Divine Law or Man-Made Law? Egypt and the Application of the Shari'a

Abstract

The application of the Shan'a has been a central issue in Egyptian politics since the beginning of the seventies. Originally advocated only by Islamic opposition groups, it gained such popularity as a political slogan that the Government could not remain passive. As of 1976 there was feverish and largely government-promoted legislative activity with the aim of codifying and, subsequently, applying the Shan'a. During the first years of the eighties this activity came to a sudden stand-still, again at the instigation of the Government. This article will focus on the various legislative proposals to codify parts of the Shan'a and on the public debate surrounding its attempted introduction. Special attention will be given to the Government's policy in this domain in order to shed some light on the importance of Islam for the legitimacy of the state. In an Appendix a survey will be given of the draft codes of Islamic penal law. By the end of the last century the Egyptian legal system was largely secularized by the introduction of codes based on French law. Only in the fields of personal status, inheritance, and religious endowments did the Shan'a remain in force. Before the introduction of French law codes there were some suggestions to base at least the civil code on the Shan'a as Turkey had done in 1876, when it enacted the Mecelle, a codification of Islamic civil law. However, once the choice of French law had been made,