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Abstract: The theory of terrorism as a political disorder is neutral in that it rejects national perspectives. It focuses on the disorder that causes terrorism, but does not distinguish between terrorists and freedom fighters. From this basis, the article argues that an international political disorder that causes terrorism is a dispute within the meaning of Article 33 of the United Nations Charter, which mandates that the parties to any dispute shall, first of all, seek a solution by peaceful means including negotiation.12 Unless the parties to a dispute - the aggrieved group, the suppressive states, and the supportive states - are willing to resolve the political disorder through a negotiated settlement, the problems of terrorism will remain. Finally, the article explores the inefficacy of existing remedies to counter terrorism, and argues that the current trend of non-negotiation between the parties not only undermines Article 33 of the Charter but intensifies the problems of international terrorism.
terrorism, Islam, war, misinformation
Abstract: Hugo Grotius founded his theory of international law on the concept of territorial sovereignty. Over the centuries, territorial sovereignty has played a key role in the development of international legal order. The world has now been divided into nearly two hundred nation-states. The people are proud of their national identities and are willing to sacrifice their lives for their beloved nation-state. But just as dinosaurs have disappeared from the face of the earth, so will nation-states with sovereign borders. One Earth will rise again, free from the walls and fences that nations are building around their unsustainable sovereignty.
nation-state, Grotius, Kelsen, One Earth, Free State
Abstract: Most developed countries, including the United States, are adopting a flexible conception of time, called flextime, under which workers choose the hours they are at the workplace. This article demonstrates that flextime is indeed an Islamic value, which should be implemented in Muslim countries.
flextime, Islam, Qur'an
Abstract: In a free economy, the market rather than the law dictates which form of money is used in commercial transactions. The law is still needed to recognize monetary conventions of the market and, sometimes, to clean up the mess the market leaves behind its monetary adventures. But rarely has the development of money been the pure artifact of governmental policy or political decision. Money is a living creature of the market and its form changes to facilitate commercial transactions in an ever more efficient, convenient, and safe manner. As such, most innovations in monetary practices are attributable to the decisions of the market.
money, monetary clauses, paper money
Abstract: Learning legal reasoning, like learning to draw or paint, is a life-long process. No mathematical agility or mechanical facility can replace the trained intuition that a legal professional needs to recognize good legal arguments.
Legal reasoning, legal analysis, jurisprudence
Abstract: It is no secret that Malcolm's doctrine of freedom by any means necessary generates fear. It advocates the use of force in an attempt to gain social justice which poses a threat to law and order of the society. This concept is particularly disturbing to those who control the means of change. This idea, however, is also disturbing to those who prefer non-violence even when they are subjected to injustice, those who have resigned themselves to failure, and to those who have been filled with fear ever since they were babies. Malcolm understood the impact of his militancy, and he used the effects of his messages to render a sense of liberation.
Malcolm X, Human rights, civil rights, violence, Islam
Abstract: Porno torture is not defined in law. However, laws do define pornography and torture separately. Pornography is visual depictions, including photograph, film, and video, of actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct, such as lascivious exhibition of the genitals, sexual acts, sadistic or masochistic abuse. Torture is the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain on a person for the purposes of obtaining information or a confession, punishment, or intimidation. From these definitions, porno torture may be deduced as the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain for interrogative, punitive, or abusive purposes by forcing a person to engage in sexually explicit behavior which is recorded, or staged before a live audience.
torture, terrorism, islam, iraq, abu gharib
Abstract: Islam rejects all conceptions of holy war. Muslims are not allowed to engage in any aggressive war to spread Islam or to impose its faith or laws on others. Muslims do not believe that God is at war with Satan, nor that He needs human help to win this battle. Any such belief is contrary to God's Unity and Sovereignty. God is above all human conflicts, and He has no conflict with Satan or any other force in the universe. God is Supreme and in complete control of all things that exist or belong to the world of the unknown. Wars occur when human beings shun the path of peaceful spirituality and pursue their inclinations for warfare. Muslims are permitted to enter the battlefield to fight oppression and occupation. They fight hard to defeat the enemy. While a religion of peace and spiritual submission, Islam is also a pragmatic religion that recognizes the existence of satanic nations with their corrupt ideologies of shahawaat and predations. Against such satanic nations, Muslims are utmost vigilant.
God, Satan, war, natural inclinations, spiritual submission, laws of war
Abstract: Resisting radical proposals for change, most Muslim communities are refusing to discard the entire past.Although some Islamic regimes have experimented with secularism - and Turkey has officially adopted non-amendable constitutional secularism - most Islamic nations reject the secular model of law under which legislative authority is reposed in institutions divorced from religion and law is separated from the principles of the Quran and the Sunna - the Basic Code. Mainstream Muslim scholars and jurists from across the world seem to have reached a near-consensus that, although the Basic Code cannot be abandoned, it must be re-interpreted to establish legal systems that respect classical fiqh but also incorporate change. This evolutionary call - that history, as a continuous movement in time, is a genuinely creative movement and not a movement whose path is already determined - is made to extract Muslims from historical stalemate and expose them to ceaseless dynamism. Every day, in the words of the Quran, shines with new splendor, majesty and freshness (shan).
