Questioning secularism : Islam, sovereignty, and the rule of law in modern Egypt / Hussein Ali Agrama.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Agrama, Hussein Ali.

Series:

Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning

Chicago studies in practices of meaning

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Abū Zayd, Naṣr Ḥāmid--Trials, litigation, etc.

Abū Zayd, Naṣr Ḥāmid.

Rule of law--Egypt.

Rule of law.

Islamic law--Egypt.

Islamic law.

Islam and state--Egypt.

Islam and state.

Fatwas--Egypt.

Fatwas.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The central question of the Arab Spring-what democracies should look like in the deeply religious countries of the Middle East-has developed into a vigorous debate over these nations' secular identities. But what, exactly, is secularism? What has the West's long familiarity with it inevitably obscured? In Questioning Secularism, Hussein Ali Agrama tackles these questions. Focusing on the fatwa councils and family law courts of Egypt just prior to the revolution, he delves deeply into the meaning of secularism itself and the ambiguities that lie at its heart. Drawing on a precedent-setting case arising from the family law courts -the last courts in Egypt to use Shari'a law-Agrama shows that secularism is a historical phenomenon that works through a series of paradoxes that it creates. Digging beneath the perceived differences between the West and Middle East, he highlights secularism's dependence on the law and the problems that arise from it: the necessary involvement of state sovereign power in managing the private spiritual lives of citizens and the irreducible set of legal ambiguities such a relationship creates. Navigating a complex landscape between private and public domains, Questioning Secularism lays important groundwork for understanding the real meaning of secularism as it affects the real freedoms of a citizenry, an understanding of the utmost importance for so many countries that are now urgently facing new political possibilities.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Introduction: A Secular or a Religious State?

Chapter One. The Legalization of Hisba in the Case of Nasr Abu Zayd

Chapter Two. The Indeterminacies of Secular Power: Sovereignty, Public Order, and Family

Chapter Three. A Paradox of Islamic Authority in Modern Egypt

Chapter Four. Law's Suspicion

Chapter Five. What Is a Fatwa?: Authority, Tradition, and the Care of the Self

Chapter Six. Islamist Lawyers in the Egyptian Emergency State: A Different Language of Justice?

Epilogue

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9781283657501

1283657503

9780226010700

0226010708

OCLC:

812289402