Law as Metaphor: From Islamic Courts to the Palace of Justice

Starr asks an important question: How, alone in the Muslim world, did the secular elites of Turkey supplant Islamic law with a Western-style secular law? Readers should not, however, look for an answer in Law as Metaphor, which is written in trendy but obscure post-modernish prose and makes up for its lack of organization with theory and egotism (there are many too many first-person singular pronouns). Worse, Starr gets basic facts and concepts wrong; for example: secularism, we learn, posits "gender equality and Western institutions of state"; when in fact it implies the withdrawal of law from the public arena. Not recommended for any audience, general or academic.

Related Topics:  Islam receive the latest by email: subscribe to daniel pipes' free mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.