By John Strawson, john.strawson@uel.ac.uk "I am here because I want Egypt to be governed by Islamic Law" "We need no lawyer God is our defence" "There is only one Court case and that's before God" "You are implementing Western Law on us" [Islamic militants on trial in a Cairo court quoted by Robert Fisk, The Independent , London, 28 June 1993.] The Western encounter with Islamic law has reached a critical moment as the contours of a new world order emerge. Islamist political movements, within the Islamic world and the West, insist that we consider the role of the West in world order. This paper explores aspects of this strident encounter through a scanning of representations of Islamic law in selected Western literature and some Islamist responses. It argues that orientalism is the dominant trend within the literature and has constructed strong and enduring images. The consequences o...
Realisation of Our Rights