Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: Islam's role in these debates is marked by its dual character, as both a transnational source of norms a n d an element defining one or more subgroups, cultures, or "communities" within the nation-state (Noiriel 1996;Rath et al. 1999).This boundary-crossing character is intrinsic to Islamic conceptions of religious practice.As a discursive religious tradition (Asad 1986), Islam calls forth references from within societies to broader sets of texts and authorities.As a source of norms and law, it challenges purely local conceptions of family, gender, and economy, but also invites its own reshaping in the context of those conceptions, by engaging in i j t i h a d, the (re)interpretation of Islamic norms, or by incorporating "custom" (adat, ªurf) into law (Bowen 1998a).This essay examines public deliberations about Islam and social norms.I look at debates over marriage and divorce in France and Indonesia, two very different places, neither thought of as being at the heart of the Muslim world.To be Muslim in either France or Indonesia can lead to heightened perceptions of a dissonance between "Arab" and "local" norms and values, and to efforts at reinterpreting the s h a r iªa so as to bring its rules into line with local values.In some instances this very taking account of the difference, this stepping back from local values and Islamic rules, can lead one to rethink both: i j t i h a d as a two-way street.Mutual reinterpretation, looking at local and Islamic norms for the value to be found in each, is more apparent in Indonesia than in France, where the mere idea of normative pluralism is a bit risqué.But even in France, discussions about s h a r i ª a take place in the context of wholesale (or rather, a succession of piecemeal) rethinkings of French norms of family, gender, sexuality, marriage, and divorce.France and Indonesia share more than one might think: the civil law tradition, a centralizing state ideology (and countercurrent moves towards greater regional autonomy), and a discord between certain aspects of Islam and certain local values, particularly with regard to gender equality.In both, too, the cultural content of citizenship ( c i t o y e n n e t é ; k e w a r g a n e g a r a a n ) is a current topic of public debate, specifically with respect to the compatibility of religious and regional identities with national loyalties.My focus is on the legal aspects of these debates, but debates over law often point to broad issues of culture and social order.Jurists, judges, and legislators have had to take account of internal social diversity and also of internationally circulating norms and institutions.Muslim commentators, a category that even in France includes some of those jurists, have had to propose ways of understanding Islamic law in diverse sociolegal contexts.What should an ethnography of public deliberation look like?In this essay, I begin with the institutional limits on the topics and positions that are accept-
Author: John R. Bowen
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2303296155