I S L A M I C

L E G A L

S T U D I E S

P R O G R A M

Volume 17, Numbers 1 & 2July 2012

continued on p. 2

Table of Contents

p. 1 From the Acting ExecutiveDirector

p. 3 Abd al-Razzaq al-SanhuriLecture Series

p. 4 Islamic Finance Project

p. 9 ILSP-Supported Events

p. 9 Student Travel Grants andFaculty Grants

p. 10 2012–2013 ILSP VisitingFellows

p. 12 ILSP and IFP Events2011–2012

p. 12 New IFP Publication

p. 13 Welcome to ILSP

p. 14 Introducing islawmix

Greetings! This past year marked the 20th anniversary of theIslamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School, and itis my pleasure to share its highlights with you. As usual, avariety of academic activities, including ILSP fellows’ lec-tures, seminars, forums, and panel discussions, took placeduring the year, as well as efforts to engage with variousdepartments across Harvard and with colleagues and organi-zations outside of the University.

First and foremost, we were pleased to expand our Islamiclaw course offerings. ILSP and the law school benefited fromthe knowledge and enthusiasm of two visiting professors thisyear. Chibli Mallat, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Vis-iting Professor of Islamic Legal Studies, taught two coursesin Fall 2011: Public International Law and The 2011 Nonvi-olent Middle East Revolution Law (seminar). Kristen Stilt,

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Visiting Associate Pro-fessor of Islamic Legal Studies, taught Introduction toIslamic Law in Fall 2011 as well as Regulation of IslamicFinance (seminar). She also led students in a reading groupentitled Islamic Law, Gender, and Human Rights. This com-ing year, we look forward to welcoming Shahab Ahmed, whowill be teaching The Social and Cultural Lives of IslamicLaw (seminar) and Orthodoxy: Truth, Authority, Law in Fall2012; Intisar Rabb, who will be teaching Introduction toIslamic Law in Fall 2012; and Roy Mottahedeh, Gurney Pro-fessor of Islamic History in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts andSciences, who will be joining us as an ILSP Affiliate inResearch. We are also pleased to have seven new ILSP fel-lows joining us for the 2012–2013 academic year. Theirnames and research interests are listed on p. 13.

A variety of non-classroom events also brought students andfaculty together at ILSP this year. ILSP fellows’ lectures weremajor attractions. This year’s lectures covered a broad rangeof topics in Islamic law, such as problems of authority, excep-tional courts in Egypt, women’s rights in Malaysia, feminismand gender justice, and dispute resolution in Islamic finance.The monthly afternoon coffee hour continues to provide stu-dents and ILSP fellows a forum for informal interaction. TheILSP opening reception during the orientation week at thebeginning of the school year was another successful event,which attracted several students, faculty, and friends. Theseevents and others have allowed students to learn more aboutIslamic law and develop their interest in the field. On the

From the Acting Executive DirectorS. Nazim Ali

FROM THE ACTING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, cont.

international front, the program director participated in theInternational Society of Islamic Legal Studies triennial con-ference on the theme “Islamic Law and the State: Doctrineand History.”

We were also pleased to hold the seventh lecture of the Abdal-Razzaq al-Sanhuri Lecture Series on Legal Interpretationin the Muslim World, entitled “The Islamic Legal System andthe Quest for Transformation in the 21st Century.” ProfessorDato’ Sri Zaleha Kamaruddin, Rector of the InternationalIslamic University Malaysia, enriched her discussion of cur-rent harmonization efforts between Shari‘a and civil law withinsights from the Malaysian experience.

The Islamic Finance Project (IFP) of ILSP also had a busyyear. The Tenth Harvard University Forum on IslamicFinance, a two-day biennial forum, was held in March 2012on the theme “Islamic Finance and Development.” The forumattracted more than 50 speakers and over 250 attendees rep-resenting over 40 countries. IFP continued its partnershipwith the London School of Economics in organizing twoyearly events: a workshop entitled “Islamic Financial Inter-mediation: Revisiting the Value Proposition” and a publiclecture entitled “Calls for Economic Justice: The Potential ofIslamic Finance.” In addition, a seminar entitled “IslamicFinance: Bankruptcy, Financial Distress, and Debt Restruc-turing” was organized to discuss issues of bankruptcy anddebt in Islamic finance after three cases of sukuk default.Four panel discussants joined the speaker and audience insharing their insights on the challenges and lessons of theseexperiences in shaping the future direction of the Islamic

finance industry. The electronic bibliography of IFP, the IFPDatabank, now includes over 9,000 items that are availablefree of charge on the Project’s website (www.ifp.law.har-vard.edu). During the year, the Project published two books:Sharia-Compliant Microfinance and Building Bridges acrossFinancial Communities. The program especially thanks ILSPFounding Director Frank Vogel, Samuel Hayes of HarvardBusiness School, and Ibrahim Warde of Tufts University fortheir continuous support and encouragement in organizingthe forums.

In addition to these recurring events, we hope to also intro-duce new initiatives to increase graduate student participationin ILSP activities next year. An application to form a graduatestudent organization, the Islamic Legal Studies Association ofHarvard Law School (ILSA), is currently in progress. ILSAaims to promote academic inquiries in Islamic legal studies byfostering an ongoing conversation between academicians, stu-dents, and researchers in Islamic legal studies with their col-leagues studying similar questions in other world legalsystems. Plans for a student seminar series, an ILSA lectureseries, and a roundtable colloquium series in which graduatestudents from various Harvard campuses present theirresearch findings and share their academic interests are all inthe works. In addition, we encourage students to take advan-tage of educational resources, such as the news site islawmix(http://islawmix.org) and the Islam in the West Program of theCenter for Middle Eastern Studies, both of which ILSP spon-sors annually in recognition of their important contributions tothe public debate on Islamic law.

The program would like to offer thanks and well wishes toAmelia Wilbur, Islamic Law Library Assistant, who recentlyleft to pursue opportunities in New Jersey. Replacing Ameliais George Somi, Arabic Language Library Assistant. Georgerecently graduated from Harvard University’s GraduateSchool of Arts and Sciences with a Master of Arts in MiddleEastern Studies. He is assisting Yahya Melhem, Librarian forIslamic Law, in the processing of Arabic law materials.

