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Book Islamic Law Is Not Misogynistic

Download or read book Islamic Law Is Not Misogynistic written by Imam Muhammad at-T_w_l and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2019-08-19 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some people have brought up the problem of "the masculinism of Islamic Law", claiming that they are doing so in order for women to be defended and shown justice, and to clarify the injustice they have suffered as a result of legislations that have been influenced by the authority of men and their masculinism. It is a baseless claim and a false statement the purpose of which is to defame our legal scholars and create misgivings about Islamic Law. In these pages, I have written some brief sentences that should benefit anyone eagerly looking for the truth, and should silence every hypocrite, those who are not pleased for men and women to live under the shade of Islam, happy with its divine legislations and laws.

Book Women Under Islam

Download or read book Women Under Islam written by Christina Jones-Pauly and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Is Islam inherently anti-women? In this groundbreaking work, Christina Jones-Pauly and Abir Dajani Tuqan examine the history and practice of Islamic law as it affects women throughout the world. They highlight the diversity of ways in which it has been interpreted, leading both to the progressive family-planning policies of Tunisia and the more conservative personal status laws of Egypt. Seeking to understand how a set of religious laws which initially empowered women subsequently became a tool for their oppression, they shift the debate away from whether Islamic law itself is misogynistic or not, and look instead at the contexts in which it has been applied, both in Arab and non-Arab cultures. The most important factor in determining whether court rulings are disadvantageous to women is not, they conclude, the conservativeness of the society, it is the institutions of that society, and in particular its pre-Islamic institutional history and the independence of its judiciary. In Pakistan, for example, the higher courts have been unable to resist popular and political pressure to criminalise extra-marital sexual relations, yet interpret the law themselves in a liberal way in keeping with the original spirit of the Qur'an and the Hadiths. The book also provides innovative insight into the application of Islamic law in countries where Muslims are the minority, exploring how the evolution of Sharia in South Africa's constitutionalist legal framework creates new possibilities for progressive interpretations. Interweaving legal scholarship and detailed on the ground case studies, Women Under Islam provides both a rich reference resource and new way of understanding gender politics in the Islamic world."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Book Introduction to Islamic Law

Download or read book Introduction to Islamic Law written by Ahmed Akgunduz and published by IUR Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The world today has become one large village. Muslims and non-Muslims live side by side and have to learn about one another, share commonalities and respect differences. At this time more than one and a half billion Muslims live in this village. Some of them are pious Muslims, trying to live in accordance with Islamic rules, whereas others do not while believing that these rules come from God (the Qur’an), from interpretations of His Messenger (the Sunnah) or the consensus of Muslim jurists (ijmâ‘), and are at least rules derived via analogy (qiyâs) from the main sources of Islam. Most Muslims think along these lines and agree with the above. The reader should remember that Muslim individuals should live according to Islamic rules in private, but no individual is responsible for implementing Islamic law. In any event, the need to learn the facts about Islamic law is necessary for Muslims as well as for non-Muslims if they live in the same society with Muslims, at least in the sense of general information. In any event, the need to learn the facts about Islamic law is necessary for Muslims as well as for non-Muslims if they live in the same society with Muslims, at least in the sense of general information. We should keep in mind here that only sovereign Muslim states/governments have the legal authority to implement Islamic law. An individual Muslim has no legal authority or power to implement Islamic law. The law of Islam certainly does not say that every Muslim is obliged to implement Islamic law. It matters not how efficient and popular that individual may be as a brave warrior or a meticulous planner of unlawful and immoral schemes of hatred, terror and destruction. Only people who are properly qualified and trained, and hold a license from Muslim governmental authorities, have the authority to issue fatwâs. Not every Muslim individual qualifies as a Muftî (a jurist-consult or scholar of law who has been given a license to issue fatwâs.). For this reason Bediuzzaman says: “And we know that the fundamental aims of the Qur’an and its essential elements are fourfold: divine unity (al-tawhîd), prophethood (al-nubuwwah), the resurrection of the dead (al-hashr), and justice (al-ʿadalah). Al-Adâlah means law. He adds in another treatise: “Let our ulul-amr (satesmen and political authorities) think over implementing these rules”. This book is divided into eight chapters. Chapter I.Because of the many misunderstandings that arise, some terms related to Islamic Law, such as Sharî‛ah, fiqh, qânûn, ‘urf, Islamic Law, and Muhammadan Law are explained. Chapter II.Here, in this chapter dedicated to references on Islamic Law, the real added value of this book is found. Chapter III. This chapter looks at four periods of Islamic Law: the period of the Prophet Muhammad, the period of the Companions, the period of the Tabi‘în, and an introduction to the period of Mujtahidîn. Chapter IV. We will provide detailed information here on the different law schools and theological divisions. Chapter V. This chapter will be devoted to a period of Islamic law that has been neglected in both old and new books and articles, i.e. the period of Islamic Law after the Turks converted to Islam (960-1926). Chapter VI. This chapter will focus also on three main subjects: Anglo-Muhammadan law (Indo-Muslim law), Syariah or Islamic Law in Southeast Asia, and Islamic Law in contemporary Muslim states like Egypt, Pakistan, Morocco, Indonesia and Jordan. Chapter VII. We will explain the system and methodology of Islamic Law in this chapter. Chapter VIII. We will give some brief information here on the implementation of Islamic Law, its future; some encyclopedical works on Islamic law, and new institutions of Islamic fiqh.”

