Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im's erudite and thought-provoking book Islam and The Secular State provides a clear-sighted argument made from within the…
Does tolerance require struggle?
Islamic politics
Arguing with An-Na`im
What is interesting about An-Na`im's arguments is that they ground the case for the secular state not in the Quran,…
Disentangling Islam and the post-colonial state
The separation---and combination---of religion and state have created almost as many configurations as there are states in the world today.…
Islamic politics and human rights
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im's expressed goal in Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari'a is to convince Muslims…
Liberating shari’a
Sometimes, context is everything. For much of the twentieth century, at least since the 1920s in Egypt and the 1900s…
A secular state must deliver
It is hard to disagree with the main arguments of Abdullahi an-Na'im's impeccable book: a healthy religious life requires a…
Misrepresenting Islam
Suggestions that Presidential candidate Barack Obama was a Muslim seemed to have subsided when his controversial pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright,…
An Islamic case for a secular state
If the state is going to enforce any principle from Islamic sources, according to Abdullahi An-Na‘im, then it should implement…
A man with a mission
Abdullahi An-Na'im is a man with a mission. As the expatriate Sudanese law professor told The New Yorker writer George…
Islam and authority
In his new book, Abdullahi an-Na`im argues that Muslims need a secular state to live their religious lives. Alongside his…