I had the honor of spending a few days last week with a number of constitutional scholars at the International Association of Law Schools conference on Constitutional Law held jointly at American University Washington College of Law and Georgetown University Law Center.
It helped to refocus some of my own thinking about this topic, particularly on the notion of Islamic Constitutionalism.
Although I have had an interest in Islamic Constitutionalism for some time, it became heightened after the summer of 2007. That summer human rights groups, members of the Egyptian People's Assembly (Majilis Al-Sha’ab), and the Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate invited me to monitor military trials of suspected Islamists. During this trip, I had the privilege of meeting with some of the highest officials of the Muslim Brotherhood and heard about their ideas and visions. It also reinforced in my mind that Islamists (controversial term) are here to stay. We cannot simply wish them away or bomb them out of existence. We can choose to dismiss and ignore them at our own peril, or we can take the road of constructive engagement and empower the moderates among them in ways that respect their right to self-determination and try to work toward peaceful co-existence.
It helped to refocus some of my own thinking about this topic, particularly on the notion of Islamic Constitutionalism.
Although I have had an interest in Islamic Constitutionalism for some time, it became heightened after the summer of 2007. That summer human rights groups, members of the Egyptian People's Assembly (Majilis Al-Sha’ab), and the Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate invited me to monitor military trials of suspected Islamists. During this trip, I had the privilege of meeting with some of the highest officials of the Muslim Brotherhood and heard about their ideas and visions. It also reinforced in my mind that Islamists (controversial term) are here to stay. We cannot simply wish them away or bomb them out of existence. We can choose to dismiss and ignore them at our own peril, or we can take the road of constructive engagement and empower the moderates among them in ways that respect their right to self-determination and try to work toward peaceful co-existence.