Abstract: This Article demonstrates that advocacy arose as a reformist doctrine under both Islamic and common law traditions. Reformist advocacy fights laws with laws. In this fight, both traditions require that the advocates striving for justice be courageous but courteous. The advocates must be courageous to challenge power-based injustices. They must be courteous because aggressive manners are not essential to effective advocacy. For a variety of reasons, reformist advocacy has lost its way in both traditions. Advocacy in the United States has turned to manipulation whereas advocacy in the Islamic tradition has embraced militancy. At a time when America and Islam are engaged in an epic struggle to influence each other, this study illuminates advocacy values they share and critical distinctions they draw in the enforcement of advocacy ethics.
Islam, common law, advocacy, professional ethics, militancy, cynical advocacy
Abstract: The lawyers of Pakistan call for Pervez Musharraf's trial under Article 6 of the Constitution. Article 6 reads as follows: "Any person who abrogates or attempts or conspires to abrogate, subverts or attempts or conspires to subvert the Constitution by use of force or show of force or by other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason." An independent Judicial Commission must be established to investigate whether Caesar has violated Article 6 of the Constitution. An open and fair trial, but without granting any immunity to the defendant, will restore the supremacy of the Constitution and verify the claims of Caesar whether the judges he removed were indeed aiding and abetting terrorists and conspiring to harm the nation, forcing Caesar to proclaim emergency and abrogate the Constitution.
Pervez Musharraf, High treason, solidaity, lawyers, Pakistan
Abstract: The distinction between assets and ideas lies at the core of the misunderstanding between Islam and secularism, the strongest version of which is unfolding in the United States. Muslims view Islam as knowledge-based (intellectual) property, not an idea. Secularists reduce Islam to a mere idea, reserving the notion of intellectual property for literary and artistic works, inventions, patents, films, computer programs, designs, trademarks, and trade secrets. Muslims elevate the knowledge-based assets of Islam to the highest level of protection, more than the intellectual work of any scientist, artist, or corporation. Even in the face of a rising tide of secularism throughout the world, they refuse to consign their religion to the marketplace of ideas, a place where ideas are depreciated and trashed. This clash of understanding between Islam as an idea and Islam as intellectual property breeds mutual mistrust between secularists and Muslims.
Islam, intellectual property, free speech, secularism, apostasy, Quran, Sunna
Abstract: The hermeneutics of sexual order explores sacred Christian texts and the US Constitution to explore permissive and prohibitive sexuality. The article argues that religious neurosis dictates prohibitive norms against certain expressions of human sexuality whereas consensualism defines free sexuality. The American attitudes toward human sexuality are determined through the combined forces of religious neurosis and consensual freedom. It appears that American sexuality is moving away from religious neurosis and embracing free sexuality, breaking away from traditional norms. (The author has repudiated some of the views expressed in this article; however, the article's descriptive portions are still valid).
Bible, religion, sexual love, subjugation of women, Freud, constitutional law, St. Augustine
Abstract: Privacy is a universal value. No government must invade private homes to discover and punish peaceful and consensual behavior between adults, which threatens no tangible state interests. Sexaul privacy protects such a right. This Article does not argue that all forms of sexual behavior practiced in privacy are morally good or that social approval must be accorded to such behaviors. Nor does this Article argue that all sexual relationships deserve equal treatment. But the state's police powers turn odius and constitutionally unacceptable when the state criminalizes intimate relationships conducted within the sacred precincts of privacy. (The analysis in this article, the first to criticize Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), appealed to the US Supreme Court to overrule its holding in the case. In 2003, seventeen years after the publication of this article, the Supreme Court overruled the Hardwick ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S.558. The Court's reasoning in Lawrence v. Texas closely follows the reasoning offered in this Article--but without mentioning the Article.)
sexual privacy, intimacy, Bowers, Harwick, lifestyles, equal treatment of sexual relations
Abstract: This Article examines both internal and external scholarships and their respective contributions to the fiqh markets. It first explains that the fiqh markets are sustained through internal scholarship that shapes the rules of Islamic law. It later examines the role of external scholarship that might influence these markets. Although the fiqh markets are essentially Islamic, the external scholarship may offer clarifying insights and constructive criticisms. Such external scholarship may not directly influence the development of fiqh, but its indirect impact on the fiqh markets cannot be ignored. Finally, the Article also discusses the disengaged scholarship that manufactures disrespect against the Quran and the Prophet. It also highlights external scholarship that paints Islamic law as a system founded on fraud and plagiarism. The fiqh markets disregard the disrespectful scholarship because assaults on the Quran and the Prophet furnish nothing useful.
fiqh, suicide bombings, external schoalrship, internal schoalrship
Abstract: The first Islamic state was founded not in the shadow of swords, as is commonly believed in some circles, but in the security of a social contract, called the Constitution of Medina. By all counts, the Medina Constitution lit the torch of freedom by establishing a Free State for a pluralistic community composed of Muslims, Jews, and pagans. This unprecedented Free State, the first of its kind in the intellectual and political history of human civilization, was founded by none other than Prophet Muhammad himself in the Gregorian year of 622, that is, more than thirteen hundred years before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) envisaged a modern pluralistic, religiously tolerant Free State.
