Islamic Law, Gender, and Politics:
Theory, Doctrine, and Practice

Throughout February 2007, American University’s Washington College of
Law (WCL) sponsored several important forums and conferences as part of
the college’s “Founders’ Celebration.” The National Muslim Law Students
Association (NMLSA), in conjunction with the WCL’s Islamic Legal Forum,
proposed a conference that would look at the intersection of classical and
modern conceptions of Islamic law, discourses around gender and Islam, and
the larger political questions that often frame these issues. Many Muslim law
students were interested in engaging with these themes, which emerge from
any discussion on “Islam and/in the West,” or “Islam and Modernity.” Mus-
lim law students and the region’s Muslim community in general, as well as
interested non-Muslims, were pleased to hear about WCL’s sponsorship and
support for the conference, which was held on February 2-3, 2007. 

Mohammad Fadel (faculty member, School of Law, Toronto University)
opened the first panel, “Islamic Law: An Introduction and Critical Issues,” by
presenting the basics of Islamic law. He clarified several misunderstandings
held by Muslims by distinguishing between the Islamic juristic and legal tra-
dition and the Islamic theological cum philosophical tradition. One of North
America’s leading scholars on Islamic law and with a J.D. from the Univer-

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sity of Virginia and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, he was fully
equipped for this task. 

Jasmin Zine (professor of sociology, Wilfred Laurier University) bril-
liantly outlined the context and developments related to Canada’s 2005-06
debate as to whether Muslims could turn to Shari`ah tribunals, instead of
Canadian civil courts, for certain legal matters. She covered the various
positions, views, and heated arguments, focusing on how the resulting dis-
course quickly began to assume a bigoted and hypocritical character. Intisar
A. Rabb (J.D. and Ph.D. candidate in Islamic law, Princeton University),
brought the panel back to the basics by explaining further the Islamic juris-
tic tradition. Her talk prepared the audience for further engagement with
other issues that would be raised during the conference.

The day’s final speaking event was the keynote address delivered by
Umar F. Abd-Allah (chairman of the board and scholar-in-residence, The
Nawawi Foundation), one of the country’s most highly respected scholars of
Islam and the Islamic juristic tradition. Speaking on “Muslims in the Main-
stream,” Abd-Allah enumerated several developments within the North
American Muslim community, some of them positive and others that need
improvement. He said that while the North American Muslim community’s
overall level of education and affluence is a noteworthy achievement and
blessing, its continuing class, racial, and gender disparities impede the real-
ization of Islam’s message and beauty. 

On Saturday, the conference commenced with a panel on “Islam, War,
and Politics.” The first speaker, Abdul Karim Bangura (professor, School of
International Service, American University), outlined an Islamic just war
theory based upon classical Muslim scholarly and juristic concepts of the
conditions, regulations, and motivations that legitimize the use of force. He
also analyzed the highly publicized (but misunderstood) concept of jihad. 

The next panelist, M. Shahid Alam (professor of economics, Northeast-
ern University) deconstructed the term Islamic terrorism and exposed its
misuse in mainstream media and intellectual circles. He sharply criticized
the so-called “war on terror” and its devastating toll both at home and abroad.
Fadel wrapped up the panel with a talk on “Islam and the Moral Obligations
of Citizenship.” His astute reflections provided an ethical and political com-
pass for an American Muslim citizenry caught between demands of patriot-
ism and loyalty to country on the one hand, and fidelity to a religion that calls
for the primacy of truth and justice on the other. 

The concluding panel touched upon one of the conference’s most antici-
pated topics: “Islam and Gender Politics.” Each panelist displayed a strong
commitment to a transcendental Islamic ethics in the quest for gender justice.

Conference, Symposium, and Panel Reports 159



Anne Goldstein (International Association of Women Judges) spoke passion-
ately about the need to support a human rights and women’s rights-friendly
Islamic ethos in interpreting and applying Islamic law in Muslim societies.
Abd-Allah, the next speaker, pleaded for Muslims to do more to integrate
women fully in their communities and placed the principal responsibility on
the “male elite” who comprise the leadership of many of these communities. 

The third panelist, Anouar Majid (professor of comparative literature,
University of New England), spoke on the hijab’s shifting politics and dis-
courses. His deep analysis of the political economy of imperial pronounce-
ments concerning the “Muslim woman” harshly criticized the opportunism of
such discourses since the beginning of the “war on terror” and reminded the
audience of women’s continuing struggles. The final panelist, Shabana Mir,
called forcefully for reexamining the “historical Shari`ah” because of the seri-
ous limitations found within it regarding gender. She argued that medieval-
era rulings were the products of jurists who lived in a different social context
and held views that could only be understood in their time. Thus, in her
words, applying them today would be anachronistic. She also warned Mus-
lims that juristic rulings and scholarly opinions unfriendly to Muslim women
continue to exist and that the Qur’an’s and the Prophet’s original liberatory
vision and praxis must be recovered in order to realize the just and compas-
sionate project of Islam. 

The conference was an enormous success, and one of the greatest
achievements of the rapidly growing association. Feedback was highly pos-
itive. NMLSA hopes to organize more conferences that will live up to the
level of intellectual excellence achieved by this one.

Junaid S. Ahmad
NMLSA Communications Director and Law Student

The College of William and Mary Law School, Williamsburg, Virginia 

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