Civil Rights & Religious Freedom

By: Azizah al-Hibri, Esq. The Madinah Charter was executed by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on the one hand, and the various Muslim and Jewish tribes on the other. He had immigrated to Madinah, upon the invitation of its community, because his life was being threatened in Makkah due to his religious beliefs. The Madinah community

By: Mohammad Hashim Kamali “One of the manifestations of personal liberty is the freedom of the individual to profess the religion of his or her choice without compulsion. Everyone must also have the freedom to observe and to practice their faith without fear of, or interference from, others. Freedom of religion in its Islamic context

By: Mohammad Hashim Kamali “Compared to other themes of Islamic constitutional law, the subject of fundamental rights and liberties has received little attention in the works of the early ulema. When we look, for example, at Kitab al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah of Abul Hasan al-Mawardi (d. 450 A.H) or Al-Siyasah al-Shar’iyyah of Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 A.H) we find that they

By: Muqtedar Khan Muslims and Christians together constitute over 50 percent of the world. If they lived in peace, we would be halfway to world peace. One small step we can take towards fostering Muslim-Christian harmony is to tell and retell positive stories and abstain from mutual demonisation. I propose to remind both Muslims and

By: Abed Awad, Esq. As attorneys, we have an obligation to correct the truth about the role of any foreign law in our system. It is always subject to the limits of the Constitution. That is the law of the land. The politicization of this issue is undermining the integrity of our judicial system and

By: Abed Awad, Esq. On Election Day, the Oklahoma voters passed an amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that provides that the “Courts shall not look to the legal precepts of other nations or cultures. Specifically, the Court shall not consider International law or Sharia law,” dictates the amendment. This amendment is unconstitutional on its face,

By: Sherman Jackson “At the most basic level, Shari‘ah is the Muslim universe of ideals. It is the result of their collective effort to understand and apply the Quran and supplementary teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (called Sunna) in order to earn God’s pleasure and secure human welfare in this life and attain human salvation in the life

By: Asifa Quraishi-Landes “For Muslims, Shari‘ah is the way they believe God wants us to live in the world. One would look to a particular source of understanding of what God wants us to do and would follow that way. Shari‘ah literally means “way” or “street.” Shari‘ah would be the way or the path a Muslim would want