Religion-State Relations

Shari¿a can be looked at as the normative kernel of Islam. Therefore, fatwas (legal opinions) and fiqh (the science of lawmaking), by which this kernel is constituted and is often described as the essence of Islam. Like other religions, Islam is concerned with the moral conduct of believers. When Islamic law is incorporated into state law, it controls the personal affairs and the moral conduct of human beings without an anthropocentric ethical concept or justification. The notion of an Islamic state is a post-colonial idea that is premised on a European model of the state as a totalitarian view of law, and public policy as the instruments of social engineering by ruling elites¿. Islamic norms are only ¿religious obligations for individual Muslims¿. This book defines fundamental rights in a broad sense that can be separated from contextual and mutable rights.