Release date: Dec. 14, 2004
Contact: Elaine Justice at 404-727-0643 or elaine.justice@emory.edu

Emory's An-Na'im Studies Future of Islamic Law

Emory University human rights scholar/activist Abdullahi An-Na'im is in the midst of a two-year research study on the future of Islamic law--Shari'a--and the role of religious neutrality in Islamic societies. Through the project, he hopes to "provide much-needed support to liberal Muslims everywhere who are struggling to reconcile their genuine convictions with their commitment to constitutional democracy and the protection of human rights within their own societies."

Some would regard his project as one of contradictions, since Shari'a is often publicized in the West as associated with fundamentalist Islamic regimes, where religious neutrality is regarded with distrust. But An-Na'im has set out to prove that religious neutrality is alive and thriving in much if not most of the Muslim world. He also wants to dispel the concept of Islam as defined by the Middle East, which contains only a small percentage of the estimated 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide.

"I see this project as a culmination of all my life both professionally and personally," says An-Na'im. "It's the statement I want to make about Islam and society, the state and law and how they all relate to each other."

Religious neutrality of the state—including states in which Muslims are a majority of the citizenry—is a concept An-Na'im has come to embrace in his work; he believes it holds the key to future stability of Islamic societies and the prospects for international peace and cooperation. As a devout Muslim, he didn't always feel that way, but now appreciates the need for and possibility of this view.

He credits the late Sudanese Islamic reformer and activist Mahmoud Mohamed Taha with changing his life forever "by confronting me with the contradiction between my belief as a Muslim that Shari'a was divine and immutable, and my personal commitment to constitutional governance and respect for human rights."

"Taha called for a fresh reinterpretation [of Shari'a] in light of the drastically transformed present context of Muslim societies today," says An-Na'im, who is committed to doing the same with this project.

"Religious neutrality is vitally important for social and political stability, economic development and religious harmony. But you can't exclude religion from public life," he says. "Islam and the state have to be separate institutionally, but Islam and politics can never be separate. Believers will always act politically."

He points out that America's biggest political issues often are tied to strongly held religious beliefs, from gay marriage and faith-based initiatives to displays of the Ten Commandments. "These issues are matters of belief and those beliefs influence political decision-making," he says, "and should be the concern of all citizens, whether personally religious or not."

An-Na'im's project includes case studies on the role of Shari'a in several regions of the world: Istanbul, Turkey; Cairo, Egypt; New Delhi India; and Jakarta, Indonesia. He also hopes to add a location in Central Asia to be determined. "These sites represent the most current and future-oriented thinking on these issues and are centers of influence in their respective regions," he says.

In each location, An-Na'im is working with local researchers to develop thematic studies that will examine the Islamic constitutional, legal and theological history of that region, and include a comparison of how secularism has been and is being understood and negotiated. The study is far-flung, says An-Na'im because he wants "to dispel the concept of Islam as defined by the Middle East. There are more Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa than in the entire Middle East. Islam is not defined by the Middle East and is not uniform or monolithic."

He expects that the study of regional experiences will yield common threads that will "influence current thinking while testing the viability of my own ideas." He also hopes to show how secularism exists from an Islamic perspective, not as a Western idea imposed on Islamic societies.

An-Na'im plans two books on the project, one in English and one in Arabic, each with different focal points and audiences.

"In my view, the clear majority of Muslims are open to persuasion, indeed desperately seeking solutions for the main issues I am addressing."

An-Na'im's project, funded by a $318,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, builds on 20 years of scholarship and advocacy on issues of Islamic law, human rights and constitutionalism. The project uses the insights and experiences gained from his three previous projects funded by Ford Foundation since 1996 on: cultural transformation and human rights in Africa, Islamic family law and a fellowship program on Islam and human rights. The outcomes of those projects are posted on the following Web sites: http://www.law.emory.edu/WAL; http://www.law.emory.edu/IFL; and http://www.law.emory.edu/IHR. Some of An-Na'im's publications can be downloaded from his Web site: http://www.law.emory.edu/aannaim.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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