Free State, Jews and Muslims, Prophet Muhammad, Medina Constitution
Abstract: For over two hundred years, financial institutions have been providing payment services to transfer monies from accountholders to merchants and other payees. The market however is constantly searching for more efficient and reliable devices for institutional money transfers. Credit card and other electronic payments are, accordingly, capturing a big share of payment services over which negotiable instruments have long exercised a comfortable monopoly. This Article offers a coherent theoretical model to conceptually unify payment services delivered through old and new payment devices. The model derived from the assorted payment systems currently in use argues that the payment law must adhere to a set of fundamental principles. In analyzing these principles, the Article first establishes that payment services actually follow, though not consistently, the proposed theoretical model. It then proposes a number of legislative reforms to eliminate discordance among diverse payment systems, to allocate liability for violations of principles, and to assure a more efficient delivery of payment services. The proposed model also guides lawyers and judges in resolving payment disputes in accordance with the principles.
credit cards, debit cards, TILA, negotiable instruments, wrongful dishonor, negligence, authorization of payments
Abstract: Almost by habit, Professor Prufrock will write a note about himself and stash it in th book that he happens to be reading at the time. With his permission, I searched through his books to retrieve these notes. As these notes are written on seemingly different themes, the reader may use his imagination to spin out all the butt-ends.
Legal education
Abstract: Rendition is one of those words that bureaucracies craft to hide official monstrosities. As an artistic term, rendition means a performance of a dramatic role. Webster's 1913 dictionary defines rendition as the act of surrendering fugitives from justice at the claim of a foreign government. In its brand new usage, rendition has come to mean surrender of aliens.
terrorism, Muslim countries, torture, rendition, extraordianry rendition, deportation
Abstract: For Justice Antonin Scalia, the Constitution that came into formal existence in 1789 is a normative island that must be fortified against eroding foreign and modernist influences. The infrequent invasions that the island experiences, and to which Scalia submits, are wrought through the upheavals of constitutional amendments. Otherwise, Scalia prefers that his constitutional island not be spoiled by interpretive engineers of the Constitution.
Justice Scalia, constitution, normative island, death penalty, foreign law, comparative law, international law
Abstract: The idea of combating the defamation of religions, though morally sound, is difficult from a legislative viewpoint and will pose serious drafting challenges. The idea, however, poses no greater problems than prohibiting hate speech against racial, ethnic, or religious groups - a law adopted in almost all countries of the world except the United States. One key function of law is to make distinctions and draw balance between competing rights. In the complex realm of human affairs, no right is absolute, not even free speech or the dignity of religion. Accordingly, the law against defamation of religions may be constructed in a way that does not abridge legitimate speech, including artistic freedom, and yet protects the dignity of religion.
United Nations, soft law, General Assembly
Abstract: The denigration of manual labor is a long, sad, captivating story of human civilization. No community can survive, let alone prosper, without the manual labor of farmers, industrial employees, construction workers, miners, and innumerable other men and women who toil to make everyone's day-to-day life possible. Yet a deeply entrenched prejudice against manual labor persists. Cultures and communities across the globe and throughout history have interwoven complex social, religious, and legal webs to create, maintain, and perpetuate a manual class that performs menial, difficult, and hazardous work. Weavers of these webs, including intellectual, political, and legal elites, personally benefit from the fruits of labor. These elites, however, also undervalue manual labor, nurturing a prejudice often made manifest in visible social realities. It is no mere coincidence that the manual class, providing socially indispensable physical labor, frequently ends up deprived of income, status, social respect, and even human dignity.
manual labor, child labor, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Aristotle, karma, racism, feudal servitude
Abstract: This article consists of legal commentaries written in support of restoring the Chief Justice of Pakistan, who was sent on forced leave on March 9, 2007. These commentaries were written to clarify legal and constitutional points that arose during the hearing before the Supreme Court. They also discuss the impact of Pakistani lawyers' protests on the outcome of the case. In July 2007, a unanimous Supreme Court of 13 Justices declared that the President's Order to suspend the Chief Justice is "ultra vires of the Constitution . . . and passed without lawful authority." Three Justices held that the President has the constitutional authority to file a reference. However, the Court unanimously set aside both the orders of the President and the Supreme Judicial Council to restrain the Chief Justice from acting as a judge of the Supreme Court. It is unclear whether these commentaries influenced the lawyers involved in the case or whether these commentaries were read or not read by Justices of the Supreme Court.
Lawyers' protests, Pakistan Supreme Court, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, S.S. Pirzada, President Musharraf, American realism
Abstract: India and Pakistan should negotiate to convert the existing line of control into a permanent international border, and hold an internationally supervised plebescite in the Kashmir Valley to grant the people the right of self-determination. This solution is more appealing in the context of building a regional community. If the idea of regional community is taken seriously, the Kashmir dispute would require a new meaning. Instead of fighting over it, India and Pakistan may designate Kashmir as the first cooperative zone in the new subcontinent.
