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This town hall meeting, which highlights some of the important developments in the American Muslim experience after September 11, presents both a challenge and an opportunity to our community. Whether these new developments will provide a serious impetus for constructive change in society at large is a matter for all Americans to reflect upon. The events that have come to pass which we spotlight in this symposium will hopefully contribute to that process. In this town hall meeting, we present testimonies of average American Muslim citizens who have suffered serious harm, consequences of raids, detentions, and other actions of our federal government in the name of national security. Their experience is not uncommon. Even I, as a law professor at a mainstream American law school and a respected authority in my field, have felt the repercussions of September 11 on my status as an American citizen.

Recent world events have also underlined the fact that the shrinking global village is not moving automatically towards increased democracy, peace and cooperation. The use of force continues to be the preferred tool for conflict resolution, despite all claims to the contrary. To complicate matters, the new technological innovations are bringing violence instantaneously to our doorstep. Conflicts in far away regions of the world can no longer be ignored. They have cast their shadow over our cities. The dream of the global village has become a nightmare, with no apparent exit. What can we do about it?

Islam is commonly viewed in the West as being incompatible with democracy. It is also viewed as an "Oriental" religion that has spawned violence and encouraged human rights violations. Because of the historical interaction between the West and Islam, the United States has recently been supporting efforts to export its democratic principles and human rights values to Muslim countries. In this context, the question of constitutional borrowing gains special significance. To assess the possibilities of constitutional borrowing between Islamic countries and the United States, it is important to first discuss the historical relation between the two, as well as between Islamic concepts and early American thought on democracy. For this reason, some basic features of Islamic constitutionalism will be introduced and analyzed. Islamic concepts are rooted in the Qur'an, the most fundamental source of guidance for all Muslims, and related secondary sources. Examination of these sources reveals that most Orientalist writing on the nature of Islam during the eighteenth century was either distorted or false. Most importantly, for our purposes in this article, this examination will also provide the reader with a more adequate basis for comparing Islamic constitutionalism with American constitutionalism.

Muslims take spirituality very seriously and would be willing to put up with a great deal of pain and suffering rather than abandon this fundamental disposition. Additionally, many Muslims have an intuitive belief that it is not religion which is at fault, but those in power. Consequently, they continue to search for the spiritually acceptable solution. In the meantime, Western NGOs offer no more than lightly-modified Western secular solutions, sometimes thinly disguised with religious rhetoric.

This unique reference is a comprehensive encyclopedia dedicated to the institutions, religion, politics, and culture in Muslim societies throughout the world. Placing particular emphasis on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World contains over 750 articles in four volumes on Muslims in the Arab heartland as well as South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas.An invaluable resource, the Encyclopedia offers extensive comparative and systematic analyses of Islamic beliefs, institutions, movements, practices, and peoples on an international scale. The alphabetically arranged articles range from brief 500-word essays to major interpretive and synthetic treatment of topics such as the Islamic state, pilgrimage, law, marriage, and foreign relations. Related entries cover areas of general interest such as social and political movements, women, Muslim minorities, human rights, Islam in the West, and interreligious affairs. And prominent figures that had a lasting impact on Islam are explored including Muhammad, Aga Khan, Malcolm X, Muhammad Iqbal, 'Ali Shari 'ati, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Hasan al-Turabi.Truly multidisciplinary, this work reflects the breadth and depth of contemporary scholarship in Islamic studies. Combining the tools of the humanities and social sciences to examine the interrelationship of religion, politics, and culture in Muslim societies, it explains the changing realities of Muslim life. Its unique focus makes The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World an invaluable reference for scholars and students of many disciplines, government and media analysts, and anyone interested in increasing their understanding of Islamic politics and culture.

This article will discuss select, basic principles of Islamic law relating to democratic governance, pointing out in the process certain areas of disagreement surrounding them in the literature and the grounds for such disagreements. Part II of this article presents a brief overview of Islamic law in order to provide a foundation for later discussion. The article then assesses the Islamic system of government in light of two major principles of Western democracies. They are (1) the principle that the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of the government (Principle A) and (2) the principle of separation of powers (Principle B). In the case of Principle A, the discussion focuses on two topics: (a) the ability of the people to express their will in choosing a head of state and (b) whether the laws of the land rest on the consent of the people. Part III assesses the democratic character of the procedure for choosing the head of the Islamic state. Part IV examines the sources of Islamic law and studies the problem of combining the concept of democratic government with the concept of laws which embody the will of God. Principle B is assessed in Part V. Part VI summarizes the conclusions of this article.