formulation is concerned. The main problem addressed by this book is the Muslim societies’ attempts to relate their inherited pre-modern legal and political heritage to the modern political order. This involves the role of religion in constitutional structures. Jamal proposes justice as discourse as a renewed framework that could be applied in the Muslim contexts without compromising Muslim heritage and liberal values and principles. Jamal focuses on contemporary Muslim societies due to the challenge of Islamism arising in countries like Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria. However, its analysis is not confined to any particular country rendering its content to philosophy rather than ethnography. Criticizing the marginalization of the role of religious deliberation, the book aims to break out of the dichotomy between a theocracy and anti-religious secular which are oft-suggested solutions for the public role of religious reason.