Description

The Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) at NUS Law organised a book launch on 30 May 2019 for the book titled “Islam, Law and the Modern State: (Re)imagining Liberal Theory In Muslim Contexts” by Arif A. Jamal.

The event involved a panel discussion of the book featuring Professor Abduallhi Ahmed An-Na’im (Emory Law), Professor Werner Menski (SOAS, University of London) and Associate Professor Jaclyn L. Neo (NUS Law), and was chaired by Associate Professor Gary Bell (NUS Law). Associate Professor Arif Jamal, author of the book, offered remarks in response to the panelists’ comments, after which there was a question and answer session engaging both the panelists and the author. The well attended book launch attracted participation from the Syariah Court of Singapore, practicising 2 lawyers, including members of the Muslim Law Practice Committee of the Law Society of Singapore, faculty members and research fellows at NUS Law, students, as well as the general public.

About The Book

Within the global phenomenon of the (re)emergence of religion into issues of public debate, one of the most salient issues confronting contemporary Muslim societies is how to relate the legal and political heritage that developed in pre-modern Islamic polities to the political order of the modern states in which Muslims now live. This work seeks to develop a framework for addressing this issue. The central argument is that liberal theory, and in particular justice as discourse, can be normatively useful in Muslim contexts for relating religion, law and state. Just as Muslim contexts have developed historically, and continue to develop today, the same is the case with the requisites of liberal theory, and this may allow for liberal choices to be made in a manner that is not a renunciation of Muslim heritage.