Nadirsyah Hosen

Law and religion in public life : the contemporary debate

1. Introduction: Da Capo: law and religion from the top down, Richard Mohr and Nadirsyah Hosen Part 1: Law state and secularism 2. Classifying church-state arrangements - beyond religious versus secula, Darryn Jensen 3. Christian origins of secularism and the rule of law, Richard Mohr 4. The future of secularism: a critique, Margaret Davies Part 2: Religion and speech in a pluralist society 5. Religion, multiculturalism and legal pluralism, Frank Brennan SJ 6. Religion and freedom of speech in Australia, Katharine Gelber 7. The reasonable audience of religious hatred - the semiotic ideology of anti-vilification laws in Australia, Massimo Leon Part 3 Religion as a factor in legal processes and decisions 8. Religion and security: whats your motive?, Nadirsyah Hosen 9. Religion and justice: atonement as an element of justice in both western law and Christian thought, Cassandra Sharp 10. Why should I do this? Private property, climate change and Christian sacrifice, Paul Babie Part 4: Negotiating religious law and personal beliefs 11. Jewish law in a modern Australian context, Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence 12. Does Australia need a mufti? Analyzing the institution of ifta in an Australian contemporary context, Mohamad Abdalla Afterword: A posteriori: the experience of religion, Nadirsyah Hosen and Richard Mohr

Fatwas: Their Role in Contemporary Secular Australia

In Australia, there has been confusion and misunderstanding surrounding the term ‘fatwa’. This goes both to its meaning and also to the role fatwas fulfil for Muslims, whether in Australia or in other parts of the world. This paper seeks to address both of these issues, first by demystifying fatwa through exploration of the distinctive place the have in Islamic jurisprudence, and second by identifying the methodology used by jurists in ifta (the giving of fatwas), which has enabled Islamic law to be responsive to new developments and contemporary challenges. Given the recent expansion of technological, economic and medical advances and the pattern of migration of Muslims to secular societies, the paper argues that the need for fatwas is in fact increasing as Muslims strive to accommodate Islamic religious requirements within these new environments. The paper surveys the sources of Islamic authority in Australia, concluding that a process of collective ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) would best be suited to the diversity that is the hallmark of Islam in Australia. However, it is stressed that this would not lessen the primacy of Australian law but rather would complement it, as fatwas give guidance to Muslims Australians in the personal, individual and private spheres of life.

Emergency powers and the rule of law in Indonesia

extract] While Indonesia has had experience in dealing with the use of emergency powers for more than fifty years, it has had to face severe problems that have challenged its goals of national resilience, development and, more importantly, the absence of the rule of law. The focus of my chapter is the tensions inherent between emergency powers and the rule of law in Indonesia, particularly in the post-Suharto era.

Internormative Gastronomies: Law, Nation and Identity

Norms applying to food interact with conceptions of nationhood, identity and law. This occurs through gastronomies and ethico-religious standards, recognition and conviviality, and the voice of communities in the sourcing and labelling of their food. Law, nation and identity intersect in the notion of citizenship. The chapter moves from the tight relationships by which persons are constrained within overdetermined categories of state law and national citizenship, to explore the possibilities unleashed by a loosening of the bonds between law, nation and identity. Sections deal in turn with each of these “loosenings”, as we prize apart the knots that bind (i) identity and nation, (ii) nation and law, and (iii) law and identity, each in relation to the cultural and legal context of food. With these loosenings, the unified jurisdiction of the nation-state gives way to plural and informal law; a single national identity expands into multiple ethical and ethnic associations; identity is no longer determined by state-centred legal interpellation but allows persons to “inhabit” a range of norms. By expanding the scope for participation and interaction in each of these areas, citizenship finds new networks for expansion, enrichment and reflexivity. The full spectrum of social justice can only be addressed by regimes and networks that ensure fair and adequate distribution of food, that respect the cultural demands as well as the biological needs of communities, and that ensure participation, through choices informed by personally relevant criteria and social and political structures.

Religious Pluralism, Inclusive Secularism, and Democratic Constitutionalism

Is religion a threat to constitutionalism? Does it steer the secular legal system toward compromises and concessions? Why are some secular states unable to accommodate religious pluralism? In recent years, spirited debates related to these questions have been energized by proposals to introduce a sharia tribunal or court in Canada and the UK. These proposals have been encouraged by the ability since the early 1990s of Jewish and Catholic groups in Ontario, Canada, to arbitration mechanisms rooted in their religious frameworks. The Jewish Court in Toronto, Beith Din, has been operating for many years. Instructively, the use of religious arbitration mechanisms by religious communities only generated public debate when Muslim leaders requested the same rights as Jews and Catholics. In 2005, Ontario officials were forced to decide whether to establish a sharia tribunal for Muslims or scrap religious family courts altogether. Eventually, the Premier, Dalton McGuinty decided that “there will be no Shari’a law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians.”1

Euis Nurlaelawati, Modernization, Tradition and Identity: The Kompilasi Hukum Islam and Legal Practice in the Indonesian Religious Courts

Book review: Euis Nurlaelawati, Modernization, Tradition and Identity:·the Kompilasi Hukum Islam and Legal Practice in the Indonesian Religious Courts, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterd,am, 2010, 304 pp.