Muslims, Islamic Law and Public Policy

A very insightful essay by Dr. Sherman [Abd al-Hakim] A. Jackson:

"Two basic challenges confronting Muslims in America inform the present essay. The first has to do with the enterprise of self-definition, that is, of defining for oneself who one is and which actions and non-actions are therefore consistent with one’s choice of selfhood. The second has to do with the problem of self-determination, or how to gain the requisite control or influence over the social and political institutions that affect one’s life. These challenges are intimately connected to each other. They are also connected to the issue of Muslim participation in American society, socially and politically. This latter point is obvious in the case of self-determination. It becomes equally obvious, however, in the case of self-definition, once it is recognized that the real goal of any act of self-definition is both to affirm one’s subjectivity vis a vis the world around one and to gain public recognition for one’s subjectivity chosen self. Self-definition, in other words, is always and fundamentally a social cum political act; it is never a purely intellectual one.......read on."