The past year’s events are described in further detail in this newsletter, as well as in published reports online athttp://law.harvard.edu/programs/ilsp/. We thank you for yourinterest in ILSP and look forward to your participation in itsupcoming events. �

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3THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ISLAMIC LEGAL STUDIES PROGRAM AT HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

ABD AL-RAZZAQ AL-SANHURI LECTURE SERIESModern Muslim societies arenow facing the challenge ofapplying Shari‘a to contexts thathave changed markedly fromthose that existed during theearly decades of Islam. The cur-rent Islamic legal system hasgone through periodic changesof growth and renewal that havenot kept up with the rapid devel-opments of the legal system inthe world today. Despite reformand revitalization efforts toadapt Islamic law to contempo-rary issues, various Islamizationand harmonization theoriesremain insufficient, and newchallenges are continually form-

ing. Much of the contemporary research in this field focusesprimarily on the harmonization of legal systems. However, theeffort should go beyond harmonization, through unifiedefforts from all Islamic agencies. In her lecture for the Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri Lecture Series on Legal Interpretation inthe Muslim World, “Islamic Legal System and the Quest forTransformation in the 21st Century,” Professor ZalehaKamaruddin, Rector of the International Islamic UniversityMalaysia, argued that efforts to reform Islamic law should gobeyond the harmonization of legal systems, harnessing uni-fied efforts from all Islamic agencies.

The main aims of this lecture were to identify the loopholesand challenges faced by Islamic agencies in transforming theIslamic legal system, the plausible macro and micro solutionsfor the problems that face legal transformational efforts, andthe effective frameworks in rectifying the existing perceptionsof the society in this area. Kamaruddin applied her analysis tothe Malaysian context and argued that this transformation sur-

passes the well-publicized concept of harmonization betweenMalaysian Shari‘a law and Malaysian civil law or the commonpractice of molding and casting modern concepts into Islamicconstructs. Drawing on research supported by more than 10agencies related to the Islamic legal system in Malaysia, sheargued that reform is urgent to meet the demands and chal-lenges of the new century. Her lecture outlined the challengesfaced by these agencies and the plausible solutions to jump-start the Islamic legal system’s transformational efforts. Thecombined efforts of these 10 agencies, represented in a jointtaskforce, are vital to the success of any action plan to initiatethe transformation of the Islamic legal system in Malaysia byidentifying potential challenges and recommendations fortheir resolution. Transformation in this context involvesresolving issues through the various processes of renewal (taj-did), reform (islah), revival (ihya’), change (taghyir), migra-tion (hijrah), and evaluation (taqwim). All of these approachesshould be made through consultation (mushawara) andresearch-driven strategies.

Muslims are offered by their tradition a large and sophisti-cated heritage that is continually being enriched. It is in keep-ing with this tradition that society should be given theopportunity to listen to voices from diverse backgrounds andcountries. The needs of the 21st century indicate that Islamiclegal awareness should not be restricted to certain regionalvoices, but rather include the plurality of voices that exist inthe Muslim world. Thus, organizing international discussionson the variety of interpretations and the complexity of apply-ing Shari‘a in modern Muslim societies is critical. Theexchange between local and international Muslim scholars inthis lecture was particularly stimulating and should continuein successive meetings. To conclude, the transformation ofthe Islamic legal system in Malaysia faces multifaceted chal-lenges. These challenges can only be overcome by concertedand joint efforts of all the relevant agencies at the state andfederal levels. Such work must go beyond current efforts to

harmonize Shari‘a and civillaw due to the rapid changesin the political, economic,and social fabrics ofMalaysia and the Muslimworld in general. �

Zaleha Kamaruddin deliversthe seventh lecture of the Abdal-Razzaq al-Sanhuri LectureSeries on Legal Interpretation

in the Muslim World.

Baber Johansen and Zaleha Kamaruddin

4

Tenth Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance

The Tenth Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance washeld at Harvard Law School on March 24 and 25, 2012. Thisforum is a biennial event organized by IFP to engage practi-tioners, scholars, and students of Islamic finance in a criticaldiscussion of the latest developments in the field. This year’sforum, entitled “Islamic Finance and Development,” includedthree plenary sessions on global economic development, thedevelopment of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), andfaith-based investment and social responsibility. It alsoincluded two distinguished banquet speeches and four paral-lel sessions discussing various contemporary issues onIslamic finance and development.

The first plenary session was entitled “The Islamic FinancialSector’s Contribution to Global Economic Development,”chaired by Samuel Hayes, Professor Emeritus of HarvardBusiness School. Noah Feldman, the Bemis Professor ofInternational Law at Harvard Law School, presented thekeynote speech that began the forum. Feldman discussedthree global developments that he believes will shape theIslamic finance industry in the coming years: the continuingchallenges to the global economy, the rise of serious politicaland ethical concerns for the poorest segments of the popula-tion and the countries in which they live, and the develop-ments of the Arab Spring, which initially offered tremendoushope but has fallen short of achieving many of its objectives.Following his introduction, Volker Nienhaus, Visiting Profes-sor of the University of Reading, U.K., presented his discus-sion paper, “Islamic Financial Sector: Is It Contributing toEconomic Development?” Nienhaus argued that Islamicfinance does indeed generate income and entrepreneurialactivities in the real economy, but that its new secularapproach to derivatives casts doubt on its true potentialimpact on development. Neil Miller, Global Head of Islamic

ISLAMIC FINANCE PROJECT

Finance at KPMG, Dubai, presented the second discussionpaper at the session, “The Role of Islamic Finance in Devel-opment.” Miller emphasized that the fundamental tension inIslamic finance is the misalignment between shareholderexpectations and community expectations and provided aseries of normative parameters for evaluating the impact ofIslamic finance on development. Following their presenta-tions, the four panelists presented their responses to Nien-haus’ and Miller’s arguments and engaged with the audiencein a discussion on how Islamic finance can create an envi-ronment for sustainable economic growth.

The second plenary session was entitled “Islamic Financeand the Development of SMEs,” chaired by Asim A. Khwaja,

Sumitomo-FASID Professor of InternationalFinance and Development at HarvardKennedy School. The first discussion paperwas entitled “Islamic Finance and Entrepre-neurship: Challenges and OpportunitiesAhead” and was presented by Bailey Klinger,Chief Executive Officer of the Entrepreneur-ial Finance Lab (EFL) at Harvard KennedySchool. In his presentation, Klinger intro-duced a new tool to predict credit risk basedon an entrepreneur’s ethics, honesty, intelli-gence, psychological profile, and businessskills. In contrast to traditional SME screen-ing that is high-cost, high-risk, and backward-looking by focusing on “downside risk,” andreliant on information that many SMEs do nothave, the EFL test is computer-based andhighly scalable, forward-looking in focusingon upside potential, and uses informationOpening session of the Tenth Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance

Noah Feldman

5THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ISLAMIC LEGAL STUDIES PROGRAM AT HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

ISLAMIC FINANCE PROJECT, cont.chaired by Shahab Ahmed, Associate Professor of Near East-ern Languages & Civilizations, Harvard University. Thesepapers went into greater depth on the experience of IFIs incountries ranging from Nigeria and Pakistan to the Gulfcountries, with the question-and-answer session focusing onhow public-private partnerships may be a way for these coun-tries to benefit each other.