Kashmir, India, Pakistan, SAARC, line of control
Abstract: There is a coordianted effort on part of academics, scholars, think-tankers, journalists and others to create a profle of Muslim militants as essentialist terrorists who commit heartless violence because they are spiritually addicted to violence. These authors argue that no concrete grievances or violations of rights cause Muslim militancy. Free to trash the core beliefs of Islam and free to make fun of Islamic creeds, the Highly influential Terrorist Literature (HITLit) has successfully equated puritan Islam with terrorism. Most HITLit authors, known as terrorism experts, are research associates with influential think tanks such as RAND and the American Enterprise Institute, and some teach at Harvard University. Some have worked for the National Security Council and the U.S. Defense Department. These authors include Bernard Lewis, Bruce Hoffman, Steven Simon, Jessica Stern, Daniel Benjamin, and Richard Perle. They appear on National Public Radio and major radio and television networks to comment on terrorist events and disseminate their views to the general public. The HITLit themes of the essentialist terrorist are further disseminated through the views of collaborating journalists such as Thomas Friedman, Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks, and William Kristol. This Article argues that the HITLit theories splash distortions that lead to lawlessness.
terrorism, Islam, puritan Islam, misinformation
Abstract: Divine texts are universal and timeless. They continue to guide communities and generations across the globe, as they have for centuries. Revealed in diverse cultures, languages, and legal traditions, divine texts share common themes to preserve human spirituality. No concept of prosperity, social advancement, or human rights will weaken the eternal influence of divine texts. Normative deviations from divine texts are transient. Spiritual needs that divine texts fulfill are permanent. The immutability of divine texts does not reside in interpretative gloss or exegetical methodologies. It does not dwell even in the sacred languages in which divine texts are revealed. Nor do divine texts establish exclusive relationship with any one nation, ethnic community, or generation of believers, even if the believers may assert such a relationship. Transcending interpretations and languages, and repudiating claims of sole proprietorship, divine texts tender themselves as the common heritage of all the peoples of the world.
Quran, Bible, Torah, Dammapada, Upanishads, Constitutions, Vedas, human rights treaties
Abstract: Has terrorism repudiated the right to armed struggle? One could argue that the Definition of Aggression was adopted more than thirty years ago; and therefore, it no longer embodies the current consensus on the right to armed struggle. This argument has no merit since every year various international organizations and institutions reaffirm the right of self-determination against colonial and racist regimes, and other forms of alien domination.
terrorism, islam, UN, armed struggle, aggression
Abstract: On February 18, 2007, the people of Pakistan elected two major anti-establishment political parties, giving them a mandate to restore high court judges whom Army Chief Prevez Musharraf had dismissed, and to re-establish the rule of law. The political parties that had supported the non-democratic establishment were defeated in the February general elections. Despite this triumph of democracy over dictatorship, Pakistan's constitutionalism remains confused. Confusion has particularly gripped the dominant political party (PPP) that benefitted from the military rule to the extent that all criminal cases against the party chief, Asif Ali Zardari, were quashed. This manumission of the PPP Chief from criminal action created sympathies for the current Supreme Court, which validated constitutional subversion and the consequent removal of high court judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. This article argues that the rule of law cannot be established in Pakistan unless the ruling elites refrain from subverting the constitution for short-term benefits.
Pakistan, Article 58(2)(b), Article 6, Treason, Military coups, Establishment, judiciary, democracy
Abstract: Abrogation is a classical concept of Islamic law, which allows jurists to organize the normative complexity of divine texts. As a rule of temporality, abrogation invalidates prior rules found incompatible with subsequent rules. By stretching the rule, critics and reformers of Islamic law wish to abrogate substantial portions of the Quran and the Prophet's Sunnah. This methodology of modernizing Islamic law secures no following in the Muslim world, which jealously defends the integrity of divine texts. Jurodynamics of Islamic law offers a sophisticated methodology, which respects the integrity of divine texts, retains the jurisprudential heritage of past centuries, but at the same time modernizes legal systems to absorb modernity and constantly evolving spatiotemporal realities. No dynamic legal tradition cuts loose from the past or dwells exclusively in the past. Jurodynamics is the study of Shariah norms in motion, signifying both stability and change. Jurodynamics recognizes the Shariah as the Basic Code, which empowers Islamic states to construct dynamic bonds with classical jurisprudence (fiqh), positive law (qanun), and international law (siyar). Accusations that the Shariah is a barrier to modernity dissipate under the scrutiny of jurodynamics.
Islam, Quran, Sunnah, Shariah, abrogation, gradualism, stoning punishment
Abstract: The extinction of nation-state is inevitable. What would replace the nation-state is unknowable. Free State, however, presents a possible alternative.
extinction of nation-state, Free State, human rights, Israel and Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya
Abstract: A Theory of Universal Democracy develops the concept of Free State as a democratic state in which the government is periodically elected by universal and equal suffrage. Building on this minimal procedural foundation, Universal Democracy develops a comprehensive theory of government - derived from universal values that shape the core of human civilization. Every Free State, regardless of its geographical location and historical origin, is obligated to preserve, promote and implement universal values. However, Universal Democracy is not limited to secular liberal democracy, though the latter is compatible with Universal Democracy. Separation of church and state, free markets, and Westernized individual rights are not required to be part of Free State. Accordingly, Free State may institute religious systems, strong structures of distributive justice, and communitarian values under which individuals do not assert self-centered rights and powers.
