IslamicLawBlog

L. Ali Khan This planet belongs to all forms of life: plants, animals, birds, insects, humans, bacteria, and viruses. Humans have no inherent right to monopolize the earth to the exclusion of other life forms. Our theologies and our philosophies tell us that we are the center of creation, we are the best life form, and we are God’s exceptional handiwork. It is time to reconsider our fatuous egotism.   We are fragile. A microscopic virus, many times smaller than bacteria, both invisible, can kill us all. We have no chance to survive if viruses and bacteria combine their forces to wipe us out. That is the reality of our self-professed supremacy. Unfortunately, plants, animals, birds, and insects have fallen to our hegemony. Bacteria and viruses refuse to do so. Periodically, these microbes remind us, individually and as a species, that they can destroy us. We should be grateful that so far, they have not decided to bring about our extinction. They can, and they might. ...

Under President Trump, a noted Border Ruffian, the U.S. is losing moral anchor at home and in the world. In these sick times, Kansas can furnish a healthy heart that repairs the body. Relying on its existential origin as a Free State and consistent with its demographics, Kansas must reject the racist and xenophobic politics of Border Ruffians. Kansas needs to focus on economic prosperity and human dignity to unleash new energies among the various ethnic and religious communities living across the Sunflower State of fabulous prairies and hills. Mexicans, Irish, Somalis, Germans, Muslims, all are welcome to Kansas. Read more

SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 by   L. ALI KHAN “The point is that you can’t be too greedy.” The author of this saying, President Trump, is brazenly monetizing international relations. He demands more money from the NATO members for common defense. He urges Mexico to pay for the wall. He is slashing financial assistance to allies (except Israel). He vies to renegotiate trade agreements. He proposes to impose tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods in violation of international trade laws. He campaigned in the 2016 presidential election to declare China as a currency manipulator. Much like a Las Vegas tycoon, Trump views the world as a big casino where the U.S. is losing money. Trump fancies rigging the international game for the U.S. to come out as a tireless winner. Read more

Pakistan has a horrendous history of mistreating its elected prime ministers. On July 28, the Pakistan Supreme Court disqualified sitting prime minister Nawaz Sharif under the “ sadiq and amin  “clause of the 1973 Constitution. The Court found the prime minister to be  dishonest and untrustworthy . Since August 1947, in seventy years of Pakistan’s existence, prime ministers have been overthrown in military coups, removed by high courts, murdered, and executed. Not a single prime minister has been able to complete the constitutional tenure. Read More

Friday, January 27, 2017, is the day when President Donald Trump took the first step toward the official persecution of Muslims in the United States and around the world. This day, Trump signed  an executive order  banning the nationals of seven Muslim countries, four in the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen) and three in Africa (Libya, Sudan, Somalia). The executive order was not limited to the admission of refugees. Even legal immigrants (green card holders and persons with other visas) from these countries returning to the United States were refused entry, causing immense emotional distress to the blocked individuals and their families waiting at U.S. airports. On Saturday, a federal judge blocked the implementation of the executive order with respect to the people stranded at the U.S. airports. However, The Department of Homeland Security has  vowed  to enforce the executive order. read more

L. Ali Khan Over a period of forty years, I have  published  more than a million words in the form of books, academic articles, poems, short stories, and public scholarship such as this piece. Of all the published sentences, I am most proud of writing “ distribution of knowledge is a scholarly obligation ,” an axiom that captures an elegant virtue. Upon reflection, however, I myself don’t know what it exactly means or if it is even a good idea. This commentary struggles to explain the meaning of the axiom, potentially of interest to scholars in all disciplines ranging from physical sciences to social sciences, history to theology, literature to law. What is Scholarly Knowledge? Knowledge is central to the human species. Without knowledge, life would be impossible to live. In advanced urban societies, the knowledge needed to function is much more complex than in societies with nominal modernity. Fortunately, all cultures with varying degrees of openness act as public c...

N ewt Gingrich, who holds a Ph.D. in European History and is thus a presumptively educated man, has delivered yet another questionable  statement : “We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported.” Over the decades, Gingrich is known for making unintelligent speeches, without weighing the consequences of his thoughtless philosophies. In 2011, Gingrich  said : “I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age, they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists.” Gingrich has not yet explained how an atheist transformation of America will be dominated by radical Islamists for whom a belief in One God is central to faith. Driven by an inflated self-concept of competence, Gingrich says things and then spends a lifetime  retracting  his foolery.  Gingrich’s proposal of makin...