Parallel session C, “Islamic Finance and Alternative Eco-nomic Thinking,” was chaired by Volker Nienhaus, VisitingProfessor, University of Reading, U.K. Papers in this sessioncompared Islamic finance with conventional finance, empha-sized the need to have a pragmatic approach toward Shari‘acompliance, such as that in Malaysia and its central bank’sShari‘a Advisory Council, and noted shortcomings of themicrofinance industry. The ensuing question-and-answer ses-sion focused on the institutionalization of zakat and theproper channeling and utilization of zakat funds. As in pastforums, a parallel session was also dedicated to the discus-sion of current academic research in Islamic finance. Chairedby Mehmet Asutay of Durham University, U.K., Parallel ses-sion D featured papers that proposed alternatives to debt mar-kets, such as joint public-private activities likebuild-operate-transfer (BOT) and build-develop-operate(BDO) contracts, the use of a framework of collectivemaslaha rather than a legalistic or individualistic frameworkto help overcome the failure of banks to achieve their socialobjectives, a rethinking of the concept of a “just” Islamicstate to ensure the stability and success of a “just” Islamicfinance, and a new mathematical performance model for IFIsbased on maqasid al-shari‘a.

IFP was also honored to have two guest speakers deliverspeeches during the Forum’s dinner banquet. The first ban-quet speech was delivered by Mahmoud Mohieldin, Manag-ing Director, World Bank Group. Mohieldin focused on sixchallenges facing Islamic finance as the industry evolves intoits next phase: improving regulatory oversight, rebalancingtax treatment, strengthening insolvency frameworks, promot-ing standardization, ensuring adequate liquidity, and estab-lishing sound risk-management practices. He described stepsthe World Bank Group has taken in supporting the evolutionof Islamic finance and concluded with his hope that Islamicfinance will continue to play a role in broadening financialaccess to support sustainable development. The second ban-quet speech was delivered by Rashad Hussain, U.S. SpecialEnvoy for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).Hussain discussed ongoing efforts by the U.S. government toimprove political stability and economic development in theMuslim world.

For a more detailed account of the Tenth Forum or moreinformation on the forthcoming publication of a subset ofpapers presented in forums, please visit ifp.law.harvard.edu.

available from everyone. Anass Patel, President of 570 AssetManagement, France, presented the second discussion paperentitled “Hybrid Sukuk for SMEs: Financing the Real Econ-omy through Ethical Principles.” In addressing the questionof whether hybrid sukuk for SMEs can be a credible alterna-tive to conventional loans, Patel had two main assertions:first, bank loans are not adapted to SMEs’ position and betterrating tools are needed in light of the Basel requirements, andsecond, the profit and loss sharing approach for SME financ-ing can work. After Klinger and Patel’s presentations, the fourpanelists offered their comments and agreed that more guid-ance and training is needed to help SMEs.

The third plenary session was chaired by Kristen Stilt, Visit-ing Associate Professor of Islamic Legal Studies, HarvardLaw School, and featured two discussion papers. SajjadShah, Vice President at Wellington Management Company,Boston, and Jahangir Sultan, Professor of Finance at BentleyUniversity, Waltham, Massachusetts, presented their paper,“Values-Driven and Profit-Seeking Islamic Investors.” Theyemphasized the importance of policymakers’ and investmentmanagers’ understanding of the primary and secondaryobjectives of an investor, differentiating between investorsthat are values-driven and those that are profit-seeking. Theauthors posited that a majority of Islamic finance investorsare values-driven investors, as Islamic finance investmentsusually avoid entire sectors such as the financial sector (noneof the financial stocks are part of the Dow Jones IslamicFinance Index), making such investments unattractive forinvestors looking just for return, irrespective of the nature ofunderlying business. Umar Oseni, Visiting Fellow at theIslamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School, thenpresented his paper, “Toward a New Global Paradigm: Faith-Based Investments and Socially Responsible Investments.”Oseni described the relationship between faith-based invest-ments (FBIs) and SRIs and outlined the potential they hold tocreate bridges across different faith communities. The pan-elists’ comments and question-and-answer session followingtheir presentations elaborated on the differences and similar-ities between FBIs and SRIs and the extent to which they maycollaborate.

The forum was further enriched by four parallel sessions.Parallel session A, entitled “Islamic Finance and the ArabSpring Movements,” was chaired by Ibrahim Warde and fea-tured five papers. These discussed challenges as well aspotential growth strategies for Islamic finance in light of thenew political changes after the revolutions and the greaterpolitical demand for Islamic finance across the MENAregion. The ensuing question-and-answer session touched ona variety of topics, including sukuk, the role of technology inexpanding Islamic finance, continuous engagement and col-laboration between Shari‘a scholars and economists, and theneed for human resource development. Parallel session B wasentitled “Global Perspectives on Islamic Finance” and continued on p. 6

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ISLAMIC FINANCE PROJECT, cont.

HLS-LSE Workshop on Islamic Financial Intermediation

IFP and London School of Economics and Political Science(LSE) co-hosted the sixth annual workshop on Islamic financeon February 23, 2012, at the LSE campus in London. This year,participants chose “Islamic Financial Intermediation: Revisit-ing the Value Proposition” as the workshop topic. A diversegroup of 27 individuals attended the workshop, includingShari‘a scholars, academics, Islamic economists, bankers,lawyers, and representatives of standard-setting bodies.

Financial intermediation generally refers to moving fundsfrom surplus to deficit units. There is, however, disagreementabout whether institutions offering Islamic financial servicescan be classified as financial intermediaries in the samesense as conventional financial institutions; the general con-sensus at the workshop was that there may be no harm inusing the term financial intermediation in Islamic finance ifthe required Shari‘a conditions are met.

