Reading Mohammed in Charleston: Assessing the U.S. Courts Approach to the Convergence of Law, Religion and Commerce

Abstract

This article grapples with what it looks like when U.S. Courts approach Islamic law. Treating the problem as a normative collision, the article addresses the ways in which language, process, and medium operate within the interpretation scheme. The article then considers seven cases from U.S. courts that all attempt to interpret Islamic Law. The article concludes by suggesting that translation offers courts the best hope for understanding the legal culture over formalism and interpretation. This article offers unique insight into the challenges facing western courts when confronted by the norms of Islam. The article is unique in that no other article has considered concretely how court's are dealing with the questions of cultural pluralism. The article utilizes concepts of reading, medium and process to stage the difficulties encountered by courts. Finally the article concludes by describing how concepts of space and place aid in understanding how court's treat foreign normative constructions. The article uses the Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran as a discussion starter.