Abstract: A legal theory of revolutions presents the principle of social approval. In order to determine the legitimacy of a revolution in the legal sense, the principle of social approval focuses upon the critical significance of succession rules. The normative statement that a legislator has the right to make laws presupposes the existence of the rule, in the social group, under which he has this right. This rule is the succession rule. A revolution occurs when a person usurps power in violation of the existing succession rules. The revolution is lawful if new succession rules given by the usurper enjoy social approval (that is, they are acceptable to the people) and the new ruler regularizes his usurpation under the new succession rules.
usurpation, Kelsen, doctrine of necessity, social approval, grundnorm, the rule of recognition, H.L.A. Hart, jurisprudence
Abstract: Temporality is an integral part of law. But legal commentary offers no analytical model to probe the fusion of law and temporality. This study proposes such a model and presents the four general principles of law's temporality. First, the principle of temporal correlation yields legally significant inferences. Although temporality per se is not the agent of change, events that occur within a short duration of time are presumed to be causally related. Second, the principle of temporal inertia carries the dynamics of normative change and stability. It illustrates the doctrine of precedent and prohibitive injunctions as manifestations of temporal inertia. Third, the principle of temporal triggers elucidates how law uses the point in time (t) and duration (delta-t) to both allocate and terminate powers, rights, and obligations. These time triggers, though arbitrary, contribute convenience and efficiency to the management of legal affairs. Finally, the principle of temporal cooperation delineates that time-sharing enhances productivity and utilization of assets. The workplace fortified with sovereign spatiotemporal borders may increase employee coordination and output, but cooperative flextime enmeshes work with socially gratifying lives. The framework of four principles invites lawyers, scholars, and judges to further explore the union between law and temporality.
temporality, temporal competition, temporal proximity, flextime, temporal cooperation
Abstract: The Islamic law of speech diversity recognizes two distinct divine rights, one applying to speech communities and the other to individuals. The divine right to language allows each speech community to preserve and celebrate its native language free of coercion and disrespect from other speech communities. Native languages are the assets of speech communities. The Islamic law prohibits coercive degradation of native languages but at the same time it interposes no barriers in learning other languages. Closely related to the right to language is the divine right to individual self-expression or self-determination. Each human being is unique because God, the Master-Artist, shapes each human being with special attention. Social, economic, and legal barriers that refuse to recognize special talents or refuse to accommodate disabilities are incompatible with the divine plan. When individuals are given the maximum liberty allowed under Islam to pursue sciences, arts, knowledge, sports, and spirituality, Muslim communities will prosper. The study recommends that Muslim states recognize linguistic diversity and the right to personal self-determination in their positive law, including national constitutions.
Islamic law, divine right to language, divine right to self-determination, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey
Abstract: Diverse nations have every right to construct new conceptions of democracy, which respond to their religious, economic, and social needs. While secular liberal democracy has served many nations well, it cannot be universalized. No view of democracy must force Muslim nations to oust their religious traditions from the parameters of law and state. Muslims have every right to institute a fusion state that combines rather than separates law and Islam. Exercising this right, however, Muslim nations must protect the fundamental liberties of religious minorities. An Islamic system is most acceptable when it embraces maximalist democracy, allowing secular parties to challenge the official ideology - something that Iran does not permit.
democracy, Iran, Turkey, liberal, secular, Islam
Abstract: This Article explores the process of discovering legal scholarship. One may read, read, and read cases and statutes and articles to generate one's own piece of scholarship. But research, though necessary, does not produce durable scholarship. Lasting scholarship is like discovering penicillin. It is like capturing a fleeting revelation. It is an experience reported in language. True legal scholarship is researched poetry of the highest order. Rumi, Frost, Keats would have been great legal scholars. (This article might benefit new law professors who are striving to make their scholarship float in the ocean of words.)
legal scholarship, the process of writing, creative writing, law reviews
Abstract: Employing evangelical rhetoric, the Bush administration has launched an ambitious plan to bring democracy to the Muslim world. Several past presidents of the United States have endorsed the concept of popular government for various reasons. President George W. Bush draws on democracy to fight Islamist terrorism and spread liberty. The proposed democratisation of Muslim nations embodies a complex blend of American self-interest and the paternalistic American desire to reform the world. It is unclear whether the democracy initiative will survive the Bush government. The next president may scrap the entire project as unworkable or too expensive. However, if the US democratisation policy is a long-term commitment, it raises serious theoretical and practical questions. This essay addresses some of these questions, and concludes that the Bush vision of democratising the Muslim world will fail, primarily because the US strategy to deal with political Islam is incoherent.
Muslims, democracy, iraq, Afghanistan, evangelical rhetoric, Islam, Islamic Democracy
Abstract: This compilation consists of four legal commentaries on the constitutional degradation in Pakistan. Document 4 analyzes the military government's decision to deport former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, contrary to the Supreme Court's decision. Document 3 argues that the Supreme Court should stay the Presidential elections to be held on October 6. Document 2 argues that the Supreme Court has created a constitutional mess by allowing the Presidential election to be held but instructing the Election Commission not to announce the results. This was a monumental mistake. You do not let the cat drink the milk and later complain that the cat had no right to do so. Document 1 condemns the November 3 Proclamation of Emergency, the suspension of the Constitution, and deposition of the Supreme Court judges who were hearing a petition for the disqualification of the President in the October 6 elections. (These documents are placed in the reverse order. The readers are advised to read from below to the top.)
