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THIS ARTICLE REVIEWS THE STATUS OF SAUDI OPPOSITION GROUPS IN THE PERIOD FOLLOWING THE SECOND GULF WAR. THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF OPPOSITION TO THE MONARCHY ARE TRACED, AND IT IS NOTED THAT ALTHOUGH THE MONARCHY DID SUCCESSFULLY CONSOLIDATE ITS AUTHORITY AND ADAPT OVER TIME, THE PRESENCE OF GROUPS CRITICAL OF THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS ISLAMIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS HAVE REMAINED. RECENTLY ECONOMIC, LEADERSHIP AND SECURITY CRISES HAVE GIVEN RISE TO A NEW OPPOSITION, UNIQUE IN ITS COMBINATION OF ISLAMIC AND 'MODERN' CONCEPTS. THUS FAR, AS IN THE PAST, THE REGIME HAS DEALT WITH ITS OPPONENTS EFFECTIVELY, ALTHOUGH THE ULTIMATE IMPACT OF THIS LATEST OPPOSITION SURGE REMAINS TO BE DETERMINED.

Taking On the Ghazālian Challenge of Integrating Science and Theology with Islam and Biomedicine -- Medical Epistemology in Arabic Discourse from Greek Sources to the Arabic Commentary Tradition -- The Piety of Health: The Making of Health in Islamic Religious Narratives -- The Concept of a Human Microcosm: Exploring Possibilities for a Synthesis between Traditional and Modern Biomedicine -- Islam in Engagement with Life, Health and Medicine -- When Does a Human Fetus Become Human? -- At the Meeting of the Two Seas: The Value of Integrating Philosophy of Science and Religion in Determining the Nature and Purpose of the Human Self -- Muslim Values and End-of-Life Healthcare Decision-making: Values, Norms and Ontologies in Conflict? -- Intersection between Science, Philosophy and the Sunnī Theological and Legal discourse in Defining Medical Death -- Islam and Science: Deepening the Discourse -- Science through an Islamic Epistemological Framework -- Interface between Islamic Law and Science: Legal Construction of Science in Light of Islamic Bioethical Discourses on Genetic and Reproductive Technologies -- Integrating Science and Scripture to Produce Moral Knowledge: Assessing Human Interests and Necessities in Islamic Bioethics. .

Afshari reviews 'Islam and Democracy' by John L. Esposito and John O. Voll.

Islam plays a pivotal political role in Southeast Asian countries, where the governments that have ruled since independence have been concerned with influencing the trajectory, content, hermeneutic and style of the legal traditions of their Muslim citizens and reconciling them with the states' wider policy objectives. This contribution looks at one particular tool for this form of 'guiding' Islam - the codification of Islam - comparing the codes in two Muslim-majority countries (Malaysia and Brunei) and two Muslim-minority countries (Singapore and the Philippines). Utilising comparative law methodologies, this article explores the structure, style and content of the codes in order to explicate their explicit and implied function. These codes are less concerned with being a statement of substantive Islamic law than with setting up a state-sanctioned bureaucracy for the administration of law for Muslims. These bureaucratic institutions were the key instruments for the states to develop their own brand of Islam. In doing so, the state's approach towards socially engineering Islam oscillates among appropriation, accommodation, control and subjugation of Islam in different political and legal frameworks. (JCSA/GIGA)

Challenging the similarly romantic, a historic and irreconcilable notions of Islamic and Western cultures, this book cuts through conventional wisdom and common cliches to highlight the plurality and historicity of both. For Aziz Al-Azmeh, the Orientalist and racist view of Islam is nothing but the mirror-image of the myths propagated by the Islamic fundamentalists and radicals. In this book he demonstrates both views share an erroneous and an historical conception of Islam as an unchanging and monolithic entity. Moreover, this analysis dissects the mutual implication of both the dominant Western discourse and its supposed primary opponent, postmodernism, in this form of essentialism. There is no one, homogeneous Islam, and this book highlights the diversity and plurality of forms of the Muslim tradition, seeking to understand historically the phenomenon of fundamentalism, amongst other strands, as a profoundly modern ideology. Challenging the stereotypes and legends of both its opponents and proponents, the book traces how political Islam breaks with core elements of the Muslim tradition and, at the same time, roots many of its concepts in European reactionary and romantic thought

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Transliteration -- Glossary of Non-English Terms -- Chapter 1 Introduction: Islam, liberalism and the nation state -- Chapter 2 The shifting foundations of Islamic Britain -- Chapter 3 Islamic education: Schooling for Naql-heads? -- Chapter 4 What is the future for Muslim personal law in Britain? -- Chapter 5 Muslims and the state: Neither agents nor enemies -- Chapter 6 Conclusion -- Notes -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1: Introduction: Islam, Liberalism and the Nation State -- Chapter 2: The Shifting Foundations of Islamic Britain -- Chapter 3: Islamic Education: Schooling for Naql-Heads? -- Chapter 4: What Is the Future for Muslim Personal Law in Britain? -- Chapter 5: Muslims and the State: Neither Agents Nor Enemies -- Chapter 6: Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.

This article investigates why homosexual acts are still banned in 77 countries. It extends the current state of research by focusing on the religious roots of these bans. Previous studies have analysed the influence of Islam on prohibitions of same-sex sexual acts but produced contradictory findings. Moreover, the influence of the second world religion that condemns homosexuality in its scriptures – Christianity – has largely been ignored. This article shows that countries with a Muslim tradition tend to criminalise both male and female homosexuality, while predominantly Christian societies tend to prohibit only sex between men. However, the influence of the Christian tradition depends on the modernity of a country: the more modern a Christian society, the less influence traditional Christian sexual ethics have on legislation governing same-sex sexuality. This is particularly true for countries with a Protestant tradition.