Book The Unfamiliar Abode

    Book Details:
  • Author : Kathleen Moore
  • Publisher : Oxford University Press
  • Release : 2010-03-18
  • ISBN : 0190452714
  • Pages : 208 pages

Download or read book The Unfamiliar Abode written by Kathleen Moore and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-18 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today there are more Muslims living in diaspora than at any time in history. This situation was not envisioned by Islamic law, which makes no provision for permanent as opposed to transient diasporic communities. Western Muslims are therefore faced with the necessity of developing an Islamic law for Muslim communities living in non-Muslim societies. In this book, Kathleen Moore explores the development of new forms of Islamic law and legal reasoning in the US and Great Britain, as well the Muslims encountering Anglo-American common law and its unfamiliar commitments to pluralism and participation, and to gender, family, and identity. The underlying context is the aftermath of 9/11 and 7/7, the two attacks that arguably recast the way the West views Muslims and Islam. Islamic jurisprudence, Moore notes, contains a number of references to various 'abodes' and a number of interpretations of how Muslims should conduct themselves within those worlds. These include the dar al harb (house of war), dar al kufr (house of unbelievers), and dar al salam (house of peace). How Islamic law interprets these determines the debates that take shape in and around Islamic legality in these spaces. Moore's analysis emphasizes the multiplicities of law, the tensions between secularism and religiosity. She is the first to offer a close examination of the emergence of a contingent legal consciousness shaped by the exceptional circumstances of being Muslim in the U.S and Britain in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century

Book Women and Islamic Law in a Non Muslim State

Download or read book Women and Islamic Law in a Non Muslim State written by Aharôn Layiš and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is methodologically unique in scholarly literature on Muslim society. Its originality lies in the fact that the rich material offered by the shari'a courts is given a thorough analysis with a view to drawing conclusions about the present-day phenomena in Arab society and processes that the society has been undergoing in modern times. Aharon Layish examines every aspect of the social status of Muslim women that fi nds expression in the shari'a courts: the age of marriage, stipulations inserted in the marriage contract, dower, polygamy, maintenance and obedience, divorce, custody of the children, guardianship, and succession. Each chapter opens with a short legal introduction based on all the sources of law applying in shari'a courts, followed by social analyses and a study of the attitudes and approaches of the qadis, or Muslim religious judges. Layish examines the relationship between shari'a and Israeli legislation: Do shari'a courts have regard to the provisions of Israeli law? What is the relationship between shari'a and social custom, and which is decisive in regard to Israeli Muslim women? To what extent does Israeli law actually affect Israeli Muslim women? What is the attitude of the qadis toward Israeli legislation? Women and Islamic Law in a Non-Muslim State is an important and original study that will be of interest to students and scholars of Islamic law, comparative law, sociology, and modernization. "I found the book both informative and suggestive. Not only does it provide specifi c information about the problems involved in the application and manipulation of a number of different legal codes dealing with family roles and relationships, but it throws some light on the evolution of the traditional, patrilineal, patriarchal family in its adaptation to an alien sociopolitical environment. This subject lies at the very heart of all studies of the global process called 'modernization.'"-Amal Rassam, American Journal of Sociology