Paksitan, Pervez Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, Proclamation of Emergency, November 3 suspension of constitution
Abstract: In executing the Security Council's mandate, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)- composed of the United States and the United Kingdom, the two member states that presently occupy Iraq - bears a special responsibility in retrieving stolen cultural objects, preserving and restoring archaeological, historical, and cultural sites that have suffered damage.
cultural property, Iraq, US occupation
Abstract: On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, President George Walker Bush delivered an illegal speech and may have committed an international crime, that is, the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide of a religious group. Determined to rally disbelieving Americans behind a failed Iraqi war, the President drifted into calling for open-ended violence against Muslims. Says the President: The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and the calling of our generation. The President identifies this enemy as Muslim extremists. The 9/11 speech is one among many through which the President has engaged, and continues to do so, in direct and public incitements to commit violence and other crimes against Muslims as a religious group.
war crimes, international law, Genocide convention, 9/11, Islamic terrorism
Abstract: Islamic egalitarianism embodied in the Iranian Constitution presents an alternative to both capitalism and secular socialism and redefines the obligations of an Islamic state. If Iran succeeds in establishing a stable and workable constitutional system, it may give a revitalized respectability to the idea of joining Islam with modern egalitarian principles.
Iran constitution, Iran Revolution, social and economic rights, clawback clauses
Abstract: Teaching law as science is morally confusing, if not dangerous. Supporting human laws on "scientific grounds" remains a popular, self-serving means to stunt a vigorous moral dialogue; it is a convenient route to escape an otherwise difficult moral terrain.
legal positivism, law and science, pedagogy, morality
Abstract: The laws of motion do not justify terrorist violence. Nor do they merge good and evil. Moral distinctions are important to live in human communities. Only the purest pacifist would claim that all violence is bad. Others would distinguish among forms of violence. Particularly governments would continue to defend violence in the name of morality and national security - ignoring the Newtonian warning that carnage begets carnage.
London bombings, Newton, John Donne
Abstract: This Essay focuses on faith-based torture perpetrated against Muslim detainees, torture that was crudely designed, only minimally seeking security-sensitive information. However, anti-Islamic torture - which has profoundly offended Muslim communities throughout the world - reaffirms the dark side of U.S. government policies that periodically single out populations, domestic and foreign, and subject them to cruelty. This dark side is evidenced by the degradation of Native Americans, enslavement of Western Africans, internment of Japanese-Americans, and slaughtering of the Vietnamese. More specifically, anti-Islamic torture has undermined what were sincere and substantial efforts of many American institutions to promote religious freedom at home and abroad. Today, indignant American citizens and organizations are seeking to prosecute lawyers and politicians who designed and endorsed torture, partly because torture policies have soiled the honor of the U.S. as a beacon of liberty.
faith-based torture, vicarious torture, Islamic faith, Muslim militants, detainees, human rights, detention camps, torture, CIA secret prisons, Guantanamo
Abstract: Islam recognises no mid-life crisis that presumably occurs around the age of forty. In America, however, since youth is the definition of life, turning forty is full of anxiety and melancholy. For many middle-aged men and women - as their juvenescence wanes and the illusion that 'life is a party' shatters - the personal threads of existence begin to unravel. Caught in the mid-life crisis, they experience gloom and depression. Some change jobs; some get divorced; some drink heavily or binge on food; some suffer from insomnia, and many live in anger.
Islam, turning forty, spiritual life
Abstract: Experts, who study the causes of domestic elder abuse, point out that many American families simply cannot bear the stress of taking care of the elderly. Driven by life's celerity, each member of the family pursues his or her own self-development and sees parental care as a drain on time and resources.
elder abuse, individualism, parental rights
Abstract: All over the world, the law permits employers to impose reasonable grooming standards on employees. For example, the police officers may be prohibited from donning hippie hair and the schoolteachers may not be permitted to wear short skirts. Azmi will have a weak legal claim if the school can show a factual linkage between veil and teaching inefficacy. But that is not the point the British male elite, though known for their love of legal formalisms, is making. Their argument goes beyond the grooming standards at workplace. They wish to assimilate immigrant women into a prototypical woman who caters for male sensibilities and makes men feel comfortable.
veil, Islam, feminism, employment discrimination
Abstract: Possessing superior weapons and the will to kill, successive Russian regimes of the Czars, Stalin, Yeltsin, and Putin have tried hard to put down the Muslim rebellion (dream for independence) in this physically rugged, psychologically stubborn, and spiritually indomitable region.
Terrorism, Islam, Chechens, Putin, Stalin, Russia
Abstract: Costume obsessions have haunted the Turkish legal system ever since the Islamic Ottoman Empire was dissolved in 1923 and the new republic was mounted on the twin pillars of modernity and secularism.
