Suchergebnisse

Abstract
English- and Arabic-language cyberfatwas on emergency contraception (EC) illuminate current debates around sexuality in the global Muslim community. In websites with fatwas about EC, there are significant differences in the way that English- and Arabic-language fatwa websites discuss this reproductive health technology. During the study period of 2016–17, English-language sites were more likely to rule that EC was not religiously acceptable, whereas no Arabic-language online fatwas declared the technology forbidden to Muslims. In contrast, Arabic questions to online fatwa sites were more concerned about whether EC would facilitate illicit sex and the health risks of contraceptives. Only English-language sites discussed the morality of pharmacists providing EC. These websites and fatwas reveal different visions of Muslims' relationships with technology, science, and scientific experts. They also suggest the influence of non-Islamic religious constituencies on Muslim interpretations of reproductive health technologies.

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Acknowledgements -- A Note on Transliteration -- Introduction -- Women, Fatwas, Actors -- Continuity and Change: Fatwas and Fatwa-Giving on Women's Issues in Historical Perspective -- The Muftis and the Fatwa Institutions -- The Fatwas -- Agony Uncle: The Fatwas of Syed Darsh -- Women's Issues and Collective Fatwas: The Case of the ECFR -- Fatwa, Legitimacy, and Authority -- The Muftis' Reasoning in Local Context -- Fatwas in Context: Muftis and Local Challenges -- Maqasid al-shariʿa and Modern Common Morality -- Concluding Reflections -- Back Matter -- References.

Abu-Rabi reviews 'Defining Islam for the Egyptian State: Muftis and Fatwas of the Dar al-Ifta' by Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen.

We are accustomed to thinking about Ottoman reform of the laws governing personal status as a project undertaken under the liberal banner: such reform was progress, an attempt to lift oppression in the interests of justice and the modernization of the society. Insofar as we can speak of a dominant historical narrative in a field that has received very little scholarly attention, it is this image of liberal efforts to alleviate the oppression that women suffered as a result of the strict application of traditional Hanafi law in the Ottoman Empire that shapes our view of the reform project. Most of the established Western scholars of Islamic legal reform have concurred that society awoke to the injustice of this oppression in the course of the nineteenth century and undertook reform as part of an effort to improve the position of women. Responding to the "needs of society", the reformers undertook to remedy some of the worst abuses. Their task was to introduce legal moralism into a system that had become hopelessly ossified and formalistic, and hence unresponsive to social imperative.

In the post 1999 era, although a number of minority issues have been resolved between Turkey and Greece, no progress has been made on the issue of the election of muftis in Greece. In spite of the presence of Protocol No. 3 that was annexed to the 1913 Treaty of Athens, which recognizes the right of Muslims to elect their muftis, Greece argues that the Treaty of Athens and Protocol No. 3 are invalid. The underlying reason for this argument is the fear stemming from the extensive secular and judicial authorities of the muftis and the possibility of politicization of their authority. This paper aims to discuss the validity of the 1913 Treaty of Athens and Protocol No. 3 and to examine relevant international treaties on the election of muftis. The paper further aims to explain the positions of Turkey and Greece and ongoing developments on this issue.

The article examines the ways of influence of state and official religious institutions on the public consciousness of the Turkic-Muslim peoples of the eastern regions of Russia. The support of government events and individual initiatives of the authorities with the help of fatwas conclusions of authoritative leaders of the Muslim clergy on various theological, legal and social issues has become an effective tool for educating loyal subjects of the empire.