Liberal reform lawyers reframed sharia as family law stripped of worldly sanction

Evidence

All the scholars argued that Luttwak had a rigid, simplistic view of Islam that failed to take into account its many strains and the subtleties of its religious law, which is separate from the secular laws in almost all Islamic nations. The Islamic press and television have reported extensively on the United States presidential election, they said, and Obama’s Muslim roots and his Christian religion are well known, yet there have been no suggestions in the Islamic world that he is an apostate. — Hamid Dabashi, Brown Skin, White Masks, 599 (#complicates, via linked claim)

[Plaintiff’s Attorney (PA):] [I]f we follow the Constitution, do we allow there to be two sets of laws governing the behavior of individuals practicing religion in America? It must be clear that any practice of Islam in a free society, the United States, cannot and must not include the practice of Sharia law. Sharia law is a set of codes which are a declaration of subordination for anyone who is not a Muslim, and it’s a violation of human rights for those who are. Why would we extend to any religion the right to cancel out the Constitution for which we’re founded upon, for which gives us the ability to come in here in this courtroom and make an argument to this Court. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 375 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Anti-sharia laws stripped ordinary Muslim wills and contracts of enforceability — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 277; Colonial legal reform reduced sharia courts to family and endowment law; A reforming Muslim jurist reframed shari’a courts as guardians of family privacy — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 1093 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Islamic religious law is separate from secular law in most Muslim nations #complicates (0.75) — Hamid Dabashi, Brown Skin, White Masks, 599
• Anti-Sharia rhetoric frames Muslim legal practice as inherently subordinating and anti-Constitutional #complicates (0.74) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 375