Islamic law, Hijab, Veil, Turkey, Secularism, modernity
Abstract: The most bewildering similarity between Robin Hood and Osama bin Laden is their hidden presence. To this day, scholars who expended their entire intellectual capital on tracing Robin's historical whereabouts are unsure whether he operated from Sherwood forests in Nottingham or from Barnsdale parks in Yorkshire. This controversy muddles history but nonetheless furnishes texture to Robin's legend. Now cometh Osama! Despite technology and resources available to experts and spies and despite a $25 million bounty placed on his head, Osama's whereabouts remain a deep mystery.
legends, Robin Hood, Osam bin Laden, Mystery, law enforcement, bounty
Abstract: The Quran, according to the book, was fabricated during the reign of Caliph Abdul Malik (685-705) to legitimize an expanding empire. The book also contends that the word Muslim was invented in the 8th century to replace the word Muhajirun (immigrants), which was the original name of the Arab community that conquered Palestine and built the Dome of the Rock.
Patricia Crone, Michael Cook, Hagar, Arabs, Islam, Infidels
Abstract: The central idea of the plot was something like this: "Let's use the Pakistani criminal who has been convicted of selling fraudulent driver's licenses to immigrants. Plant him in the mosque. Tell him to act pious and be militant. But stick a wire under his shirt - to record everything he says and hears. Yes, cut his prison term if does the job.
entrapment, criminal law, terrorism, mosques, surveillance
Abstract: Great nations possess keys that open and secure their advancement. Solving problems is one such key that has made America a successful nation. Muslims - though they have valid reasons to mistrust some American values - can nonetheless benefit by learning how Americans use problem-solving techniques in managing personal and public affairs.
American values, Islam, Muslims, Problem-solving
Abstract: Now for more than a century, cleanliness has been a profound American value. This value is manifested in both personal and public hygiene. But Americans were not always like this. Muslim countries can learn a lot from the American experience.
America, Muslim countries, Islam, cleanliness
Abstract: Anglo-American politicians' increasing use of abusive language to describe Islam in the context of the war on terror is symptomatic of multiple problems.
Islamic fascism, political rhetoric, essentialist terrorist, war on terror
Abstract: If to dispute well is law's chiefest end, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz has honed this ability to a stunning craft. In high-profile cases, such as O. J. Simpson, Doctor Dershowitz, a seasoned criminal law jurist, serves as a media-savvy lawyer determined to defend the guilty. Less well known, however, is that this advocate thrives on inventing unpopular, counter-intuitive, and even unjust exceptions to international law-a subject he normally does not teach.
Alan Dershowitz, O.J. Simpson, Palestine, Israel, international law, criminal law
Abstract: American work ethic is unique because most cultures have denigrated handymen for centuries, entrenching a deep-seated prejudice against manual labor. For example, Hinduism has created a complex mythological framework to delegate physical work to lower castes. In fact, American respect for manual labor is an Islamic value.
Manual Labor, Islam, Pakistan, Kansas, Aristotle, Hinduism
Abstract: America and Allah are not at odds. Nor do they need to be. If the United States fails to alter the course of its foreign policy and if it continues to be perceived as anti-Islamic, Islamic terrorism may not go away with missiles and bombs.
Septmber 11, Islamic terrorism, towers, foreign policy, Allah and America
Abstract: It is hoped that the European Court of Human Rights will overrule the lower Chamber and uphold the right of Islamic parties to exist and contest elections in Turkey. For otherwise, the Court's message, loud and clear, would infuriate Turkish Muslims, asked to abandon their religion in order to embrace democracy.
Turkey, Islamic Revolution
Abstract: Growing up in Kansas City, William would go to their church with his brothers and sisters. In the church everyone was black except the image of Jesus. William noted the blonde hair, blue eyes, and the white skin of Jesus, a figure he worshipped as God, but a figure that looked, said William, awfully similar to slave owners who forcibly abducted men, women and children from Africa, shipped them to America, depriving the imported cargo of its cultural and religious heritage, denuding the newcomers of their language, personal histories, even African names. A gradual realization that American Christianity has been tainted with racism sowed the seeds of William's transformation.
nation of Islam, Kansas City, Islam, Jesus, racism
Abstract: Defeating the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is emerging as a credible possibility. For decades, the IDF's invincibility has haunted Arab governments, their armed forces, and resistance groups in general. The invincibility doctrine has also demoralized the Muslim world, forcing them to accept Israel's military excesses, including the inhumane treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories, as fait accompli.
Israel, Lebanon, Hamas, Hizbollah, IDF
Abstract: The arguments of power are not always devoid of law. In the domain of Austinian jurisprudence, the matter is even more lucid.
jurisprudence, reaties, international laTw, foreign relations, security council
Abstract: In Iraq, there is a remarkable coming together of Allah and Bush, the Alif and the Baa. The dervishes are dancing in ecstasy. Since the Alif is all powerful, they say, it remains to be seen whether the Baa would prevail.
Don Quixote, George Bush, Iraq, Allah
Abstract: The war on terror is changing the law of international assassinations. For decades, nations of the world have condemned extrajudicial executions, contending that even the worst criminals are entitled to due process and fair trial. The failure of the United Nations Security Council to condemn the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, however, raises the question whether exceptions are emerging under which states may lawfully execute, without any judicial process, the rank and file of terrorist organisations.
terrorism, Islam, war, assassinations
Abstract: To save Islamic democracy from subversion via extremism, the Guardian Council must be shepherded away from politics and confined to its constitutionally mandated juristic obligation.