It was argued that morality is at the core of Islamic financeand its value proposition. Such morality would be expressedby serving the real economy, reaching sections of the popula-tion not served by the financial sector, discouraging debt,encouraging profit sharing, promoting development, andreducing economic inequality. An alternative view was thatIslamic banking is only a part of Islamic finance, which is inturn a part of the theoretical construct referred to as anIslamic economic system. Companies offering Islamic finan-cial services are set up to earn a competitive return for theirshareholders and other relevant stakeholders like customers.It is unfair to demand that Islamic banks and Islamic financetry to deliver what is usually expected from governments anddevelopment financial institutions; Islamic banking cannotassume such moral responsibility, and expectations of moral-ity from Islamic finance should be consistent with the role ofIslamic finance. A counterargument held that if the sectorcannot deliver on the expectations that it creates by using thelabel “Islamic,” it should perhaps scale down expectations,explaining that it is merely trying to replicate conventional

finance while complying with form-oriented technicalrequirements of Islamic commercial jurisprudence.

Islamic commercial banking, as described, is operating in awider economic and financial system that creates obstacles toimplementing the theory underlying Islamic finance. Forinstance, Islamic economic theory relies heavily on risk shar-ing as part of its moral appeal, but it is difficult to share riskin commercial banking, the largest segment in the sector.Those providing finance (e.g., depositors) are unwilling toaccept a loss on their principal, and those receiving finance(e.g., industrialists) are unwilling to share their profits. As aresult, Islamic banking, like conventional banking, also reliesheavily on debt. Over the years, the stance on debt in Islamicfinance seems to have softened. While debt is not preferredover profit-sharing arrangements, it is now more likely to beseen as a legitimate means of financing if the relevant condi-tions are met.

It was further explained that the unwillingness of parties pro-viding and receiving finance to share business risk is due tothe dominant conventional commercial banking, to which allparties have become accustomed. Commercial banking haslittle, if any, room for depositors and borrowers to share therisk of business outcomes. A wide range of factors—such asbanking regulation, deposit protection insurance, taxdeductibility of interest, and higher capital adequacy chargefor equity exposure—support the practice of conventionalbanking. For those working in the Islamic financial sector, itis a safe strategy to continue to replicate conventional financebecause if they try to innovate more authentic solutions andfail, it could cost them their jobs.

While there are important obstacles to realizing the moralvalue proposition of Islamic finance, a counterargument wasthat Islamic financial institutions are not even doing what theycan within the current financial and economic system. Forinstance, conventional financial institutions seem to be farahead of Islamic financial institutions in corporate socialresponsibility, even though morality is supposed to be at the

Participants at the Harvard-LSE workshop on Islamic Financial Remediation

7THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ISLAMIC LEGAL STUDIES PROGRAM AT HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

ISLAMIC FINANCE PROJECT, cont.core of the value proposition of Islamic finance. AAOIFIalready has a standard on corporate social responsibility that isnot being widely followed in the sector. Despite its emphasison morality, Islamic finance is conspicuously absent at the rel-evant forums, such as the World Economic Forum. Perhaps byreplicating conventional finance instead of offering somethingmore consistent with its underlying theory, Islamic finance hascreated the perception that it has nothing new to offer.

During the course of discussion, different participants pro-posed a wide range of ideas that in their view would directlyor indirectly help the Islamic financial sector offer the valueproposition that is expected from it and further its progress.These include: greater engagement with stakeholders, partic-ularly shareholders of Islamic financial institutions, to amendthe charters of Islamic financial institutions to sacrifice somereturns for social goals; establishment of an internationalassociation of Shari‘a scholars to pursue objectives such ascontinuing education of Shari‘a scholars, increasing trans-parency of juristic rulings (fatwas) and underlying rationale,implementing a code of ethics, and enhancing the reputationof this profession; introduction of investment products thatoffer both an economic and a social return reflecting the needsand priorities of the Muslim world, such as education and low-cost housing; and more internships for students of Islamicfinance in the Islamic financial sector to comprehend thepractical issues encountered by the industry and to developinto a valuable human capital for the industry (for more detailson the workshop, please visit ifp.law.harvard.edu).

IFP Seminar on Bankruptcy, Financial Distress, andDebt Restructuring

IFP and ILSP organized a panel discussion on September 26,2011, entitled “Islamic Finance: Bankruptcy, Financial Dis-tress, and Debt Restructuring.” The goal of the seminar was

to create an understanding of recently reported cases of bank-ruptcy and debt restructuring of Islamic finance products.The discussion paper was prepared and presented by IbrahimWarde, Adjunct Professor, The Fletcher School, Tufts Uni-versity, and discussed by four panelists: Chibli Mallat andKristen Stilt, Visiting Professors, Harvard Law School; UmarF. Moghul, Partner, Murtha Cullina LLP; and Muddassir Sid-diqui, Islamic Finance Head, SNR Denton & Co., Dubai.

Warde began his presentation with a comprehensive overviewof the historical development of finance in both the West andthe Islamic world. He explained that the central differencebetween Islamic and Western approaches to insolvency lay inthe absence, in classical Islamic law, of the notion of a sepa-rate corporate personality. In the West, the joint-stock limited-liability corporations slowly developed and became dominanteconomic actors. The corporations, in addition to enjoyinglegal personality, were usually established for an unlimitedperiod of time and could, in their own corporate name, con-tract debt, be placed in receivership, be liquidated, etc. In con-trast, with only a few exceptions (awqaf, bayt al-mal), Islamiclaw did not recognize partnerships as separate corporate enti-ties. Thus, in the Islamic world until the mid-19th century, theprincipal form of business remained the partnership, whichconsisted of individuals who were personally responsible forthe debts incurred. The Islamic approach, in contrast, concen-trated on individual partners, their circumstances, and motiva-tions: was the debtor trying to conceal assets or cheat thecreditor, or did he fail because of circumstances beyond hiscontrol? In the latter case, the creditor was supposed to showforbearance. Qard hasan, the benevolent (and interest-free)loan, which is also the only form of loan provided for byShari‘a, was often extended to distressed borrowers. Inciden-tally, debtors are among the proper recipients of zakat.According to economic historian Timur Kuran, the short lifeof partnerships (since a partnership was dissolved whenever a

IFP bankruptcy seminar panelists Kristen Stilt, Muddassir Siddiqui, Umar Moghul, Ibrahim Warde, and Chibli Mallat

ISLAMIC FINANCE PROJECT, cont.

partner died) and the constant dispersion of ownership due toIslamic inheritance laws made it difficult to achieve the accu-mulation of capital that made the industrial revolution possi-ble in the West.

