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“Will Abū Ḥanīfa Have a Beer and Smoke Ḥashīsh with Me in Jannah? Changing Perceptions of Khamr, Ijmā’, Bid’ah, and Sunnīte Islamic Law” by Scott Bursey

Apr 17, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysApril 2025, Bursey, Scott, History, Islam

Frontispiece from a copy of Kalila wa Dimna of Abuʼl-Maʻali Nasr Allah by Unknown Author (Public Domain). Unlike the authoritative structures within Shī’a Islam which draw legitimacy from an ecclesiastical-style structure of liturgical and theological intermediaries, Sunnīs approach Islamic law from the basis of a shared consensus. This doctrine of ijmā’ (consensus), in which adherents…

“Justifiable Limitations Upon Freedom of Religion and Belief in Australia’s Draft Human Rights Bill: Lessons from the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990” by P. T. Babie

Apr 15, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysApril 2025, Babie, Paul T., Constitutional Law, Oceania (Geography), Religious Freedom

Image of Dunedin, New Zealand by Arvid Olson from Pixabay While Section 116 of the Australian Constitution appears textually to provide broad protection for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), its interpretation by the High Court of Australia severely restricts its potential. The problem stems from the judicial conflation of two questions: whether FoRB has been violated and,…

“Speaking Truth to Power in Challenging Times: Lessons from the Arab Spring Politics of Muslim Jurists” by Muhammad Amasha

Apr 10, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysAmasha, Muhammad, April 2025, Islam, Media and Culture, Religion and State

Image by Bassel Zaki from Pixabay. I spent the last six years studying the politics of intellectuals, broadly understood as people of knowledge. While I mainly focused on some leading Egyptian religious Muslim jurists’ stances on the 2011 Arab Revolutions, I have also observed intellectuals adhering to other traditions at different politically charged moments. As…

“Catholic Fraternal Pluralism and Respect for Conscience” by Matthew P. Cavedon

Apr 9, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysApril 2025, Catholicism, Cavedon, Matthew P., Christianity, Philosophy

Basilica of Saint Peter by Carlo Armanni from Pixabay. Pope Francis envisions human fraternity in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti. This essay explores how “fraternal pluralism” guides the Church’s respect for personal conscience. This teaching reflects aspects of earlier Church history and the Vatican II document Dignitatis Humanae, and it can be illustrated by examining…

“Religious Elements of the Sudanese Civil War” by Christopher Tounsel

Apr 4, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysAfrica (Geography), April 2025, History, Human Rights / Civil Rights, Tounsel, Christopher

Sudanese President Omar al Bashir in Juba, Sudan by Al Jazeera English (CC BY-SA 2.0). On April 15, 2023, civil war broke out in Sudan between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). That day, in the capital of Khartoum, RSF fighters seized the All Saints Anglican Cathedral and transformed…

“IVF Returns to the Spotlight: Dobbs, Fetal Personhood, and Extra-Uterine Embryos” by Emma Kennedy

Apr 2, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysApril 2025, Healthcare, Kennedy, Emma, Legal Theory / Jurisprudence, North America (Geography)

Baby at Play by Thomas Eakins (CC0 1.0) Critiques of President Trump’s recent executive order on in vitro fertilization (IVF) have emerged not only from opponents on the left, who see the order as a “glorified press release” that will not actually expand IVF access, but also from within his own base. These critics are…

“Jewish Law Meets International Law” by Michael J. Broyde and Yehonatan Elazar-De Mota

Mar 28, 2025Canopy ForumLiterature HighlightsBroyde, Michael J., Elazar-De Mota, Yehonatan, Judaism, March 2025, Religious Law and Legal Systems

Jewish Law Meets International LawMichael J. Broyde and Yehonatán Elazar-De Mota The following is an introduction to Michael J. Broyde and Yehonatán Elazar-De Mota’s new book, Jewish Law and International Law: Sovereignty and Exogenous Authority in a Transnational World (Oxford, 2025). In today’s interconnected world, legal traditions are constantly interacting across borders. Nations craft treaties…

“Constitutions Address Religious Freedom, but Not as Much as Desired” by Dennis Petri and Jonathan Fox

Mar 27, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysConstitutional Law, Fox, Jonathan, March 2025, Petri, Dennis P., Religious Freedom

The Village Lawyer by Pieter Brueghel (US-PD). The following essay is reprinted and adapted on Canopy Forum in collaboration with the journal Derecho en Sociedad, a biannual electronic publication that is free and open access. See other essays in this series here. Although constitutions are often overlooked in practice, making them unreliable indicators of actual religious freedom, the widespread…

“In and Out of Church” by Steven Tipton

Mar 19, 2025Canopy ForumLiterature HighlightsChristianity, History, March 2025, Religious Freedom, Tipton, Steven

In and Out of ChurchSteven Tipton The following is an adapted excerpt from Steven Tipton’s new book, “In and Out of Church: The Moral Arc of Spiritual Change in America.” With permission from Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2025. Freedom of conscience runs deep in the American grain of religious practice and belief all the way…

“The Wolf in Sheep’s Skin: Promises and Realities of Religious Freedom in China” by Grace Gaffet

Mar 14, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Gaffet, Grace, March 2025, Religious Freedom, Secularism

Photo of Kaifeng North Mosque by Windmemories (CC BY-SA 4.0) The following essay is reprinted and adapted on Canopy Forum in collaboration with the journal Derecho en Sociedad, a biannual electronic publication that is free and open access. See other essays in this series here. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Chinese Communist Party…