HIS 256 The Islamic World to 1683

Brague goes back three thousand years to trace this idea of divine law in the West from prehistoric religions to modern times. Brague describes the differing conceptions of divine law in Judaic, Islamic, and Christian traditions. In conclusion, he addresses the recent break in the alliance between law and divinity--when modern societies, far from connecting the two, started to think of law simply as the rule human community gives itself. Exploring what this disconnection means for the contemporary world, Bragu engages readers in a millennia-long intellectual tradition.

This book focuses on the juridical and cultural oppression of non-Muslims in Islamic societies. The authors of these articles explode the widely diffused myth, promulgated by Muslim advocacy groups, of a largely tolerant, pluralistic Islam. The authors maintain that underlying this religious caste system is a culturally ingrained contempt for outsiders that still characterizes much of the Islamic world today and is a primary impetus for jihad terrorism. This hard-hitting and absorbing critique of Islamic teachings and practices regarding non-Muslim minorities exposes a significant human rights scandal that rarely receives any mention.

Narain argues that Muslim personal law explicitly discriminates on the basis of an individual's sex and religion. She contends that an interrogation of the dominant religious ideology is necessary to prevent legislation from binding Muslim women to an essentialist notion of identity, thereby denying them the possibility of challenging Muslim tradition. This combines feminist analysis, post-colonial and critical race theory with legal analysis to critically assess issues of gender equality, minority rights and the accommodation of difference.

In this study Bat Ye'or provides a lucid analysis of the dogma and strategies of jihad, offering a vast panorama of the history of Christians and Jews under the rule of Islam. This epic story sheds light on the areas of fusion, interdependence, and confrontation between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.