Book The Status of Women under Islamic Law and Modern Islamic Legislation

Download or read book The Status of Women under Islamic Law and Modern Islamic Legislation written by Jamal J. Nasir and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009-04-15 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is believed to be the first of its kind written by a renowned Muslim lawyer in the English language, and by an Arab author who is probably the leading authority writing in English in the subject of Islamic law (the Sharia), and modern Islamic legislation. There has long been a need for an objective study such as this dealing with the legal rights and obligations of women under the Sharia and under modern Arab Islamic legislation. Seen within the broad principles of Islamic law, the book examines the status of women with regard to marriage, the iddat, parentage and fosterage and custody, and fi lls an important gap left by recent and more general publications on Islamic law. The author has researched original Arabic and Islamic text books and reviewed legislation in the different Arab countries in order to present the most up-to-date information on the subject. It is hoped that this clear, objective account will dispel many of the commonly-held misconceptions about the status of Muslim women in the modern world. This book will provide an enlightenment and deeper understanding of the subject, not only for legal practitioners, but for all those concerned, or with an interest in the subject, particularly Muslim communities in non-Muslim countries, indeed non-Muslim women who may be, or indeed non-Muslim women who may be married to Muslims.

Book Believing Women in Islam

    Book Details:
  • Author : Asma Barlas
  • Publisher : University of Texas Press
  • Release : 2019-01-16
  • ISBN : 1477315926
  • Pages : 352 pages

Download or read book Believing Women in Islam written by Asma Barlas and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2019-01-16 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does Islam call for the oppression of women? Non-Muslims point to the subjugation of women that occurs in many Muslim countries, especially those that claim to be "Islamic," while many Muslims read the Qur’an in ways that seem to justify sexual oppression, inequality, and patriarchy. Taking a wholly different view, Asma Barlas develops a believer’s reading of the Qur’an that demonstrates the radically egalitarian and antipatriarchal nature of its teachings. Beginning with a historical analysis of religious authority and knowledge, Barlas shows how Muslims came to read inequality and patriarchy into the Qur’an to justify existing religious and social structures and demonstrates that the patriarchal meanings ascribed to the Qur’an are a function of who has read it, how, and in what contexts. She goes on to reread the Qur’an’s position on a variety of issues in order to argue that its teachings do not support patriarchy. To the contrary, Barlas convincingly asserts that the Qur’an affirms the complete equality of the sexes, thereby offering an opportunity to theorize radical sexual equality from within the framework of its teachings. This new view takes readers into the heart of Islamic teachings on women, gender, and patriarchy, allowing them to understand Islam through its most sacred scripture, rather than through Muslim cultural practices or Western media stereotypes. For this revised edition of Believing Women in Islam, Asma Barlas has written two new chapters—“Abraham’s Sacrifice in the Qur’an” and “Secular/Feminism and the Qur’an”—as well as a new preface, an extended discussion of the Qur’an’s “wife-beating” verse and of men’s presumed role as women’s guardians, and other updates throughout the book.

Book Modern Perspectives on Islamic Law

Download or read book Modern Perspectives on Islamic Law written by E. Ann Black and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2014-12-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This well-informed book explains, reflects on and analyses Islamic law, not only in the classical legal tradition of Sharia, but also its modern, contemporary context. The book explores the role of Islamic law in secular Western nations and reflects on the legal system of Islam in its classical context as applied in its traditional homeland of the Middle East and also in South East Asia. Written by three leading scholars from three different backgrounds: a Muslim in the Sunni tradition, a Muslim in the Shia tradition, and a non-Muslim woman - the book is not only unique, but also enriched by differing insights into Islamic law.

