Islam Archives - Canopy Forum

“The Muslim Family Law Reform: Exploring Cross-National and Historical Differences” by Yüksel Sezgin

Oct 9, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysFamily Law, Islam, October 2024, Religious Law and Legal Systems, Sezgin, Yüksel

Illustration commissioned for this project by Tahira Rifath Fifty-three nations (35 Muslim-majority, 18 Muslim-minority) formally integrate shari‘a-based Muslim Family Laws (MFLs) into their domestic legal systems and enforce them through state-run (religious or civil) courts adjudicating familial disputes among their Muslim citizens. State-enforced MFLs often violate people’s fundamental rights and liberties. For example, in many…

“‘Churches Can, Mosques Can’t’: Race, Immigration, and Islam in Belgium” by Hafsa Oubou

Jan 4, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysEurope (Geography), Human Rights / Civil Rights, Islam, January 2024, Religious Freedom

View of the Lys river in the centre of Ghent, Belgium by Joaquim Alves Gaspar (CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed). In July 2023, the government of the Netherlands abruptly collapsed amid a heated disagreement over migration. At the core of this debate was an attempt to limit the right of child refugees from war zones to…

“Death Sentence and Imprisonment under Nigerian Blasphemy Laws” by Georgia du Plessis

Oct 13, 2023Canopy ForumEssaysAfrica (Geography), du Plessis, Georgia, Islam, October 2023, Religious Freedom

“Okotie Eboh Street, Lagos, Nigeria” by Obinna Okerekeocha on Unsplash. Blasphemy is the “act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God” and laws upholding blasphemy as a crime fail to respect the human right to freedom of expression and freedom of religion. Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu (also known as Deborah Samuel) was…

“POWR Talk: What does Islam say about democracy?” by Courtney Freer

Sep 21, 2023Canopy ForumSeriesConstitutional Law, Freer, Courtney, Islam, Politics, September 2023

Picture of The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria by James Gordon (CC BY 2.0) This article is part of our “Reassessing Democracy: Contemporary Perspectives” series. If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. Since the 9.11 attacks and subsequent Global War on Terror, one of the major fields of study related to…

“Reassessing Democracy: Contemporary Christian and Islamic Perspectives” by Whittney Barth

Sep 15, 2023Canopy ForumSeriesBarth, Whittney, Constitutional Law, Islam, Politics, September 2023

Picture of the Chicago Skyline from Grant Park in by James Conkis (CC BY-SA 4.0). This essay is an introduction to our thematic series, “Reassessing Democracy: Contemporary Christian and Islamic Perspectives.” How do religious communities approach democracy? What religious beliefs, practices, and histories inform those views? And what does democracy look like when viewed through…

“How German Muslims and Christians Criticize Capitalism” by Christian Sperneac-Wolfer

Sep 12, 2023Canopy ForumEssaysEurope (Geography), Human Rights / Civil Rights, Islam, September 2023, Sperneac-Wolfer, Christian

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. Throughout its history, capitalism has been met with harsh religious resistance and objections. Today, both Islam and Christianity continue to criticize capitalist economies and societies for injustice, exploitation, and the concept of humanity. In such criticism of economy and society, actors refer to religious ideas to reinterpret their situation, ideas…

“Iran’s Political Agenda: Women’s Bodies at the Intersection of Religion and Law” by Faegheh Shirazi

Aug 4, 2023Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), August 2023, Human Rights / Civil Rights, Islam, Shirazi, Faegheh

A sign with “Woman, Life, Freedom” (Jin, Jiyan Azadi) in Central and Northern Kurdish by Pirehelokan (CC BY-SA 4.0). As a scholar in the field of Islamic studies and material culture since the early 1990s, I have continually read and written about veiling and the hijab in Muslim cultures. In Iran, the hijab has had…

“Chinese Persecution of the Uyghur: A Case of Genocide” by Ali Çaksu

Aug 3, 2023Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), August 2023, Caksu, Ali, Human Rights / Civil Rights, Islam

Demonstration for Uyghur rights in Berlin by Leonhard Lenz (CC0 1.0). Uyghurs are a Muslim Turkic people who have been living for a few millennia in East Turkistan or Uyghuristan, which was called Xinjiang (New Territories) in the Chinese language following Chinese invasion. The Uyghur nation has members of ethnic Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, Tajiks, and…

“Constituting Religion: Islam, Liberal Rights, and the Malaysian State” by Tamir Moustafa

Apr 15, 2023Canopy ForumLiterature HighlightsApril 2023, Asia (Geography), Islam, Moustafa, Tamir

Constituting Religion: Islam, Liberal Rights, and the Malaysian StateTamir Moustafa The following is an excerpt from Tamir Moustafa’s Constituting Religion: Islam, Liberal Rights, and the Malaysian State (Cambridge University Press, August 2018). This book is available to read via open access. Over half of all Muslim-majority countries have constitutions that proclaim Islam the religion of…

“The Effects of Proscription on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt” by Ioana Emy Matesan

Mar 25, 2023Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Criminal Law, Ioana Emy Matesan, Islam, March 2023

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash. Introduction From its establishment in 1928 until the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood developed from a small religious study group into the most influential Islamist movement in the world. After coming to political power in 2012 during Egypt’s brief democratic transition, the group was ousted…