"Law, religion, and state building" features essays by leading scholars and policy analysts who consider the entanglements of law, religion,…
The rule of law never dies
Sudan
For Love of the Prophet—A reply
For Love of the Prophet certainly is a book about Sudan, but, like all ethnographies, it is also very much…
The inevitable Islamic State? The paradoxes of Sudanese politics and society
Noah Salomon’s recent book, For Love of the Prophet, is a lesson in academic creativity in the face of adversity.…
Taking the Islamic in “the Islamic state” seriously
I want to focus on Salomon’s argument that the secular state—in this case the British colonial one—is in the business…
Tainted love
Noah Salomon begins his work with the provocative statement that the “state may have failed according to the criteria of…
The rhetoric of Islamic politics in local and global dimensions
Noah Salomon’s ethnography of politics provides a penetrating insight on the far-reaching effects of the Islamic state project in the…
When is the Islamic state? Historical time and the agenda of Islamic studies
From the Islamic revolutions in Iran (1978-79) and Sudan (1989) to the recent emergence of ISIS, the concept of an…
For Love of the Prophet—An Introduction
For Love of the Prophet argues that in moving beyond the institutional life of the Sudanese state, we are able…
The new global politics of religion: A view from the other side
In the summer of 2013, the international Islamic magazine al-Bayan published its Ramadan issue with a striking cover. Flanked by…
Law’s fragile state
Mark Fathi Massoud, Assistant Professor of Politics and Legal Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, examines the trials…