NEWS |  26 Feb 2019
Eid al-Ad ḥ a -- The Islamic Holiday of Sacrifice: A Temporal Difficulty?
Student editor Sheza Alqera Atiq analyzes the EU Court of Justice decision on a preliminary ruling first issued by a court in Belgium in 2017 governing the regulation of animal slaughter, of the type in which Muslims engage once a year. As a part of the religious ritual practices surrounding the Ḥajj pilgrimage and to commemorate Abraham’s sacrifice of a ram in lieu of his son, each Muslim household sacrifices an animal that they then give part of in alms. The regulation essentially barred the “temporary slaughterhouses” that Muslims set up for this purpose and which previously had been approved by the Belgian government until 2015, and required all animal slaughter to take place in approved slaughterhouses. The Atiq explains that Eid, “with its accompanying sacrificial rites,” has “raised questions as to the neutrality of Regulation 1099/2009, and whether it constitutes an infringement upon religious freedom.” On her analysis of the Advocate-General’s remarks, Atiq writes "the preliminary ruling was not neutral” as claimed. They justified the decision on grounds that “temporal difficulties,” meaning that the yearly surges in demand for animal slaughter created shortages in the capacity of existing slaughterhouses, and raised questions about who should bear the increased costs. In Atiq’s view, the distinction between ‘temporal difficulties’ and regular practices “seems to be a false dichotomy; what appears to be a temporal problem of temporary slaughterhouses for the government arising from the specific occasion of ‘īd ul-aḍḥa still remains an essential religious feature for Muslims in Belgium, and across the EU .. and disproportionately discriminates against Muslims” The Muslim communities objected, leading to the EU Court of Justice review. Atiq reviewed the arguments on both sides, with an aim of offering alternative solutions to the problem. Read the full commentary. Image credit: Arab News
CASE ::  Liga van Moskeeën en Islamitische Organisaties Provincie Antwerpen and Others, C-426/16 (Court of Justice of the European Union, 2017)
This EU Court of Justice ruling, delivered by Advocate General Wahl on 30 November 2017, addresses the controversy surrounding the Eid al-Adḥā ritual sacrifice case initially brought in Belgium. The AG heard the case upon a request for a preliminary ruling from Nederlandstalige rechtbank van eerste aanleg Brussel. The decision addresses Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009’s ban on slaughter in temporary slaughterhouses, which raised questions as to the neutrality of the Regulation, and whether it infringes on Muslims’ religious freedom. Read more . Image credit: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit/Wikimedia
EU PROFILE :: The Court of Justice of the European Union
The SHARIAsource Portal provides context for the status of Islamic law for every country and major region in the world, including the EU. For background on the legal and governmental structure, relevant cases, and constitutions of member nations, see the set of cases from the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as the various constitutions and laws of EU member nations, such as Belgium, where the case of Eid al- Adḥā first arose . Image credit: Wikipedia
Program in Islamic (PIL) Law News
Book Publication.  The seventh book in the Harvard Series on Islamic Law came out in 2017:  Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts  (Islamic Legal Studies Program/Harvard University Press, 2017) . Edited by  Intisar A. Rabb  and  Abigail Krasner Balbale , this book presents a wide-ranging exploration of the administration of justice during Islam’s founding period, 632–1250 CE. Inspired by the scholarship of Professor Emeritus  Roy Parviz Mottahedeh  and composed in his honor, this volume brings together ten leading scholars of Islamic law to examine the history of early Islamic courts. The book is available through  Harvard University Press .

Recap on PIL at the 2018 Digital Islamic Humanities Conference :: Whither Islamicate Digital Humanities?  SHARIAsource Deputy Editor  Sharon Tai  presented on the Program in Islamic Law’s work to develop digital Islamic law tools at a three-day conference on the budding field of Islamicate Digital Humanities. She highlighted an ongoing SHARIAsource tool designed to analyze media discourse about Islamic law, as applied to recent questions of Islamic constitutionalism and so-called triple ṭalāq  (unilateral, irrevocable divorce initiated by men) that have arisen in India and Pakistan in recent years.  Details of the conference Proceedings are available on our Twitter accounts, from being live-tweeted to include coverage of all three sessions: on data analytics, digital tools, and textual corpora.
Features on the SHARIAsource Portal and Blog
Spotlight on Research ::  The Islamic Bioethics Project . In this issue, we feature the work of Ayman Shabana of Georgetown Qatar in collecting sources on Islamic law and bioethics in his Islamic Bioethics Project is a SHARIAsource editor resource pick. His projects curates a database   of both medical and scientific ethical sources from a broad spectrum of literature that relates to Islamic law. 