Starting in the 19th century, however, Islamic traditions onmatters of commerce and finance were overtaken by Westerninfluences. With Islamic law generally confined to personalstatus and family law, most Islamic countries adopted com-mercial codes—including bankruptcy laws—borrowed fromEuropean (mostly French) law. The trend persisted throughoutthe era of decolonization. The resolution of insolvency cases,especially the significant ones, whether in Saudi Arabia orelsewhere, often took place outside the bankruptcy system.This can be explained by political and cultural factors, rangingfrom face saving when leading political figures and prominentcitizens are involved to limiting the damage to a country’seconomy and reputation. Indeed, a strong stigma is stillattached to the notion of iflas. One such example is the KuwaitiSouk Al-Manakh crash in 1982, which still reverberates today.

When modern Islamic finance appeared in the mid-1970s,scant attention was paid to the questions of insolvency anddebt restructuring. The founding fathers of Islamic financeenvisioned a system based on the double mudaraba principle,which would have extended the partnership ideal to both sidesof the balance sheet. With the relative failure of the equity-based model, Islamic banks moved to a different model ofbanking, based on replicating much of what conventionalbanks do, albeit via Islamic contracts. Murabaha became thedominant activity of Islamic banks, and debt therefore came toassume a greater role than was initially anticipated. Still, formost of its short history, modern Islamic finance paid scantattention to insolvency and its consequences.

The rapid growth of sukuk coincided with the recent oilboom, at a time when the possibility of default was not fore-most in the minds of issuers and investors. Little thought wasgiven to the substance of those sukuk and to what would hap-pen in the case of default. The prevailing assumption was thatthe sukuk were asset-backed, meaning that their holders hadclaims to specific assets. In reality, the nature of the collater-alization was different: sukuk holders had claims only on thecash flows generated by the assets, not to assets themselves.In other words, the sukuk were asset-based and not asset-backed. Their failures and other difficulties brought to lightunderlying ambiguities that had been ignored. Structuringsukuk properly, grounded in a deeper understanding of thedifferences between the outcome-oriented, conciliatoryapproach in the Islamic tradition to the process-orientedapproach in global finance, will be the next major challengeof the Islamic finance industry.

To see the panelists’ responses and more detailed informationabout the event, please visit ifp.law.harvard.edu.

Harvard-LSE Public Lecture on Economic Justice andIslamic Finance

The IFP and the London School of Economics and PoliticalScience (LSE) jointly hosted a public lecture entitled “Callsfor Economic Justice: The Potential of Islamic Finance” onFebruary 23, 2011, at the LSE campus in London. This wasthe sixth in an annual series of public lectures aimed to expanddialogue and understanding of contemporary issues. The eventwas introduced by Justice Ross Cranston, a senior judge of theRoyal Courts of Justice. Mr. Mukhtar Hussain, Group GeneralManager, CEO of HSBC Malaysia and Global CEO of HSBC

Amanah, was the main speaker. Heexplained how HSBC and other similarinstitutions are adapting to new economicrealities, how they are trying to meet theintended aspirations for greater economicjustice, and how the economic concerns ofthe public are shaping future products andservices in Islamic finance. ProfessorVolker Nienhaus, Visiting Professor,ICMA Centre, Henley Business School,University of Reading, was the followingspeaker. He elaborated on how goals likesocioeconomic equality, risk-sharing, andother objectives within “economic justice”are compatible with Islamic finance andhighlighted the future challenges Islamicfinance faces to realize those goals. �

Mukhtar Hussain and Ross Cranston (speaking)

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THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ISLAMIC LEGAL STUDIES PROGRAM AT HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

ILSP-SUPPORTED EVENTSThroughout the year, ILSP helps fund a variety of eventshosted by other campus organizations, from student groupsto other university programs and departments. Some of theevents supported by ILSP during the past academic yearare highlighted below.

In November 2011, the Harvard Law & InternationalDevelopment Society (LIDS) organized “Fighting forHuman Rights and Press Freedom in Bahrain: Possibilitiesand Limitations,” a talk with Dr. Mansoor al-Jamri, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Wasat, Bahrain, and recipient of the Com-mittee to Protect Journalists 2011 International PressFreedom Award. Al-Jamri called for freedom of the pressand human rights in Bahrain. A lively discussion followed,with some audience members disagreeing with al-Jamri’sassessment of the situation in Bahrain.

In March 2012, ILSP was pleased to support the GlobalLegal Education Forum held at the law school. The purposeof the forum was to develop a richer understanding of theintellectual and professional trajectories of contemporarylegal education reforms; their implications for global andnational elite leadership; the potential distributive effectsfor law schools that lack the material, technological, or fac-ulty resources to “go global”; and the uniqueness or simi-larity of these reforms relative to those being undertaken in

other professional disciplines. The forum was attended bylaw school deans, law professors, legal practitioners, lawstudents, and graduate candidates and HLS S.J.D. alumnifrom various regions, as well as academics from other pro-fessional disciplines. Three panels, in particular, addressedcontent relevant to ILSP: “Legal Education and the Circu-lation of Critique,” “Innovation in the North and South,”and “Contemporary Challenges of Legal Pluralism.”

Also in March, ILSP co-sponsored a talk organized byHLS’ East Asian Legal Studies program entitled “QadiJustice in Chinese Courts: The Bureaucratization ofIslamic Procedural Justice in the PRC,” delivered byMatthew Erie, Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at CornellUniversity. Erie’s research and dissertation, “The Prophetand the Party: Sect and Shari’a in China’s Little Mecca,”examines the status of Shari‘a among China’s Muslimminorities under socialist law.

In April, ILSP was pleased to help fund a lecture by FredDonner, Professor of Near Eastern History, University ofChicago, entitled “How Ecumenical was Early Islam?”The presentation was part of a celebration of Prof. Roy P.Mottahedeh’s contribution to Middle Eastern and Islamicstudies at Harvard.

STUDENT TRAVEL GRANTS AND FACULTY GRANTSThird-year J.D. student Ankita Ritwik traveled to Ankara toresearch how the headscarf ban may have an impact onwomen’s economic rights and, further, how this may impactTurkey’s obligations under domestic and international law tofurther gender equality. Ritwik spoke with Turkish legal aca-demics, university students and members of universityadministrations, researchers at think tanks, those involved inwomen’s organizations, and government officials.

