The AMSS (UK) Fifth Annual Conference

Abstract

Traditional fiqh is facing a new challenge: formulating a suitable fiqh for minority Muslim communities. In this spirit, the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS [UK]) in conjunction with the International Institute of Islamic Thought, The Muslim College, and Q-News Media, convened its fifth annual conference, “Fiqh Today: Muslims as Minorities,” at the University of Westminster (London) during February 21-22, 2004. Anas Al-Shaikh-Ali, AMSS (UK) Executive Committee Chair, set out the vision in his opening remarks: A genuine fiqh for minority Muslims requires a collective engagement between social scientists and Shari`ah scholars “in the wider public arena.” He challenged participants to work for a “comprehensive methodology of minority fiqh” drawing on the past, but not being afraid to be innovative. Keynote speaker Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina, maintained that while he did not believe in a minority fiqh per se, he readily accepted the position that Muslims living as political minorities often are better able to fulfill their religious obligations than Muslims elsewhere. He posited a vision of Muslims in Europe that recognized their unique historic position and contribution to Europe, which he sees as a place of interaction rather than of confrontation. After discussing the interdependence of cultures and the need for balance and tolerance, he considered present diagnoses of the intellectual pathologies of Muslim and European societies and concluded by challenging Muslim minorities to see themselves as driving Islam’s civilizational wheel. He also called on Europe to institutionalize Islam and for Muslims in Europe to come together within a universal worldview. Al-Shaikh-Ali awarded the AMSS (UK) 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously to Edward Said. Michel Abdul Messih, QC, eminent lawyer, Palestinian activist, and close friend of Said, accepted it on his behalf. Zaki Badawi spoke of how Said’s works changed academia and ...