Rumee Ahmed's Reformist Approach to Sharia a Refreshing Break with Academic Apologists

Rumee Ahmed’s Reformist Approach to Sharia a Refreshing Break with Academic Apologists

Rumee Ahmed

We’ve long since become accustomed to the apologias from Middle East studies scholars for Sharia (Islamic law). It’s benign, they claim, and fully compatible with America’s constitutional order. So when one of them critiques Sharia and acknowledges the urgent need for reform, it’s newsworthy. Writing for Campus Watch, Andrew Harrod reports on a recent lecture by Rumee Ahmed. The essay appeared Saturday at Jihad Watch:

In a refreshing departure from Sharia apologias common in Middle East studies, University of British Columbia Islamic law professor Rumee Ahmed rejected the “myth” of Sharia (Islamic law) as a “static, fixed, reified entity” on April 22 in the Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies’ wood-paneled boardroom. Ahmed’s presentation, “Shari’a 2.0: Islamic Systematics and the Science of Islamic Legal Reform” before a student-dominated audience of about fifteen, demonstrated simultaneously Sharia’s all-too human origins as well as its embedded dangers.

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Georgetown University

Winfield Myers

Winfield Myers is managing editor of the Middle East Forum and director of its Campus Watch project, which reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American universities. He has taught world history and other topics at the University of Michigan, the University of Georgia, Tulane, and Xavier University of Louisiana. He was previously managing editor of The American Enterprise magazine and CEO of Democracy Project, Inc., which he co-founded. Mr. Myers has served as senior editor and communications director at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and is principal author and editor of a college guide, Choosing the Right College (1998, 2001). He was educated at the University of Georgia, Tulane, and the University of Michigan.