Towards A Fiqh For Minorities: Some Basic Reflections (Occasional Paper Series 18)

Towards a Fiqh for Minorities is an important subject and a much needed contribution to an area of fiqh that has become essential for the wellbeing and development of Muslim communities living in the West. The author stresses that the problems of Muslim minorities can only be tackled with a fresh juristic vision based on the principles, objectives and higher values of the Qur an in conjunction with the ultimate aims and intents (maqasid) of the Shariah. In essence Dr. Al-Alwani s paper is a call for Muslim minorities to have a sense of themselves as citizens and develop a positive, confident view of their place and value in society, moving away from notions of immigrant status and governed by a humanistic vision focusing on the betterment of society.

Dr. Taha Jabir Al-Alwani is a graduate of Al-Azhar University, Cairo. He is President of The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences (GSISS), USA; President of The Fiqh Council of North America; Member of the OIC Islamic Fiqh Academy; and former President of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), USA. He is also the author of numerous works including: Usul al Fiqh al Islami: Source Methodology in Islamic Jurisprudence ; The Ethics of Disagreement in Islam ; Ijtihad ; and The Qur an and the Sunnah: The Time-Space Factor .