Legislating away a social institution constitutes sovereignty over a civilization

Evidence

To conclude that the socially and economically central family waqf was to be eliminated, as well as to legislate accordingly, is the very definition of sovereignty over the Other as a “civilizational” collectivity. It is to decide not only a matter of the law but a way of living and a host of socioeconomic relationships that this law created within Islamic society at large. It is to change the way Muslims themselves perceived and lived in the world, and with one another; differently put, it is to change what and who they are, their very “nature” as social beings, whether as individuals or as communities, and their very being in the world. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 240

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with the Milgrom law-merchant material on how law shapes social relations, and with the LaHaye/colonial governance literature on law as a tool of cultural subjugation.