The Justice of Islam: Comparative Perspectives on Islamic Law and Society.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Date: 01 December 2001
• Author: Hussain, Jamila
• Published date: 01 December 2001
• Author: Hussain, Jamila

by Lawrence Rosen (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) pages i-xiii, 1-234. Price $80.00 (hardcover). ISBN 0 19 829884 6.

Professor Rosen holds the chair of anthropology at Princeton University and is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Columbia University. He clearly has an impressive academic reputation. His book has a fine title -- The Justice of Islam--which holds out promise of the opportunity for readers to gain knowledge and develop an understanding of the world of Islam and concepts of justice as practised therein. Unfortunately, for me, this promise was not fulfilled.

The introduction is encouraging. Professor Rosen points out that in the present day one in every five people throughout the world is a Muslim, and each of them has some attachment to Islamic law, whether through personal religious belief or because Islamic law is administered in the country in which he or she lives. (1) Despite some local differences and particular interpretations, the Sharia is a common thread linking Muslim societies in many parts of the world. (2)

These observations are indisputable. Islam is the religion of more than one billion people worldwide. (3) Like its sister religions, Christianity and Judaism, Islam began in the Middle East, but today only about one sixth of the global Muslim population is Arab. (4) The world's largest Muslim nation is Indonesia, which has a population of about 200 million people. (5) Even among Muslim minority countries such as the Indian subcontinent, China, the former Soviet Union and sub-Saharan Africa, there are very large Muslim populations. (6) There are approximately six million Muslims in the United States (7) and more than that number in Europe, where a significant number of Bosnians and Albanians have for many years constituted a local Muslim presence. (8) All of these people, to some extent, maintain some connection with Islamic law, whether it be merely in personal and devotional life in Western countries, or because Islamic law is the law of the land they live in.

Islamic family law is almost universally applied in Muslim countries, with Turkey being the exception. (9) A few Muslim countries -- Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan -- strive to establish or maintain a pure Islamic legal system, with varying degrees of success. (10) In other countries, only some of the laws imposed by colonial rulers are being modified or replaced by new laws which are intended to reflect Islamic values. (11) In some places, Islamic systems have been developed to coexist with existing secular systems...