Emory law and human rights scholar Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im is posting the chapters of his forthcoming book on issues surrounding Islam, secularism and human rights on a new web site he has created to generate debate about the manuscript. Visitors to the site are encouraged to send comments, suggestions and queries in the language of their choice via e-mail.

An-Na'im is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law and senior fellow in the Center for the Study of Law and Religion. His forthcoming book, The Future of Shari'a: Secularism from an Islamic Perspective, is a project sponsored by The Ford Foundation. Over the past decade, An-Na’im’s work has attracted nearly $2 million of support from the foundation for a series of international research projects, including studies on women and land rights in Africa, Islamic family law, and an Islam and Human Rights fellowship program, which brought to Emory scholar-activists from Islamic nations advocating for social change in their home countries.

“The book celebrates and seeks to contribute to the struggle of Islamic societies to define themselves in the context of the local and global conditions under which they live,” said An-Na’im. “A key aspect of this process is the constitutional and legal dimensions of the post-colonial experiences of Islamic societies, especially the relationship among Islam, state and society.”

An-Na’im’s twenty years of scholarship and advocacy in this area stem from his personal experience as a Muslim from Northern Sudan. In 1968, while a law student, he joined the Islamic reform movement of Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, which was suppressed in the early 1980s. In 1985, An-Na’im left Sudan and has lived in exile since, though he has been able to visit the country four times in the last few years as an American citizen. His story was recently profiled in the September 11, 2006 issue of The New Yorker magazine.

Six chapters of the book, currently available in English, are downloadable from the website at http://www.law.emory.edu/cms/site/index.php?id=2148 . The manuscript is being translated into several languages, including Bahasa Indonesian, Bengali, Farsi, Russian, Turkish, Urdu, and Arabic. Once available, these translations will be available online as well.

An’Na’im is posting the chapters to generate debate about the concept, themes, methodology and content of the manuscript as a whole, as well as to provide feedback to translators about the accuracy and clarity of their formulations.

Content on the site is provided free solely for scholarly responses and public debate purposes. Since all the contents are in draft form, An-Na’im requests that the materials should not be cited as academic sources.