Skip to main content

Shari’a as a Source of Legal Pluralism in the Lives of Western Muslims

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Muslim Legal Pluralism in the West

Abstract

The present research is an introductory text to the subject of Western Muslim’s debates, discussions, and practices on the concept of Shari’a vis-à-vis real-life application of Shari’a-driven laws and practices, with a particular focus on the daily lives of Muslims, functioning as a comprehensive reader and handbook. In addition to analysing scholarly discussions on secularism and the importance of comprehending religion in socio-political contexts, it provides a range of viewpoints regarding the workings of Shari’a in Western cultures, touching on topics like gender equality, citizenship rights, political participation, jihad, belonging, grassroots movements, and legal pluralism. Although most of the research that is now available concentrates on Islamic family law, there is an increasing amount of interest in investigating the domestic application of Shari’a in a variety of fields. Nonetheless, there are still a lot of unanswered questions in this field, which emphasizes the necessity for more study to have a deeper understanding of Muslims’ legal experiences and practices in the West.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abou El Fadl, Khaled. 2001. Rebellion and Violence in Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abou El Fadl, Khaled. 2007. The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists. New York: HarperOne.

    Google Scholar 

  • An-Na'im, Abdullahi Ahmed. 1990. Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International Law. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • An-Na’im, Abdullahi Ahmed. 2008. Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari’a. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asad, Talal. 1993. Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asad, Talal. 2003. Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayat, Asef. 2007. Making Islam Democratic: Social Movements and the Post-Islamist Turn. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayat, Asef. 2010. Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East. Amsterdam: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, M. S. 2018. “Understanding Sharia in the West.” Journal of Law, Religion and State 6 (2–3): 236–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Büchler, Andrea. 2011. Islamic Law in Europe?: Legal Pluralism and Its Limits in European Family Laws. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrol, Lucy. 1997. “Application of the Law: Muslim Women and ‘Islamic Divorce’ in England.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 17: 97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiba, Masaji 1989. Legal pluralism: Toward a general theory through Japanese legal culture. Tokyo: Tokai UP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzpatrick, Peter. 1992. The mythology of modern law. London. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galanter, Marc. 1966. The modernization of law. In: Myron Weiner (ed) Modernization. New York. London: Basic Books. 153–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galanter, Marc. 1985. Indigenous law and official law in the contemporary United State. In: G. R. Woodman and A. Allott (eds) People's law and state law. The Bel/agio papers. Dordrecht: Foris Publications. 67–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerber, H. 1994. State, Society, and Law in Islam: Ottoman Law in Comparative Perspective. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths, John. 1986. “What Is Legal Pluralism?” The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 18: 1–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haddad, Yvonne. 2002. Muslims in the West: From Sojourners to Citizens. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, Murad. 1993. Islam: The Alternative. Reading: Garnet Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kruiniger, Pauline M. 2014. Islamic Divorces in Europe: Bridging the Gap Between European and Islamic Legal Orders.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macfarlane, Julie. 2012. Islamic Divorce in North America: A Shari’a Path in a Secular Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mahmood, Saba. 2005. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahmood, Saba. 2015. Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massad, Joseph. 2001. Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massad, Joseph. 2007. Desiring Arabs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McLachlan, Campbell Alan. 1988. State recognition of customary law in the South Pacific. London: UCL (Unpublished PhD thesis).