Book Shari  a  Inshallah

    Book Details:
  • Author : Mark Fathi Massoud
  • Publisher : Cambridge University Press
  • Release : 2021-05-27
  • ISBN : 1108832784
  • Pages : 391 pages

Download or read book Shari a Inshallah written by Mark Fathi Massoud and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-27 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shari'a, Inshallah shows how people have used shari'a to struggle for peace, justice, and human rights in Somalia and Somaliland.

Book If the Oceans Were Ink

Download or read book If the Oceans Were Ink written by Carla Power and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • Hailed by The Washington Post as “mandatory reading,” and praised by Fareed Zakaria as “intelligent, compassionate, and revealing,” a powerful journey to help bridge one of the greatest divides shaping our world today. If the Oceans Were Ink is Carla Power's eye-opening story of how she and her longtime friend Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi found a way to confront ugly stereotypes and persistent misperceptions that were cleaving their communities. Their friendship-between a secular American and a madrasa-trained sheikh-had always seemed unlikely, but now they were frustrated and bewildered by the battles being fought in their names. Both knew that a close look at the Quran would reveal a faith that preached peace and not mass murder; respect for women and not oppression. And so they embarked on a yearlong journey through the controversial text. A journalist who grew up in the Midwest and the Middle East, Power offers her unique vantage point on the Quran's most provocative verses as she debates with Akram at cafes, family gatherings, and packed lecture halls, conversations filled with both good humor and powerful insights. Their story takes them to madrasas in India and pilgrimage sites in Mecca, as they encounter politicians and jihadis, feminist activists and conservative scholars. Armed with a new understanding of each other's worldviews, Power and Akram offer eye-opening perspectives, destroy long-held myths, and reveal startling connections between worlds that have seemed hopelessly divided for far too long. Praise for If the Oceans Were Ink “A vibrant tale of a friendship.... If the Oceans Were Ink is a welcome and nuanced look at Islam [and] goes a long way toward combating the dehumanizing stereotypes of Muslims that are all too common.... If the Oceans Were Ink should be mandatory reading for the 52 percent of Americans who admit to not knowing enough about Muslims.”—The Washington Post “For all those who wonder what Islam says about war and peace, men and women, Jews and gentiles, this is the book to read. It is a conversation among well-meaning friends—intelligent, compassionate, and revealing—the kind that needs to be taking place around the world.”—Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World “Carla Power’s intimate portrait of the Quran, told with nuance and great elegance, captures the extraordinary, living debate over the Muslim holy book’s very essence. A spirited, compelling read.”—Azadeh Moaveni, author of Lipstick Jihad “Unique, masterful, and deeply engaging. Carla Power takes the reader on an extraordinary journey in interfaith understanding as she debates and discovers the Quran’s message, meaning, and values on peace and violence, gender and veiling, religious pluralism and tolerance.”—John L. Esposito, University Professor and Professor of Islamic Studies, Georgetown University, and author of The Future of Islam “A thoughtful, provocative, intelligent book.”—Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Birds Of Paradise and The Language of Baklava

Book Islam without Extremes  A Muslim Case for Liberty

Download or read book Islam without Extremes A Muslim Case for Liberty written by Mustafa Akyol and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2011-07-18 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A delightfully original take on…the prospects for liberal democracy in the broader Islamic Middle East.”—Matthew Kaminski, Wall Street Journal As the Arab Spring threatens to give way to authoritarianism in Egypt and reports from Afghanistan detail widespread violence against U.S. troops and women, news from the Muslim world raises the question: Is Islam incompatible with freedom? In Islam without Extremes, Turkish columnist Mustafa Akyol answers this question by revealing the little-understood roots of political Islam, which originally included both rationalist, flexible strains and more dogmatic, rigid ones. Though the rigid traditionalists won out, Akyol points to a flourishing of liberalism in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire and the unique “Islamo-liberal synthesis” in present-day Turkey. As he powerfully asserts, only by accepting a secular state can Islamic societies thrive. Islam without Extremes offers a desperately needed intellectual basis for the reconcilability of Islam and liberty.