In addition to funding student research travel, ILSP also sup-ported two faculty projects. Noah Feldman, Bemis Professorof International Law, traveled to Tunisia over spring break tomeet members of the constitutional drafting committee andadvise informally on the new constitution. Jill Goldenziel,Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law, presented “VeiledPolitical Questions: Islamic Dress, Constitutionalism, and theAscendance of Courts” at the American Society of Compar-ative Law Younger Comparativists conference. �

Each year, the Islamic Legal Studies Program invites HarvardLaw School students to submit travel grant proposals for thefunding of research trips. During the previous academic year,ILSP was pleased to award travel grants to two Harvard LawSchool students. The program also awarded grants to two fac-ulty members.

During winter term, third-year J.D. student Ramy Ibrahimconducted his research in Dubai, investigating rules and prac-tices concerning inheritance law, in particular how they affectthe lives of Muslim women. Ibrahim met with judges andsheikhs to discuss local practice and case law in order to bet-ter understand norms and expectations in Shari‘a courts. Healso visited mosques to see how the government might mod-erate the behavior and preaching of sheikhs, thus gaining anunderstanding of both official and on-the-ground perspec-tives on inheritance law. In addition, Ibrahim made contactwith a number of legal actors who were able to shed light onthe UAE’s constitutional structure and its federal civil code,enabling him to learn more about the legal structure in whichIslamic inheritance law operates.

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ILSP VISITING FELLOWSA Spring 2012 Visiting Fellow,Ismail Cebeci, Researcher atOxford’s Center for IslamicStudies, spent a productive fewmonths at ILSP, writing severalarticles and book reviews whileparticipating in a wide varietyof lectures and other events.

Ismail’s ILSP lecture, “NewContract Types: Revisiting theMethodology of Product Devel-opment in Islamic Finance,”

examined the process of product development in Islamicfinance (through the modern experience) and analyzedIslamic finance through contracts. The contract types(murabaha, mudarava, musharaka, etc.), which are used inIslamic finance, illustrate the relationship between classicalIslamic law and modern Islamic finance. Thus, an under-standing of the process and methodology of product develop-ment in Islamic jurisprudence is enormously important to theunderstanding of the nature of modern Islamic finance con-tracts. Cebeci’s presentation focused on three questions: Howare modern contract models produced out of their classicalforms and adapted to modern circumstances by Islamic finan-cial institutions? What kind of reasoning and methods wereused by modern scholars to produce new contracts? Is thereany need for a new methodology in producing Islamic financecontracts? These questions, as well as other issues, wereaddressed through specific, concrete examples in the lecture.

Tamir Moustafa, AssistantProfessor at Simon Fraser Uni-versity School for InternationalStudies, spent his sabbaticalyear at ILSP working on a bookmanuscript that examines pub-lic debates around the place ofIslamic law in contemporaryMalaysia. He also was able tolay the groundwork for a newproject that uses surveyresearch to map public under-standings of Islamic law in

Muslim majority countries. Tamir was able to take advantageof one of the less tangible benefits of an ILSP fellowship, theopportunity to meet and collaborate with other academics.With Intisar Rabb, ILSP Affiliate in Research, Moustafalaunched the Collaborative Research Network in Islamic Lawand Society through the Law and Society Association. Thisorganization promises to be an exciting hub for scholarshipon Islamic law and society in the coming years.

Tamir’s ILSP lecture, “Islamic Law, Women’s Rights, andPopular Legal Consciousness,” presented findings from afirst of its kind nationwide survey that sought to examinehow “everyday Malaysian Muslims” understand core concep-tual and methodological principles in the Islamic legal tradi-tion. The survey uncovered a substantial disjuncture betweenpopular legal consciousness and core epistemological com-mitments in Islamic legal theory, with most lay Muslims con-ceiving of Islamic law as being fixed and purely divine innature, with a single “correct” answer to any given question.Moustafa then examined the practical implications of thesefindings through illustrations of how popular legal con-sciousness hinders the efforts of those working to reformMuslim family law while strengthening the hand of conserv-ative actors wishing to maintain the status quo.

Yoram Meital joined ILSPfrom Israel, where he is anAssociate Professor at Ben-Gurion University, Middle EastStudies, and Chairman of theChaim Herzog Center for Mid-dle East Studies & Diplomacy.Yoram spent his yearlong fel-lowship researching Egypt’sexceptional courts and the legaldevelopments during the revo-lutionary experience.

Yoram’s lecture dealt with this topic, contending that despitehandling thousands of cases, these courts have not yet beenstudied in depth. Meital pointed out while the formation ofthe modern Egyptian legal system (late 19th century to mid-20th century) has been widely studied, the legal develop-ments during the revolutionary period have received littleattention, even though major legal changes were introducedduring that period, including the restructuring of the legisla-tive power and the judiciary, the abolition of the Shari‘acourts, and the promulgation of a new constitution. Civil andcriminal procedures formally continued to follow the existinglaw codes, but many measures were implemented based onorders issued by the Command Council of the Revolution.Thus the Revolutionary Court (mahkamat al-thawra) and thePeople’s Court (mahkamat al-sha‘ab) were established.Meital spoke of the meanings embedded in the physical loca-tion of the courts, their internal organization, and their workprocedures; the legal codices that they used; and the conductof the judges, the prosecution, and the defense, in an effort todelineate the discursive processes in which the projects ofhegemony and resistance were formed.

11THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ISLAMIC LEGAL STUDIES PROGRAM AT HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

ILSP VISITING FELLOWS, cont.A Spring 2012 Visiting Fellow,Qudsia Mirza, made the mostof a short semester, working onseveral research and writingprojects, including a mono-graph entitled InterrogatingIslamic Equality; a book chap-ter (“Contemporary Interpreta-tions of Justice and GenderEquality in Islamic Feminism”in God Loves Diversity & Jus-tice: Progressive ScholarsSpeak about Faith, Politics, and the World, edited by SusanneScholz, to be published by Lexington Books, 2012); and acollection of essays (Islamic Feminism and the Law, forth-coming from Routledge in 2013).

Qudsia’s ILSP lecture, entitled “Islamic Feminism and Gen-der Justice: Current Views,” gave a broad overview of con-temporary Islamic feminist discourse and, in particular,focused on the work of those scholars who are developingnew interpretive methodologies and hermeneutics in order toestablish progressive and feminist interpretations of theQur’an. Mirza pointed out that although there is great diver-sity in such interpretations, there are a number of commonthemes in the methodologies that all scholars are utilizing.The lecture offered a critique of such methodologies andargued that, in general terms, the notion of gender and of gen-der equality is under-theorized in many of these methodolo-gies and resulting interpretations. In addition, feminists arealso relying upon a discourse of authenticity and a “purity oforigin” that is open to critique. Despite this, Mirza contends,new interpretations of the Qur’an have the capacity to effectradical change in the reconfiguration of gendered rights inIslamic law and have the potential to establish more progres-sive women-friendly laws in the areas of marriage, divorce,child custody, inheritance, and succession.

