Anwar Al-'Awlaqi Against the Islamic Legal Tradition

March, Andrew

Abstract

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Anwar Al-'Awlaqi Against the Islamic Legal Tradition

Andrew F. March

Yale University

September 23, 2010

ISLAM, THE STATE, AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY: MEDIEVAL ISSUES AND MODERN CONCERNS, Asma Afsaruddin, ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
Islamic Law and Law of the Muslim World Paper
Yale Law School, Public Law Working Paper No. 217

Abstract:
In this paper I, examine the existing Islamic justifications for perfidious violence against one's own state of citizenship, both when the target is a military one and when it is a civilian one. I show how the primary examples of such justifications, most notably in the case of the Yemeni-American Anwar al-'Awlaqi, fail to address the consensus position in the Islamic legal tradition that it is impermissible to violate a contract of mutual security with a non-Muslim state of residence. I also discuss what the phenomenon of 'Awlaqi says about the state of authority and knowledge in Islamic law and the relevance of Islamic jurisprudence for Muslim minorities.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 23

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Date posted: September 24, 2010 ; Last revised: May 6, 2012

Suggested Citation

March, Andrew F., Anwar Al-'Awlaqi Against the Islamic Legal Tradition (September 23, 2010). ISLAM, THE STATE, AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY: MEDIEVAL ISSUES AND MODERN CONCERNS, Asma Afsaruddin, ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 2011; Islamic Law and Law of the Muslim World Paper; Yale Law School, Public Law Working Paper No. 217. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1681566

Contact Information

Andrew F. March (Contact Author)

Yale University ( email )

New Haven, CT 06520
United States