In the annual Jane Harrison Memorial Lecture, Professor Mona Siddiqui Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies University of Edinburgh, will explore the role of sharia law.
The word sharia, translated as ‘Islamic law’, is arguably the most contentious word within academic, social and political debates about Islam – especially Islam in the west. Yet sharia must be understood in all its complexity of interpretation and development as part of piety and worship rather than any single code of law. Using the recent Home Office commissioned report looking at sharia councils in the UK and some of the reactions to the report, this lecture will explore how sharia is observed, and retains its primacy in Islamic practice and worship but cannot and should not be seen as a parallel legal system in the UK.
This event is free and open to all.