Islam Archives - Canopy Forum

“From Nuclear Fatwa to Assurance: Religious Authority, Domestic Legal Force, and Nuclear Verification in Iran” by Jo Chitlik and Rashid Mehmood

Nov 1, 2026Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Chitlik, Jo, Islam, Mehmood, Rashid, November 2026, Religious Law and Legal Systems

Image Provided by Author, by Silver Bug via Adobe Stock Introduction: The Legal Puzzle, Not A Theology Primer Debates over Iran’s nuclear program have largely centered on enrichment, stockpiling, safeguards, inspections, sanctions, and treaty obligations. Alongside these technical and legal questions lies another form of claimed constraint: a religious prohibition on nuclear weapons attributed to…

“Beyond Litigation: The ADR Advantage in a Digital, Islamic World” by Jo Chitlik

Oct 6, 2026Canopy ForumEssaysChitlik, Jo, Islam, October 2026, Religious Law and Legal Systems

Image by Alessandro Biascioli. Licensed and provided by author from from stock.adobe.com. Modern conflict has evolved. It is faster, louder, more public, and more persistent than in prior eras. A disagreement that once remained between the parties involved can now become a screenshot, a group-chat thread, a social-media post, or even fodder for the court…

“What distinguishes humans from AI robots? An Islamic perspective” by Mariam al-Attar

Sep 4, 2026Canopy ForumEssaysal-Attar, Mariam, Ethics, Islam, Religious Law and Legal Systems, September 2026

ChatGPT Rendering of AI via Wikimedia Commons (US-PD). In recent decades, philosophers have intensely debated the meaning of personhood and what it means to be human. Some have sought to blur the lines between human beings and non-human animals, while others challenge the distinction between humans and machines. The rise of “enhanced humans” and AI…

“Takaful: The Legal Architecture of Islamic Insurance” by Jo Chitlik

Mar 20, 2026Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Chitlik, Jo, Islam, March 2026, Religious Law and Legal Systems

Sunset over Pangkor Island, Malaysia (CC0 1.0). Insurance forms the foundation of modern economies, transforming uncertainty into manageable obligations, allocating risk, and stabilizing market. Yet conventional insurance, built on secular commercial frameworks, often clashes with Islamic legal and ethical norms. In many, Muslim-majority societies, however, conventional insurance has religious concerns. Classical jurisprudence prohibits riba (interest),…

“Beyond Recognition: Integrating Religious Justice into Indonesia’s ADR Framework” by Jo Chitlik

Feb 20, 2026Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Chitlik, Jo, Constitutional Law, February 2026, Islam

Bangly Regency, Bali, Indonesia by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas (CC BY-SA 3.0). Indonesia’s constitutional order reflects one of the most ambitious contemporary efforts to govern religious diversity through law. As an archipelagic state encompassing over 17,000 islands and hundreds of ethnoreligious communities, Indonesia has long confronted the institutional challenge of recognizing religious authority within a plural legal…

“No Kings?: Plenitudo potestatis and the sanctity of US national security” by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd

Nov 15, 2025Canopy ForumSeriesEthics, Hurd, Elizabeth Shakman, Immigration Law, Islam, November 2025

Doctrine of the Two Swords by Unknown (US-PD) This article is part of our series on Law, Religion, and Immigration. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. In the domain of U.S. immigration and border enforcement, one might assume that a consideration of religion would lead to a discussion of xenophobia and…

“Pakistan’s Hybrid Legal System: Negotiated Coexistence of Secular and Islamic Law” by Jo D. Chitlik and Rashid Mehmood

Oct 17, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Chitlik, Jo, Constitutional Law, Islam, Mehmood, Rashid, October 2025

Shah Faisal Mosque, Islamabad, Pakistan via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). The Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s legal system presents a distinctive pluralistic model, intertwining secular common law inherited from British colonial rule with Islamic jurisprudence, or fiqh, under a single constitutional framework. The 1973 Constitution declares Islam as the state religion and mandates that all…

“Freedom of Communal Prayer in the Primary Sources of Islamic Law and Under the Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan” by Lutforahman Saeed

Sep 20, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Human Rights / Civil Rights, Islam, Saeed, Lutforahman, September 2025

Blue Mosque, Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan by Françoise Foliot (CC BY-SA 4.0). The right of women to participate in communal prayers is explicitly affirmed and encouraged within Islamic sources, particularly the Prophetic traditions. Historically, women actively participated in congregational prayers alongside the Prophet and his Companions, praying collectively under the same roof. Across the Sunni legal schools,…

“Jirgas: Rogue Agents of Conflict Resolution” by Jo Chitlik

Sep 5, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Chitlik, Jo, Islam, September 2025, Sex and Gender

This image is an AI-generated depiction based on descriptions of similar events. The recent renewed public outrage over a video showing the brutal execution of Bano Bibi and her alleged partner, Ehsan Ullah, has once again brought the issue of honor killings to the forefront. These murders, which were ordered in May 2025 by a…

“Land Use in Texas: Muslims for Christian Secular Values” by Sharmin Sadequee

Aug 1, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysIslam, July 2025, Property Law, Religious Freedom, Sadequee, Sharmin

Islamic Da’wah Center in Houston, Texas by Jim Evans (CC BY-SA 4.0). From McKinney to Weatherford to Josephine, Texans are losing sleep over the Muslims moving in and allegedly instituting “sharia law.” It’s a disaster! In early 2025, a viral video raised public concern about the creation of Muslim “sharia cities” in the heart of…