February 18, 2014 - LAW AND RELIGION FORUM

Posted on February 18, 2014 by

Mirsepassi & Fernée, “Islam, Democracy, and Cosmopolitanism: At Home and in the World”

This March, Cambridge University Press will publish, Islam, Democracy, and Cosmopolitanism: At Home and in the World by Ali Mirsepassi (New York University) and Tadd Graham Fernée. The publisher’s description follows:

This book presents a critical study of citizenship, state, and globalization in societies that have been historically influenced by Islamic traditions and institutions. Interrogating the work of contemporary theorists of Islamic modernity such as Mohammed Arkoun, Abdul an-Na’im, Fatima Mernissi, Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, and Aziz Al-Azmeh, this book explores the debate on Islam, democracy, and modernity, contextualized within contemporary Muslim lifeworlds. These include contemporary Turkey (following the 9/11 attacks and the onset of war in Afghanistan), multicultural France (2009–10 French burqa debate), Egypt (the 2011 Tahrir Square mass mobilizations), and India. Ali Mirsepassi and Tadd Ferneé critique particular counterproductive ideological conceptualizations, voicing an emerging global ethic of reconciliation. Rejecting the polarized conceptual ideals of the universal or the authentic, the authors critically reassess notions of the secular, the cosmopolitan, and democracy. Raising questions that cut across the disciplines of history, anthropology, sociology, and law, this study articulates a democratic politics of everyday life in modern Islamic societies.

Posted on February 18, 2014 by

Arias & Marrero-Fente (eds.), “Coloniality, Religion, and the Law in the Early Iberian World”

This March, Vanderbilt University Press will publish Coloniality, Religion, and the Law in the Early Iberian World edited by Santa Arias (University of Kansas) and Raul Marrero-Fente (University of Minnesota). The publisher’s description follows.

From postcolonial, interdisciplinary, and transnational perspectives, this collection of original essays looks at the experience of Spain’s empire in the Atlantic and the Pacific and its cultural production.

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Robert J. Delahunty · 9 Comments

Animal Rights Trump Religious Rights

The Great Synagogue, Copenhagen

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

The World Jewish Congress reported late last week that the Danish Minister of Food and Agriculture, a 38 year old Social Democrat named Dan Jorgensen, had signed a regulation effectively banning the Jewish ritual slaughter of animals for food. Jorgensen explained the ban on Danish television by saying “animal rights come before religion” – or, according to another translation, “animal rights precede religious rights.”

Under the new regulation, all animal slaughter must be carried out after stunning, which is contrary to the Jewish practice of shechita, or ritual slaughter. Denmark’s Jewish community (which numbers a mere 6,000 persons) opposes the minister’s decision. The European Commissioner on Health, Tonio Borg, questioned the legality of the ban, saying that it “contradicts European law.” On the other hand, Jorgensen’s decision was acclaimed by the Animal Welfare Intergroup, of which he had been President.

If the Danish government and parliament let the decision stand, Denmark will join several other western European nations, including Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Poland and Switzerland in prohibiting such ritual slaughter. (Holland had attempted to ban shechita, but a Read more