Freedom of Expression in Islam

Muhammad Khalid Masud is an ad hoc member of the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He is co-editor of Dispensing Justice in Islam: Qadis and Their Judgments (2006) and Islam and Modernity: An Introduction to Key Issues and Debates (2009). Kari Vogt is Associate Professor (emeritus) at the Department of Cultural Studies and Oriental Languages at the University of Oslo, Norway. She has published widely on Islamic and Middle East issues. Lena Larsen is Director of the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief at the University of Oslo, Norway. She is the author of How Muftis Think: Islamic Legal Thought and Muslim Women in Western Europe (2018). Christian Moe is an independent writer and researcher based in Slovenia. He has written on human rights and religion, religious education, and contemporary Islam in the former Yugoslavia.

Introduction, Muhammad Khalid Masud, International Islamic University, Pakistan; Kari Vogt, University of Oslo, Norway; Lena Larsen, University of Oslo, Norway; & Christian Moe, Independent Scholar

PART ONE: THE HISTORICAL CONSTRUCTION
Blasphemy Laws in Islam: Towards a Rethinking?, Abdullah Saeed, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Freedom of Religion in Qur'anic Exegesis, Omaima Abou-Bakr, Cairo University, Egypt
al-Qadi ’Iyad’s Defence of the Prophet and of Scholarly Tradition: al-Shifa’, Nora S. Eggen, University of Oslo, Norway
Hermeneutic shifts in the definition of blasphemy: Reading Ibn Taymiyya’s al-Sarim al-Maslul ’aala, Shatim al-Rasul, Muhammad Khalid Masud, International Islamic University, Pakistan

PART TWO: PRESENT PRACTICES
The Crimes of Blasphemy and Apostasy in Iran, Mohammad Mostafaei, Iranian human rights lawyer
Guarding the Mainstream: Blasphemy and Apostasy in Egypt, Moataz El Fegiery, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
Plurality, Dissent and Hegemony: The Story Behind Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law, Arafat Mazhar, Engage Pakistan, Pakistan; and Syed Zainuddin Moulvi, University of Virginia, USA
Politics of Fatwa, ‘Deviant Groups’ and Takfir in the Context of Indonesian pluralism: A Study of the Council of Indonesian Ulama, Syafiq Hasyim, State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, Indonesia

PART THREE: NEW DIRECTIONS
Transgressing All Bounds? Gendering Authority and Engendering Orthodoxy, Kecia Ali, Boston University, USA
Re-framing Reform: Lessons from the Apostasy Trials of Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari and Hashem Aghajari, Mahmoud Sadri, Texas Woman's University, USA
Toward Removing the Punishment of Apostasy in Islam, Mohsen Kadivar, Duke University, USA