This is a guest post by George Sadek, a foreign law specialist with the Global Legal Research Directorate of the Law Library of Congress.
Islamic religious institutions, Ulema councils, and religious organizations in various Muslim countries around the world are playing a significant and complex role in reaction to governmental responses to the COVID-19 outbreak. While it appears that, in most countries, Islamic institutions have fully and actively cooperated with authorities in implementing policies and measures of the state in the fight against the virus, there have been examples of serious opposition to some of these measures.
Please join Tariq Ahmad and George Sadek for the Law Library’s upcoming webinar, “Between Cooperation and Conflict: Islamic Religious Authority and Governmental Responses to COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan,” at 2:00 PM on Thursday, May 21, 2020. This webinar is the latest installment in the Law Library’s new series of webinars focused on foreign and comparative law.
This webinar will focus on the varying and complex role that Islamic law, official Islamic institutions and councils, and nongovernmental religious bodies are playing in reaction to governmental responses to COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan. The presenters will begin with a brief introduction of the place of Islamic law and official religious institutions in each country. They will then discuss the range of social distancing or lockdown measures that have been taken to ban or restrict religious gatherings and congregations. Lastly, they will discuss the various fatwas/declarations of official Dar-ul Iftas, Ulema councils, and prominent religious clerics in support of and/or in opposition to these measures, taking into account the diverse political and social contexts and challenges in the three countries.
To register for the webinar, please click here.