Book Fighting Hislam

    Book Details:
  • Author : Susan Carland
  • Publisher : Melbourne Univ. Publishing
  • Release : 2017-05-01
  • ISBN : 0522870368
  • Pages : 143 pages

Download or read book Fighting Hislam written by Susan Carland and published by Melbourne Univ. Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-01 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Muslim community that is portrayed to the West is a misogynist’s playground; within the Muslim community, feminism is often regarded with sneering hostility. Yet between those two views there is a group of Muslim women many do not believe exists: a diverse bunch who fight sexism from within, as committed to the fight as they are to their faith. Hemmed in by Islamophobia and sexism, they fight against sexism with their minds, words and bodies. Often, their biggest weapon is their religion. Here, Carland talks with Muslim women about how they are making a stand for their sex, while holding fast to their faith. At a time when the media trumpets scandalous revelations about life for women from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia, Muslim women are always spoken about and over, never with. In Fighting Hislam, that ends.

Book Islamic Law in Past and Present

Download or read book Islamic Law in Past and Present written by Mathias Rohe and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-01-27 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islamic Law in Past and Present, written by the lawyer and Islamicist Mathias Rohe, is the first comprehensive study for decades on Islamic law, legal theory, reform mechanisms and the application of Islamic law in Islamic countries and the Muslim diaspora. It provides information based on an abundance of Oriental and Western sources regarding family and inheritance law, contract and economic law, penal law, constitutional, administrative and international law. The present situation and ‘law in action’ are highlighted particularly. This includes examples collected during field studies on the application of Islamic law in India, Canada and Germany.

Book Islam and Gender

    Book Details:
  • Author : Adis Duderija
  • Publisher : Routledge
  • Release : 2020-05-17
  • ISBN : 1000068625
  • Pages : 241 pages

Download or read book Islam and Gender written by Adis Duderija and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-17 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Given the intense political scrutiny of Islam and Muslims, which often centres on gendered concerns, Islam and Gender: Major Issues and Debates is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the key topics, problems and debates in this engaging subject. Split into three parts, this book places the discussion in its historical context, provides up-to-date case studies and delves into contemporary debate on the subject. This book includes discussion of the following important topics: Marriage and divorce Interpretations of the Qur’an and Sunna Male and female sexuality and sexual diversity Classical Islamic thought on masculinity and femininity Gender and hadith Polygamy and inheritance Adultery and sexual violence Veiling, female circumcision and crimes of honour Lived religiosities Gender justice in Islam. Islam and Gender is essential reading for students in religious studies, Islamic studies and gender studies, as well as those in related fields, such as cultural studies, politics, area studies, sociology, anthropology and history.

Book Prey

    Book Details:
  • Author : Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  • Publisher : HarperCollins
  • Release : 2021-02-09
  • ISBN : 0062857894
  • Pages : 217 pages