Iran, Council of Guardians, Election laws
Abstract: Recognizing the devastation that would be visited upon all mankind by a nuclear war, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. The NPT, now 35 years old, has succeeded to the extent that nearly 190 states have subscribed to the pact. Despite its grandiose universality, however, this article provides five reasons why the NPT is poised to fall apart in the near future
Nuclear non-proliferation, NPT, Korea, Iran, Pakistan, India, double standards, terrorism
Abstract: I imagined her getting pregnant - first without anyone noticing it, not even her. Then one day, I thought, she would be jolted into the gravity of the enterprise when her belly would bulge as if she had been drinking a lot of beer. She would walk around taking heavy steps and dragging her body in the cosmos as if a prophet was being born - the prophet of fusion, who would preach tolerance, love, dignity for all.
criminal law, right to silence, racism, blue eyes, love, pregnant
Abstract: The United States spends billions of dollars for global broadcasting. The money is used to internationalize American values, particularly in the Middle East. A Hollywood approach of song and dance has been designed to win the hearts and minds of young Muslims. Is it working?
cultural wars, Islam and West, Hollywood
Abstract: True Americanism, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis observed almost a century ago, promotes the development of the individual for his own and common good. American individualism however has been accused of promoting greed and selfishness. It has also been accused of undermining the family. The American Anthropological Association reports that parents in the US kill between three and five children every day.
Individualism, Louis Brandeis, Quran, Islam
Abstract: The first Achaean tribes came from the high mountains and across the seven seas and settled in Terra Nullius. They loved property. Some began to own lakes, rivers, mountains and canyons that belonged to no mortal man. Some went on piratical expeditions to bring silver, gold and slaves. Trojans were brought to Terra Nullius in ivory ships, always in the middle of the night. Achaeans and Trojans worked hard and created new cities that attracted many tribes from other parts of the world. Gradually, Achaeans became a rich tribe but Trojans remained poor. One time, Achaeans fought among themselves over the meaning of property. Soon they were the best people in the world. They would eat, drink and be merry. In leisure hours they listened to tales of their heroes, gods and goddesses. American Iliad is a tragic tale of Terra Nullius. Its author was a blind man. Some say he was an alien without any vision. Some say the blind man was a Trojan by birth, but the King of Terra Nullius asked him to become an Achaean. Under the laws of Terra Nullius, no Trojan could become an Achaean without swimming through a boiling cauldron. Some say the blind man was bitter about his metamorphosis from a Trojan to an Achaean. Some say he refused to come out of the cauldron. Some say he wrote this play in the cauldron.
Iliad, Hate speech, Trojans, White and Black, law and literature
Abstract: Even believers are afraid to take God's name in law schools, for a wall has been built between the legal and the spiritual. God is banned from law schools because any shared recognition of God could offend non-believers. But why?
secualrism, God, law schools, UST
Abstract: Thou sall not kill, but we will. Under the new commandment, the US reserves the right to murder whomever it pleases, to condemn or condone political murders as it pleases. Here are three episodes that illuminate the new commandment.
condoning murders, condemning murders, committing murders
Abstract: "You go fight, Mighty King!" said the one-eyed Vice King. I must hide in a burrow so that nobody knows where I am. That way, there will always be a king over the two oceans. Mighty King scratches his small head.
war as a fable, kings and wars, vice king, desert king
Abstract: Terrorism experts mean well. They want to do something to make America safe, instead of giving sermons to evil perpetrators. But they ignore the laws of motion, especially Sir Isaac Newton's law of reciprocal actions. The law states: Whenever one body exerts force upon a second body, the second body exerts an equal and opposite force upon the first body. In popular vernacular, this law is also known as for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Osama bin Laden has translated Newton's law into his own words: If you bomb our cities, we will bomb yours.
Newton, John donne, Osama bin Laden, city bombings
Abstract: What about the First Amendment? Does it permit laughing? And what about secret detentions? Are they permitted now? And why are they bugging the mosques in America?
Pakistan, America, Islam, mosques, detentions, deportations
Abstract: The war on Afghanistan drags on. Meanwhile, the Al-Qaeda leadership continues to hide in the caves, the Taliban wait for the enemy to land and fight man to man, Afghan civilians hit by misguided bombs nurse their wounds and bury the dead, and the unsure Islamic countries prepare for the holy month of mercy, the Ramadhan.
international law, Ramadhan, al-Qaeda, India, Russia, Israel
Abstract: In 2004, Rev. Al Sharpton accused President Geroge W. Bush of believing in hallucinations. This is a harsh personal attack that can be dismissed as political rhetoric signifying nothing. Political opponents may enjoy the attack for its entertainment value. Sharpton is particularly good at delivering exciting punches. Yet what he said carries an element of truth.
hallucinations, democracy and Islam, Middle East, Iraq,
Abstract: The lawlessness surrounding the origin and aftermath of the Iraqi war reaffirms the simple thesis that hegemony is impractical - that a single superpower cannot effectively manage world affairs.
Iraq, unilateralism, one super power, multipolarity
Abstract: The time has arrived to cut a new path for the subcontinent. India and Pakistan should consider a defence pact, safeguarding each other's territorial integrity and political independence. This historic reversal of past enmity will lead the two nations toward a bold new future, one free of mutual attrition and bullying by foreign powers.
India, Pakistan, Defense Pact
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