Umar Oseni came to ILSPfrom the International IslamicUniversity Malaysia, where hewas a post-doctoral scholar andlecturer. During his year atILSP, Umar not only workeddiligently on his many researchprojects but also was an invalu-able asset as the primary contactwith our Sanhuri lecturer, Dr.Zaleha Karmaruddin, and as anaide to Dr. Nazim Ali of the

Islamic Finance Project, going “above and beyond” in help-ing to prepare for the biennial Harvard Forum on IslamicFinance. Umar will be going back to Malaysia in the capac-ity of Assistant Professor. Congratulations, Umar!

Oseni’s ILSP lecture, “Dispute Resolution in IslamicFinance: Current Trends and Future Perspectives,” investi-gated the dynamics of the dispute resolution framework in theIslamic finance industry—a relatively new area in Islamicfinance. The talk included an introduction to Islamic financewith a brief analysis of the time line of its reemergence in themodern world and an examination of the current trends inIslamic finance litigation and their implication for the futureof the Islamic finance industry. Oseni emphasized the need torevamp the current practices with a clear future direction.Finally, he concluded the lecture with an emphasis on theneed for an international legal framework for dispute resolu-tion of Islamic finance disputes and the need for existingarbitration institutions to calibrate their rules to accommo-date Islamic finance disputes.

While at ILSP last Fall, AronZysow spent his time workingintensively on a study of author-ity in Islamic law, more specifi-cally the authority to enunciategeneral rules of law. The focusof his research involved tracingseveral critical processes in thelong course of thinking aboutauthority within Islamic law.The ultimate goal in undertak-ing this project is to produce a

book-length study of Islamic legal authority that addressesboth the historical developments and the conceptual problems.

In Aron’s ILSP lecture, “Problems of Authority in IslamicLaw,” he addressed the structure of authority within the Sunnischools of law (madhahib) as it came to be widely understoodin light of the theory of ijtihad and taqlid.A detailed accountof these matters can be found in his recent article, co-authored with Professor Bernard Haykel of Princeton Uni-versity, “What Makes a Madhhab a Madhhab: Zaydi Debateson the Structure of Legal Authority” (Arabica, 58, 3–4(2012), 332–371). In this article, the authors show the diffi-culty of justifying adherence to a school of law within theclassical theory of ijtihad and taqlid, a difficulty acutely feltby Yemeni Zaydis over the past few centuries but also famil-iar to other jurists.

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NEW IFP PUBLICATIONThe Ninth Harvard University Forum, entitled “Building Bridges across Financial Communities,”was held on March 27–28, 2010, and sought to explore how Islamic finance can cultivate newpartnerships with other faith traditions and with other socially responsible organizations as itexpands. The forum explored what conventional banks and Islamic finance institutions can learnfrom each other, particularly after the financial crisis. The Ninth Forum publication, a selectionof 11 papers presented at the conference, investigates these questions through original researchon best practices across and between industries and faith traditions. Essays consider diverse top-ics, ranging from the influence of religion on corporate social responsibility and individual finan-cial choices to the parameters of hedging and portfolio diversification. To view the full table ofcontents, please visit the IFP website at www.ifp.law.harvard.edu. Copies of the publication canbe acquired through IFP for $40, including shipping. Please email ifp@law.harvard.edu to placean order. �

ILSP AND IFP EVENTS 2011–2012September 19, 2011: ILSP Orientation and Reception.Orientation to ILSP and reception for HLS and HarvardUniversity students and faculty.

September 26, 2011: “Islamic Finance: Bankruptcy,Financial Distress, and Debt Restructuring,” a panel dis-cussion focusing on insolvency issues in the Islamic financesector. Discussion paper presented by Ibrahim Warde(Adjunct Professor, The Fletcher School, Tufts University).Panelists: Chibli Mallat (Visiting Professor, Harvard LawSchool); Umar F. Moghul (Murtha Cullina LLP); Muddas-sir Siddiqui (SNR Denton & Company); and Kristen Stilt(Visiting Associate Professor, Harvard Law School).

October 31, 2011: “Problems of Authority in IslamicLaw,” ILSP lecture by Visiting Fellow Aron Zysow (Asso-ciate Research Scholar, Princeton University).

November 9, 2011: “Dispute Resolution in IslamicBanking and Finance: Current Trends and Future Per-spectives,” ILSP lecture by Visiting Fellow Umar Oseni(Post-doctoral Scholar and Lecturer, International IslamicUniversity Malaysia).

February 15, 2012: “Exceptional Courts and the Mak-ing of Republican Egypt,” ILSP lecture by Visiting Fel-low Yoram Meital (Associate Professor, Ben-GurionUniversity, Middle East Studies; Chairman, Ben-GurionUniversity, Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies& Diplomacy).

February 22, 2012: “Global Calls for Economic Justice:The Potential of Islamic Finance,” the 2012 LondonSchool of Economics-Harvard Public Lecture on IslamicFinance. Speakers: Mukhtar Hussain (CEO, HSBCMalaysia) and Volker Nienhaus (Visiting Professor, Univer-sity of Reading, U.K.).

February 23, 2012: “Islamic Financial Intermediation:Revisiting the Value Proposition,” 2012 London School ofEconomics-Harvard workshop, by invitation.

March 6, 2012: “The Islamic Legal System and theQuest for Transformation in the 21st Century,” the sev-enth Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri Lecture on Legal Interpreta-tion in the Muslim World, given by Prof. ZalehaKamaruddin (Rector, International Islamic UniversityMalaysia).

March 20, 2012: “Islamic Law, Women’s Rights, andPopular Legal Consciousness in Malaysia,” ILSP lectureby Visiting Fellow Tamir Moustafa (Associate Professor,Simon Fraser University School for International Studies,Canada).

March 24–25, 2012: The Tenth Harvard University Forumon Islamic Finance, “Islamic Finance and Development.”

April 17, 2012: “New Contract Types: Revisiting theMethodology of Product Development in IslamicFinance,” ILSP lecture by Visiting Fellow Ismail Cebeci(Researcher, Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, U.K.).

May 1, 2012: “Islamic Feminism and Gender Justice:Current Views,” ILSP lecture by Visiting Fellow QudsiaMirza (Independent Researcher, U.K.).

13THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ISLAMIC LEGAL STUDIES PROGRAM AT HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

Visiting Fellows 2012–2013

Olgun AkbulutAssistant Professor and Associate Dean, Kadir HasUniversity, TurkeySeptember 2012–May 2013Research Topic: The Harmonization of IslamicReligious Rights with Secular Laws: What Does theTurkish Model Provide?

Guy BurakPh.D. 2012, New York UniversitySeptember 2012–May 2013Research Topic: Towards a Connected Legal History: A Comparative Study of the Ottoman, Uzbek, andMughal Legal Systems

Mohd Na’im MokhtarDirector, Family Support Division, Dept. of SyariahJudiciary, MalaysiaFebruary 2013–May 2013Research Topic: Enforcement and Execution ofMaintenance Order by the Syariah Court of Malaysia:Issues of Separation of Power and Conflict of Interest

Roy Mottahedeh (Affiliate in Research)Gurney Professor of History, Harvard UniversityJuly 2012–June 2013

Huma SodherPh.D. candidate, Bangor University, U.K.September 2012–December 2012Research Topic: Post-Financial Crisis Legal andRegulatory Trends: Implications on Islamic BankingLaws and Regulations

WELCOME TO ILSP

Ayang UtrizaPh.D. candidate, École des Hautes Études en SciencesSociales, FranceFebruary 2013–May 2013Research Topic: The Register of the Qadi Court ofthe Sultanate of Banten, 1754–56: Philological,Historical, and Legal Studies on the Archive of KiyahiPeqih Najamuddin

Maaike VoorhoeveResearcher, Law Faculty, University of Amsterdam,NetherlandsSeptember 2012–May 2013Research Topic: The Sharia in the Constitution of Post-Revolutionary Tunisia

Walter YoungPh.D., McGill University, CanadaFebruary 2013–May 2013Research Topic: The Dialectical Forge: On theFormative Dynamic of Jadal in Islamic Law

Luqman ZakariyahLecturer in the Study of Islam and Muslims, Al-Maktoum College; Honorary Teaching Fellow,School of Divinity, History, and Philosophy, University of Aberdeen, U.K.September 2012–May 2013Research Topic: Legal and Moral Questions inContemporary Islamic Commercial Transactions:Comparative Analyses between Malaysia and the U.K.

Scholars and practitioners from around the world are selected by ILSP in a formal competition each February tospend the coming academic year or one term pursuing an innovative research project of their own at Harvard. Nextyear’s fellows are listed below.

ISLAMIC LEGAL STUDIES PROGRAM

Harvard Law School125 Mount Auburn Street, 3rd Floor

Cambridge, MA 02138

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tel: 617-496-3941 fax: 617-496-2707e-mail: ilsp@law.harvard.edu

http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/ilsp

OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES

THE ISLAMIC LEGAL STUDIES PROGRAM at Harvard LawSchool seeks to advance knowledge and understanding ofIslamic law.

The Program is dedicated to achieving excellence in thestudy of Islamic law through objective and comparativemethods. It seeks to foster an atmosphere of open inquirywhich embraces many perspectives, both Muslim and non-Muslim, and to promote a deep appreciation of Islamic lawas one of the world’s major legal systems.

The main focus of work at the Program is on Islamic lawin the contemporary world. This focus accommodates themany interests and disciplines that contribute to the studyof Islamic law, including its writings and history.

The Program supports the needs and interests of scholarsand students from all parts of the globe and endeavors tomirror the universality of Islam itself. It seeks the activeparticipation of scholars and practitioners from outside theUniversity, particularly from the Muslim world. The Pro-gram does so through visiting professorships, researchpositions, lectures, conferences, and publications. It alsoprovides fellowships and specialized programs for stu-dents, fostering Western scholarship in Islamic law by sup-porting young scholars and by encouraging innovativescholarship across many disciplines.

The Islamic Legal Studies Program also collaborates withother institutions and individuals at Harvard University toadvance the study of Islamic law, Islam, and the Muslimworld. In addition, it aims to establish close relationshipswith scholars and institutions abroad.

INTRODUCING ISLAWMIXA project of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society atHarvard University, islawmix.com is a new resource onIslamic law that aims to dynamically gather and contextual-ize trends in Islamic law in American media, policy, and legalacademic circles. It is underwritten in part by the IslamicLegal Studies Program at Harvard Law School and the Inter-culture Foundation.

This project is timely and important, given the uptick in—andaccompanying public relevance of—news stories on Islamand Islamic law, which create an urgent need to understandthe issues around dinner tables, on Capitol Hill, and in thepublic square. Islawmix focuses on Islamic law in particularbecause, often, issues that seem to be about culture and the-ology turn out to be about competing interpretations ofIslamic law. In the past decade, stories about Islam and Mus-lims have appeared with increasing frequency in Americannews media. Yet a recent Pew Research survey reveals thatmost Americans know little or nothing about Islam, and oftenwhat little they know is not grounded in fact. Surveys ofmainstream news sources reveal a real divide between newsproducers and sources with expertise. To the extent that newsreporting and academic discussions are ill-informed by infor-mation on the issues related to Islamic law, it is a challengeto connect academics with knowledge about the issues to thelarger interests and discussions about it. Islawmix aims tobridge this divide.

The islawmix team brings together technical know-how—via advisors at the MIT Media Lab and from start-up newsorganizations—with subject-matter expertise—from thegroup of scholars who specialize in key topics within bothAmerican and Islamic law and have signed on to indepen-dently help provide content to the media and academic con-tent emerging around Islamic law. Islawmix’s team ofexperts represents a range of perspectives and includes 13scholars in North America with advanced degrees in bothAmerican law and Islamic law—including recent ILSP affil-iates and visiting professors Chibli Mallat, Kristen Stilt, andIntisar Rabb, as well as others from a diverse range of opin-ions and institutions.

Each week, islawmix gathers and highlights the most impor-tant news stories covering issues related to Shari‘a in Ameri-can news media. In addition to top stories, islawmix providesanalysis of the issues from the scholars, as well as more in-depth “backgrounders” that feature a panel of experts whocan speak authoritatively on the issues.

In the future, islawmix plans to continue the news roundupsand analysis, and add to that detailed information aboutongoing issues about Islamic law in legislation, in the courts,and in scholarly debates. With plans to become a clearinghouse for issues of Islamic law discussions and analysis inall these areas, islawmix aims to be the SCOTUSblog forIslamic law. �