Violence in Sharīʿa and its Contemporary Implications

Date: July 6-7, 2017

Venue: Al-Mahdi Institute, Weoley Park Road, Birmingham B29 6RB, UK

We are looking forward to welcoming scholars from across the UK, and the globe, representing a broad range of backgrounds and sub-disciplines within Islamic Studies. The two-day program will feature a total of 17 stimulating panellists on various themes.

The workshop seeks to explore fiqhī or juristic justifications and challenges to the regulations of Violence in Sharīʿa and its Contemporary Implications. As in previous gatherings such fiqhī debate will be situated alongside contributions dealing with broader theological, legal, historical, anthropological and sociological approaches that can enrich a multidisciplinary understanding of contemporary visions for Violence in Sharīʿa and its Contemporary Implications.

The schedule for the workshop is as follows;

Thursday 6^th July

Panel ONE

• The Role of Law and Legal Systems in Creating, Perpetuating and Resolving Conflict

Professor Christie Warren (William and Mary Law School, Williamsburg)

• How Muslim Jurists Theorized the Legitimacy of Violence in the Absence of a Legitimate Political Order

Professor Mohammad Fadel (University of Toronto)

• How to Justify a Violence-Free Interpretation of Sharia

Dr Ali Fanaei (Al-Mahdi Institute)

Panel TWO

• A Comparative Examination of Shiite Political Power and Legal Discussions of Jihad

Professor Devin J Stewart (Emory University)

• An Alternative Reading of the Islamic Theory of International Warfare

Professor Liyakat Takim (McMaster University)

• Initiative Jihad: Moral and Human Rights Appraisal

Professor Sayyed Fatemi (Al-Mahdi Institute & Shahid Beheshti University)

Panel THREE

• Gendered Constructions of Prophethood and Revelation

Dr Shuruq Naguib (Lancaster University)

• Gender Violence and Qur’ān 4:34: An Interpretive Analysis between Tradition and Modernity

Shaykh Mahmoud Ali Gomaa Afifi (Lancaster University)

• Transgender/Transsexual Muslims, Religious/Cultural Violence and Sex-Reassignment Surgery Fatwās

Dr Mehrdad Alipour (Utrecht University)

Friday 7^th July 

Panel ONE

• Imam Husayn, the Twelver Creed and the “Resistance”

Dr Samer El-Karanshawy (Centre for Lebanese Studies)

• Dissimulation, Violence and “the spilling of blood” (safk al-dimāʾ)

Professor Robert Gleave (University of Exeter)

• Violence Under Coercion and Necessity: The Cases of Qatl Al-Mukrah and Akl Al-Bashar

Najah Ahmad (University of Oxford)

Panel TWO

• Capital Punishment within the Existential Framework

Shaykh Arif Abdulhussain (Al-Mahdi Institute)

• Different Approaches to Stoning as a Legal Punishment

Dr Emad Tabatabaei (Freiburg University)

Panel THREE

• The Ethico-legal Principles of Arms Trade and Arms Embargo in Early Sunni Jurisprudence

Dr Shahrul Hussain (The Markfield Institute of Higher Education)

• Position of Islamic Teachings against Violence and Extremism

Professor Sayyed Mohaghegh Damad (Shahid Beheshti University)

• Prinicple of kindness (al-Riffq): authoritative rule and tool of understanding

Dr Hassan Beloushi (Islamic Seminary of Kerbala)

Admissions for all guests is by ticket only.

The Al-Mahdi Institute was established in 1993 with the objective of contributing to Muslim religious scholarship and learning, with particular emphasis on the Twelver Imāmī (Ithnāʿasharī) tradition, through engagement with both historical and contemporary discourses. The Institute’s activities are marked by its non-dogmatic, open philosophy, coupled with an attention to scholarly rigor. This facilitates the pursuit of excellence across a range of perspectives that are not necessarily confined to the theological and religious heritage of any particular tradition.

The Al-Mahdi Institute seeks to explore the relationship of religious ideas to all dimensions of contemporary thought and culture in a spirit whereby the human face of Islam, epitomized in the teachings of the Prophet Muḥammad and his impeccable progeny, can inform the holistic development of all individuals and societies.

Source: Eventbrite.com