Shari'a Politics: Islamic Law and Society in the Modern World

One of the most important developments in Muslim politics in recent years
has been the spread of movements calling for the implementation of shari'a or
Islamic law. Shari'ʻa Politics maps the ideals and organization of these
movements and examines their implications for the future of democracy, citizen
rights, and gender relations in the Muslim world. These studies of eight
Muslim-majority societies, and state-of-the-field reflections by leading experts,
provide the first comparative investigation of movements for and against
implementation of shari'a. These essays reveal that the Muslim public's interest
in shari'a does not spring from an unchanging devotion to received religious
tradition, but from an effort to respond to the central political and ethical
questions of the day.