The Islamic State and other militant factions, fighting for sundry geopolitical causes, are obliterating the distinction between jihad and criminality. The utter disregard of life, the expansion of battlefield into schools and mosques, including the  Prophet’s Mosque , and the cruelty associated with violence have never been the lawful means of fighting jihad for any cause, including fighting against oppression, under the guidance of the Qur’an and Prophet’s Sunnah, the Basic Code of Islam. Jihad is an integral part of the Islamic faith; criminality is the antithesis to Islam. Muslim militants violate the Islamic law of war when they embrace  lex talionis  and adopt barbarity in answer to barbarity, and torture in answer to torture. Even if some militants are reacting to atrocities and torture perpetrated in the U.S.-administered prisons against Muslim detainees at  Abu Ghraib  (Iraq),  Bagram  (Afghanistan), and Guantanamo  (Cuba), the Bas...

Frankly, I am not a Donald Trump fan. Nonetheless, as an academic with an interest in American jurisprudence, I must say that Trump’s “racist” remarks about Judge Gonzalo Curiel are completely in line with the nuances of legal education taught at American law schools. Few legal professionals will be genuinely distraught over what Trump says about the judge. Let’s recall his words. In speaking to an interviewer Trump  said , “I’m building the wall, I’m building the wall. I have a Mexican judge. He’s of Mexican heritage. He should have recused himself, not only for that, for other things.” In saying this, Trump makes a realist’s connection between the existential realities of a judge and his or her decision-making, presuming that what judges do is inextricably connected to who judges are. In this presumption, Trump is positioned right in the mainstream American legal thought. The print and electronic media are “horrified” as if Trump has committed an inexcusable blasphe...

The 18th century British colonists, the self-righteous Anglican males of the self-assessed superior civilization, upon arrival in the Mughul-Muslim India, were repulsed by the sight of Hijras  (transgenders) and baffled over why they were accorded so much respect in royal courts and other spheres of life. After deposing the Mughuls, and in discharging the white man’s burden of civilizing the inferior races, the British colonists enacted the  Criminal Tribes Act, 1871  to declare what they called Eunuchs (transgenders) a criminal tribe (among many other Indian tribes) on the theory that certain tribes were genetically criminal and must be placed under state surveillance. By invoking the power of criminal law and associated prisons and penalties, the British colonists attacked the dignity of transgender community, degrading them in social echelons, and eventually forcing them to adopt begging, prostitution, and other questionable professions. Turning a respected comm...

The story of Beelzebub, initially known as Baal, a pre-biblical god worshipped in the Middle East, furnishes illuminating insights into how gods may reign, fall, and be resurrected. The story also tells how nations and communities fight each other not only for land, resources, and domination but also how they fight over the sources of spirituality, presenting their own gods as authentic deities and condemning other’s gods as false, dark, and perverted idols. In warfare, killing a beloved leader disheartens the community but rubbishing a beloved god leaves the community utterly disoriented and confused. Demonizing the enemy’s deities and demolishing temples built for the deity is an ancient form of religious warfare. In 586 BCE, the Babylonians, the devotees of Bel, another name for Baal, destroyed the Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. During crusades, the Europeans not only aimed at conquering Jerusalem, they also discredited Allah as a false god -a war tactic that inspired the annihilat...

With remarkable clarity and touch of envy, Mitt Romney describes Republican Party front-runner Donald Trump as "a phony, a fraud." Romney also affirms that "I understand the anger Americans feel today." Others have argued that the people, mostly white males, voting for Trump are "angry." The prototypical angry white male supporting Trump has been identified as the one "who didn't go to college," who feels voiceless, who lives in areas with "racial resentment," who frowns upon "immigrants," and who is threatened by "non-whites." Add to this white male anger some strong animus against the rights of women, against respect for sexual minorities and persons with disabilities. The "angry white male" as a social and political phenomenon is not new by any stretch of imagination or polling data. It started with the massacres of Native Americans. Years ago Read More

Though known as a Supreme Hindu god, Vishnu is a universal deity who sends his avatars to all nations, cultures, and races. Vishnu has appeared in many avatars, the most famous of which are Krishna and Rama. Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu, though controversy shadows this avatar. Some see Jesus too as an avatar of Vishnu. Over time, the Vishnu appearances are countless, but only a few recognized, fewer understood. Vishnu has appeared in the form of a fish, turtle, boar, half-lion, dwarf, and perfect man. Vishnu preserves the evolution of life on the planet. The avatar of Vishnu is dark-complexioned in India, as Jesus is portrayed to be white-complexioned in Europe and North America. Other avatars with varied complexions and facial features descend in other parts of the world. Vishnu himself is not attached to any one color or complexion. Vishnu is meta-cosmic and meta-celestial being, boundless and illimitable. Some Vishnu manifestations are momentous and transformative, some momentary...