Islam and the Legal Enforcement of Morality

Over sixty years ago, British high court judge Patrick Devlin and legal philosopher H.L.A. Hart fought out a famous debate over the legal enforcement of morality, which was generated by the question whether homosexuality should be legalized or not. Jurists agree that this debate was won by Hart, also evidenced in the fact that the state has since been retreating from its previous role of moral watchdog. I argue in this paper that the two most conflicted and essentially unresolved issues in the integration of Islam, the regulation of the female body and of free speech, have reopened this debate anew, pushing the liberal state toward the legal regulation of morality, thus potentially putting at risk its liberalness. I use the Hart-Devlin debate as a template for comparing and contrasting the Muslim quest for restricting free speech with the host-society quest for restricting the Islamic veil. Accordingly, there is a double threat to liberalism, which this paper brings into view in tandem, one originating from Islam and another from a hypertrophied defense of liberalism.

Europe and Islam: Alarmists, Victimists, and Integration by Law

This article reviews the minefield of Muslim integration in Europe, paying special attention to the legal integration of Islam, which has not yet found the attention that it deserves. In a first step, the article contrasts ‘victimist’ and ‘alarmist’ views on contemporary Muslim integration, both of which are found misleading. Instead, as argued in the second part, significant progress has been made through the legal route. The conclusion provides a reflection on the role of Islam for Europe’s ‘liberal identity’ today.

Political Sociology of Islam Integration: the Role of Liberal Law

In Europe and North America, migration and integration has become a busy subfield of political sociology. Of particular interest in this respect is the integration of Muslims and Islam, which has dominated the debate in Europe. Broadly conceived «political opportunity structures» have received much attention in this context. But the role of liberal law in the integration of Islam has been largely ignored, not by lawyers of course, but by political sociologists who have thus delivered far too negative and truncated pictures of Muslims and Islam in Europe. This is the deficit we sought to redress in Legal Integration of Islam; A Transatlantic Comparison (2013) (co-authored with John Torpey). Some of this study’s main ideas and findings are presented in the following.

Der Koran und die Genealogie des Islam

Lange war man im Westen davon überzeugt gewesen, dass zwischen Religion, Gesellschaft und Staat in der Epoche der europäischen Aufklärung ein Einverständnis gefunden worden ist. Diese Sicherheit ist in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten ins Wanken geraten. Im Namen ‘des’ Islam werden Terroranschläge verübt und Kriege geführt. Von vielen Menschen wird ‘der’ Islam als eine Religion wahrgenommen, die nicht zwischen Religion und Zivilgesellschaft unterscheidet und den Friedenszustand gefährdet. Doch gibt es überhaupt ‘den’ Islam oder ‘den’ Koran? Der Islam wird oft in einer problematischen Vereinfachung auf den Koran und den Propheten Muḥammad reduziert. Daraus wird dann der Kurzschluss gezogen, der Islam lasse sich aus diesem Ursprung heraus definieren. Gegen dieses ahistorische Ursprungsdenken und die damit einhergehenden Stereotypen zu ‘dem’ Islam und ‘dem’ Koran bring Reinhard Schulze die Geschichte in Anschlag. Er verfolgt in seiner gelehrten und analytisch präzisen Studie die Geschichte der Entstehung der Schrift Koran über deren sprachliche Verfasstheit (das Arabische) und Intertexte; betrachtet die Offenbarung an Muḥammad aus historischer Perspektive und reflektiert – nicht zuletzt – über die Voraussetzungen und unhinterfragten Prämissen des wissenschaftlichen Diskurses über den Islam – so etwa im Orientalismus des 19. Jahrhunderts, in der Rede von der Religion als anthropologischer Konstante oder neurobiologischer ‘Programmierung’.