Scholarship Roundup :: This month’s features of recent Islamic law scholarship include: Sherman Jackson 's article on gender in Islamic Studies, “The Alchemy of Domination, 2.0?” , in the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences , and his article on how to define "secular" in Islam, “The Islamic Secular”; Sabine Schmidtke 's two edited volumes , Studying the Near and Middle East at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton,1935-2018 and Materials for the Intellectual History of Imami Shiism in the Safavid Period: A Facsimile Edition of Ms New York Public Library, Arabic Manuscripts Collections, Volume 51985A ; two books by Christopher Paul Chlohessy, Fâtima, Daughter of Muḥammad and Half of my Heart: The Narratives of Zaynab, Daughter of ʿAlî ; Mohammad Fadel 's article “Political Legitimacy, Democracy and Islamic Law: The Place of Self‐Government in Islamic Political Thought” in the Journal of Islamic Ethics ; Joshua Moir and Julia Wagner 's article “The Idea of Religious Neutrality and the Cooperation Model Compared in Germany, Austria and Italy”; Yvonne Tew 's article “Stealth Theocracy” in the Virginia Journal of International Law ; Jose Pina-Sánchez , Julian V. Roberts , and Dimitrios Sferopoulos 's article “Does the Crown Court Discriminate Against Muslim-Named Offenders? A Novel Investigation Based on Text Mining Techniques” in the British Journal of Criminology ; Yavuz Aykan and Işık Tamdoğan 's volume Forms and Institutions of Justice: Legal Actions in Ottoman Contexts , which comes out of a workshop organized at the French Institute of Anatolian Studies in Istanbul in 2012; and Khaled Abou El Fadl 's lecture on torture and sexual violence in Islam. 

News Roundup :: Islamic Law in the News. The SHARIAsource Blog regularly adds context to new and developing stories about Islamic law in the news. This month, read about Islamic burial traditions , triple ṭalāq's criminalization in India , ḥalāl food in Germany , and the European Court of Human Rights' ( ECHR) long-anticipated decision in Molla Sali v. Greece , a case about Islamic legal pluralism in Europe and the rights of religious minorities. 

Global Events: Islamic Legal Studies


Law and Society Association Annual Meeting (30 May-2 Jun 2019 | Washington, D.C.). Registration is now open. This year’s theme is “Dignity.” Dignity embraces justice, rights, rule of law, respect for humanity and diversity as well as a commitment to human engagement, subjects that have been central in the law and society tradition. Dignity is a core idea in many different legal traditions and is shaped by a variety of struggles. It provides a bridge across cultures intersecting with diverse values and identities. Recognizing this central idea as our theme when we meet next year in Washington, D.C. – at a moment of social anxiety and global uncertainty – focuses our attention on the promise, values and unrealized potential of dignity and will highlight the role of values we examine law in society. Details.

People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference (24-21 Mar 2019 | Washington, D.C.). The 2019 conference theme is “People of Color and the Future of Democracy.” We find ourselves at a critical moment, both as a nation and as a community of legal scholars of color interested in the future of our democracy. The Fourth National People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference will include a pipeline program for law faculty aspirants, resources for junior faculty of color to present their work in supportive workshops. The conference is expected to feature over 100 panels and colloquia, works-in-progress sessions supporting junior colleagues, and various plenary keynote addresses and roundtables. Details .


Opportunities: Jobs, Fellowships, CFPs

Language Fellowship :: A.J. Meyer Arabic Summer Language Study Fellowship (Summer 2019).  The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University announces a scholarship in the amount of $2,500 for a Harvard undergraduate or graduate student who will enroll in a full time intensive Arabic language summer program in an Arabic speaking country. Absolute beginners will not be considered. Preference will be given to students who study the Arab world and have at least one full year of formal Arabic at Harvard. The application requires a proposal (maximum 750 words), resume, transcript, letter of recommendation from most recent language professor, and documentation of enrollment in an Arabic language program in an Arabic-speaking country. Applications due  Feb 22 .  Details .

Language Fellowship :: Summer Fellowships for Advanced Turkish Language (Jun-Aug 2019 | Istanbul, Turkey).  The American Research Institute in Turkey is offering 15 fellowships for participation in the summer program in advanced Turkish language at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. This intensive program offers the equivalent of one full academic year of study in Turkish. The fellowships cover round-trip airfare to Istanbul, application and tuition fees, and a maintenance stipend. Online application, personal statement, three letters of recommendation, official transcript, and $25 application fee due  Feb 1 .  Details .

Call for Applications :: Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights Summer Course (2-10 Jun 2019 | Siracusa, Italy). The Institute is organizing its 19th Specialization Course in International Criminal Law for Young Penalists on “Human Rights and Criminal Justice.” We will be selecting 60 participants under the age of 35, ideally with a degree related to law. The cost for the course is €700. Program schedule and application are available online. Applications due Mar 31 . Details .

Call for Papers :: “The Ties that Bind”: Structures and Mechanisms of Social Dependency in the Early Islamic Empire (2-6 Dec 2019 | Leiden, Netherlands).  This conference aims to bring together both senior and junior scholars to present research which illuminates the structures and mechanisms that allowed the early Islamic empire to function. The papers should describe the way that local and regional elites were both embedded in larger structures of power and dependency, and employed specific mechanisms to achieve their goals. Subsidies for travel and accommodation will be available. Please send an abstract of around 300 words to  e.p.hayes@hum.leidenuniv.nl  by  Jan 31 .  Details .

Call for Papers :: Law and Development Institute Conference (6 Dec 2019 | Dubai, UAE). Law, legal frameworks, and institutions have a significant impact on economic and social development. This tenth annual international conference will focus on the role of law and legal institutions for development in the Islamic world. Interested speakers should email a one-page abstract by Feb 1 to info@lawanddevelopment.net .  Details .

Call for Applications :: American Center of Oriental Research Fellowships (2019-2020 | Amman, Jordan) . Funding/residential fellowships are available for graduate students and scholars in all areas of Middle Eastern studies, including archaeological fieldwork. Apply online by Feb 1 . Details .

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