Download or read book Prey written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are so few people talking about the eruption of sexual violence and harassment in Europe’s cities? No one in a position of power wants to admit that the problem is linked to the arrival of several million migrants—most of them young men—from Muslim-majority countries. In Prey, the best-selling author of Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, presents startling statistics, criminal cases and personal testimony. Among these facts: In 2014, sexual violence in Western Europe surged following a period of stability. In 2018 Germany, “offences against sexual self-determination” rose 36 percent from their 2014 rate; nearly two-fifths of the suspects were non-German. In Austria in 2017, asylum-seekers were suspects in 11 percent of all reported rapes and sexual harassment cases, despite making up less than 1 percent of the total population. This violence isn’t a figment of alt-right propaganda, Hirsi Ali insists, even if neo-Nazis exaggerate it. It’s a real problem that Europe—and the world—cannot continue to ignore. She explains why so many young Muslim men who arrive in Europe engage in sexual harassment and violence, tracing the roots of sexual violence in the Muslim world from institutionalized polygamy to the lack of legal and religious protections for women. A refugee herself, Hirsi Ali is not against immigration. As a child in Somalia, she suffered female genital mutilation; as a young girl in Saudi Arabia, she was made to feel acutely aware of her own vulnerability. Immigration, she argues, requires integration and assimilation. She wants Europeans to reform their broken system—and for Americans to learn from European mistakes. If this doesn’t happen, the calls to exclude new Muslim migrants from Western countries will only grow louder. Deeply researched and featuring fresh and often shocking revelations, Prey uncovers a sexual assault and harassment crisis in Europe that is turning the clock on women’s rights much further back than the #MeToo movement is advancing it.

Book Headscarves and Hymens

    Book Details:
  • Author : Mona Eltahawy
  • Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  • Release : 2015-04-21
  • ISBN : 0374710651
  • Pages : 255 pages

Download or read book Headscarves and Hymens written by Mona Eltahawy and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A passionate manifesto decrying misogyny in the Arab world, by an Egyptian American journalist and activist When the Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy published an article in Foreign Policy magazine in 2012 titled "Why Do They Hate Us?" it provoked a firestorm of controversy. The response it generated, with more than four thousand posts on the website, broke all records for the magazine, prompted dozens of follow-up interviews on radio and television, and made it clear that misogyny in the Arab world is an explosive issue, one that engages and often enrages the public. In Headscarves and Hymens, Eltahawy takes her argument further. Drawing on her years as a campaigner and commentator on women's issues in the Middle East, she explains that since the Arab Spring began, women in the Arab world have had two revolutions to undertake: one fought with men against oppressive regimes, and another fought against an entire political and economic system that treats women in countries from Yemen and Saudi Arabia to Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya as second-class citizens. Eltahawy has traveled across the Middle East and North Africa, meeting with women and listening to their stories. Her book is a plea for outrage and action on their behalf, confronting the "toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend." A manifesto motivated by hope and fury in equal measure, Headscarves and Hymens is as illuminating as it is incendiary.

Book Demystifying Shariah

Download or read book Demystifying Shariah written by Sumbul Ali-Karamali and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2020-08-11 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A direct counterpoint to fear mongering headlines about shariah law—a Muslim American legal expert tells the real story, eliminating stereotypes and assumptions with compassion, irony, and humor Through scare tactics and deliberate misinformation campaigns, anti-Muslim propagandists insist wrongly that shariah is a draconian and oppressive Islamic law that all Muslims must abide by. They circulate horror stories, encouraging Americans to fear the “takeover of shariah” law in America and even mounting “anti-shariah protests” . . . . with zero evidence that shariah has taken over any part of our country. (That’s because it hasn’t.) It would be almost funny if it weren’t so terrifyingly wrong—as puzzling as if Americans suddenly began protesting the Martian occupation of Earth. Demystifying Shariah explains that shariah is not one set of punitive rules or even law the way we think of law—rigid and enforceable—but religious rules and recommendations that provide Muslims with guidance in various aspects of life. Sumbul Ali-Karamali draws on scholarship and her degree in Islamic law to explain shariah in an accessible, engaging narrative style—its various meanings, how it developed, and how the shariah-based legal system operated for over a thousand years. She explains what shariah means not only in the abstract but in the daily lives of Muslims. She discusses modern calls for shariah, what they mean, and whether shariah is the law of the land anywhere in the world. She also describes the key lies and misunderstandings about shariah circulating in our public discourse, and why so many of them are nonsensical. This engaging guide is intended to introduce you to the basic principles, goals, and general development of shariah and to answer questions like: How do Muslims engage with shariah? What does shariah have to do with our Constitution? What does shariah have to do with the way the world looks like today? And why do we all—Muslims or not—need to care?