Shari‘a, Inshallah
Finding God in Somali Legal Politics

Shari'a, Inshallah shows how people have used shari'a to struggle for peace, justice, and human rights in Somalia and Somaliland.

Mark Fathi Massoud (Author)

9781108965705, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 May 2021

250 pages
15 x 23 x 2 cm, 0.55 kg

'A pioneering work that transforms the way we think about the interplay of law and religion in state-building.' Nafay Choudhury, Law and Society Review

Western analysts have long denigrated Islamic states as antagonistic, even antithetical, to the rule of law. Mark Fathi Massoud tells a different story: for nearly 150 years, the Somali people have embraced shari'a, commonly translated as Islamic law, in the struggle for national identity and human rights. Lawyers, community leaders, and activists throughout the Horn of Africa have invoked God to oppose colonialism, resist dictators, expel warlords, and to fight for gender equality - all critical steps on the path to the rule of law. Shari'a, Inshallah traces the most dramatic moments of legal change, political collapse, and reconstruction in Somalia and Somaliland. Massoud upends the conventional account of secular legal progress and demonstrates instead how faith in a higher power guides people toward the rule of law.

Introduction
1. Embracing Shari'a and the Rule of Law
Part I. Colonialism and Its Aftermath, 1884–1991: 2. Contesting Shari'a: Colonial Legal Politics
3. Constraining Shari'a: Postcolonial Legal Politics
Part II. Struggles of a Broken Nation, 1991–2021: 4. Restoring Shari'a: Islamic Courts in a Shattered Somalia
5. Integrating Shari'a: Legal Politics in Somaliland
6. Reclaiming Shari'a: Women's Activism in Somaliland
7. The Rule of Law, Inshallah.

Subject Areas: Law & society [LAQ], Islamic law [LAFS], Law [L], Religion & politics [HRAM2], African history [HBJH]