    Google Scholar 

  • McLellan, Janet and Anthony H. Richmond 1994. “Multiculturalism in crisis: A postmodern perspective on Canada”. In: V. 17 N. 4 Ethnic and Racial Studies. 662–683.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menski, Werner F. 1993. “Asians in Britain and the question of adaptation to a new legal order: Asian laws in Britain”. In: Milton Israel and Narendra Wagle (eds) Ethnicity, identity, migration: The South Asian context. Toronto: University of Toronto. 238–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merry, Sally Engle. 1988. “Legal pluralism”. In: V. 22 N. 5 Law and Society Review. 869–896.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. 1999. Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. 2016. Shari’a and Muslim Minorities: The Wasati and Salafi Approaches to Fiqh al-Aqalliyyat al-Muslima. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, Sally Falk. 1978. Law as process: An anthropological approach. London et al: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moors, Annelies. 2013. “Unregistered Islamic Marriages: Anxieties About Sexuality and Islam in the Netherlands.“ In Applying Sharia in the West: Facts, Fears and the Future of Rules of Islam on Family Relations in the West, edited by Maurits S. Berger, 141. Leiden: Leiden University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen, Jørgen S. 1987. Muslims in Western Europe. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nina, Daniel and Pamela Jane Schwikkard. 1996. “The ‘soft vengeance’ of the people: Popular justice, community justice and legal pluralism in South Africa”. In: N. 36 Journal of Legal Pluralism. 69–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quraishi, Asifa, and Najeeba Syeed-Miller. 2004. “No Altars: A Survey of Islamic Family Law in the United States.” In Women’s Rights & Islamic Family Law, edited by Lynn Welchman, 179. Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santelli, Emmanuelle, and Beate Collet. 2012. “Le mariage ‘halal’: Réinterprétation des rites du mariage musulman dans le contexte post-migratoire français.” Recherches familiales 9 (1): 83–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos, Boaventura de Sousa (1987). “Law: A map of misreading. Toward a postmodern conception of law”. In: V. 14 N. 3 Journal of Law and Society. 279–302.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos, Bouventura de Sousa (1995). “Three metaphors for a new conception of law. The frontier, the baroque, and the south”. In: V. 29 N. 4 Law and Society Review. 569– 584.

    Google Scholar 

  • Speelman, Gé 1995. “Muslim minorities and Shari’ah in Europe”. In: Tarek Mitri (ed) Religion, law and society: A Christian-Muslim discussion. Geneva. Kampen: WCC Publications. Kok Pharos. 70–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sportel, Iris D. A. 2014. Maybe I'm Still His Wife: Transnational Divorce in Dutch-Moroccan and Dutch-Egyptian Families. Radboud University Nijmegen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Starssburger, Gaby. 2007. “Auf die Liebe kommt es an! – Beziehungsideale und – entscheidungen junger Muslime.“ In Junge Muslime in Deutschland: Lebenslagen, Aufwachsprozesse und Jugendkulturen, edited by Hans-Jürgen von Wensierski and Claudia Lübcke, 195. Barbara Budrich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, Emily L., and Soniya F. Yunus. 2007. “Choice of Laws or Choice of Culture: How Western Nations Treat the Islamic Marriage Contract in Domestic Courts.” Wisconsin International Law Journal 25: 361.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanderlinden, Jacques 1989. “Return to legal pluralism: Twenty years later”. In: N. 28 Journal of Legal Pluralism. 149–157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Von Benda-Beckmann, Keebet, and Bertram Turner. 2018. “Legal Pluralism, Social Theory, and the State.” The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 50: 255–274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yilmaz, I. 1999. Dynamic legal pluralism and the reconstruction of unofficial Muslim laws in England, Turkey and Pakistan. Unpublished PhD thesis. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yilmaz, I. 2001. “Law as Chameleon: The Question of Incorporation of Muslim Personal Law into the English Law.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 21 (2) (May): 297–308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yilmaz, I. 2000. “Muslim Law in Britain, Reflections in the Socio-Legal Sphere and Differential Legal Treatment.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 20 (2) (May): 353–360.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yilmaz, I. 2002. “The Challenge of Post-modern Legality and Muslim Legal Pluralism in England.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 28 (2) (May): 343–354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yilmaz, I. 2003. Non-Recognition of Post-Modern Turkish Socio-Legal Reality and Predicament of Women, British. Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1, May 2003, pp. 25–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yilmaz, I. 2019. Nation Building, Islamic Law and Unofficial Legal Pluralism: the Cases of Turkey and Pakistan. In Norbert Oberauer, Yvonne Prief, Ulrike Qubaja (eds) Legal Legal Pluralism in Muslim Contexts, pp. 109–138. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yilmaz, I. 2020. Muslims, Sacred Texts, and Laws in the Modern World. In: Woodward M., Lukens-Bull R. (eds) Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives, 1–18. Cham: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yilmaz, I. 2023. Islam in the Anglosphere: Perspectives of Young Muslims in Australia, the UK and the USA. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yilmaz, I. 2024. Sharia as Informal Law: Lived Experiences of Young Muslims in Western Societies. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yilmaz, I. 2016. Muslim Laws, Politics and Society in Modern Nation States: Dynamic Legal Pluralisms in England, Turkey and Pakistan. Reprint. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ihsan Yilmaz .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Yilmaz, I., Sokolova-Shipoli, D.P. (2024). Shari’a as a Source of Legal Pluralism in the Lives of Western Muslims. In: Muslim Legal Pluralism in the West. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-4260-8_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics