The Arab Spring and Islamic Legal Thought
22 Pages Posted: 1 May 2013
Date Written: April 30, 2013
Abstract
At the end of 2010 there was series of political crises in the Arab world and this period came to be known as “the Arab Spring”. Islam has played a significant role in these events. In certain countries overthrowing the existing regimes resulted in Islamic governments coming to power. A number of aspects of the Arab Spring attracted the attention of contemporary Islamic legal thought. Its different schools diverge in the assessment of the mass protests. Islamic jurisprudence explains the “fiqh of revolution” which justifies the demonstrations and protests against the regime from a Sharia-based point of view.
Keywords: the Arab Spring, Islam, political reforms, Sharia, demonstrations, innovation, fiqh of revolution
JEL Classification: K30
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation