Full Text

Insight Turkey Vol. 12 / No. 4 / 2010
223
In this book, the author focuses on Mus-
lim people's social and legal situation and
their legal attitudes from various points of
view. The book has eight chapters: "Law, Pol-
itics and Society in the Post-Modern Condi-
tion"; "Dynamic Legal Pluralism, Muslim
Legal Pluralisms; Muslim Legal Pluralism in
England"; "Muslim Legal Pluralism in Tur-
key"; "Muslim Legal Pluralism in Pakistan";
"Post-Modern Muslim Legality and its Con-
sequences"; and "Looking to the Future".
The author uses case studies from three
different, but relevant, countries: the United
Kingdom (UK), Turkey, and Pakistan. The
By Ihsan Yilmaz
Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2005. 248 pp., ISSBN 0754643891.
Insight Turkey Vol. 12 / No. 4 / 2010
Book Reviews
224
Pakistan, on the other hand, is a mod-
ern Islamic state with a population 97%
Muslim, where the government is an of-
ficially Islamic one and it has introduced
several judicial reforms on different social
issues such as Muslim family law. However,
these reform attempts are not welcome by
the general public because these judicial re-
forms are far away from meeting the real
needs of a modern Muslim society. There-
fore, society prefers to develop its own un-
official Muslim laws.
The author claims that Muslim people
in these countries have developed their
own legal systems that are different from
the states' official legal systems. Muslim
people in these countries have applied in-
teresting methods in order to solve their
particular issues since they react against
the frameworks of the official legal systems
and do no want to move away from Muslim
laws and their strong traditions. Sometimes
even certain traditional values are more im-
portant than secular principles but even re-
ligious ones as well. In Turkey, for instance,
the proverb "sometimes custom is more im-
portant than Quranic verses" (Bazen, adet
ayetten önemlidir) is a clear example of this.
Therefore, for example, some couples do not
get divorced because of the reaction of their
families and society, although religious and
official laws permits it. Hence, they may
even live separately, but they hide it from
the society. Or, a common case in Turkey,
since the judicial system legally prohibits
polygamy, some people prefer imam nikahı
(an unofficial, religious marriage ceremony)
for the second wife and sometimes hide this
marriage from their first wives and society.
The author implies that legal plurality
is unavoidable because of the definition
of the term of "law" which embraces three
areas: the state, society, and religion. It is
purpose of the book is to analyze the con-
flict between the assumptions of modern
legal systems and the plural legal realities.
Actually, these three countries is a good
selection. The UK is a Western state that
has many religious minority communities
in which Muslims occupy the greatest ratio.
Currently, 3.1% of the population of the UK
is Muslim. The Muslim population of the
UK mainly comes from the Commonwealth
countries (namely India, Bangladesh, and
Pakistan), the Middle East and North Af-
rican countries. These Muslim immigrant
groups are generally from the upper middle
classes and intellectuals, and undergraduate
and graduate students of home countries. As
the author says, in Britain, the Muslim mi-
nority has not abandoned its adherence to
customary and religious laws and has devel-
oped new forms of traditional values. Con-
sequently, Muslim groups in the UK, while
on the one hand seem to go along well with
the official set of laws, on the other hand
try to apply traditional Islamic customs and
principles in their daily life.
Turkey is a unique case as it is a mod-
ern secular state with no official state reli-
gion, although Muslims, the main religious
group, officially account for 98% of the pop-
ulation. As Huntington claims, it as a torn
country between the East and the West. Al-
though many of the its Muslim population
will not give up certain religious principles
and customs, enormous and powerful
parts of the political elites (including civil
bureaucracy, military bureaucracy, politi-
cians and intellectuals) insist on the adop-
tion of Western social and cultural values.
However, the general population of Turkey
opposes this policy, since these elites try to
impose only social and cultural values, but
not democratic ones, which the country ac-
tually needs.
Book Reviews
quite normal that these areas compete and
interact with each other. Moreover, the au-
thor claims that Muslim laws cover a legal
pluralism within itself with well-developed
hermeneutical techniques.
The plurality of Muslim laws is firstly
due to the main schools of laws (Madhabs),
and along with these four great schools
(Hanafee, Shaafi'ee, Hambelee, Maalikee),
other small sects all have somewhat differ-
ent views on the non-fundamental princi-
ples and practices of Islam. The second rea-
son for plurality, according to the author,
is the differences between the written and
customary rules of Islam. These don't al-
ways completely coincide with each other.
The third reason for plurality is the differ-
ences between official Islam and folk Islam
which means that the understanding of Is-
lamic rules and principles is rather different
between the population and official institu-
tions. This fact can be clearly identified in
Turkey where large numbers of Muslims
do not believe or follow the official view
of Islam. For example, in Turkey, the gov-
ernment once obliged people to donate the
leather from the sacrificial animal during
the Eid ul-Adha only to the Turkish Aero-
nautical Association. However, people re-
fused and continued to donate the leather,
an enormous source of financial income, to
the traditional institutions and to Muslim
NGOs, such as mosques, orphanages, and
tareekat (religious sect) associations.
It is clear that the author has referred
to an enormous list of literature written on
this issues and he has presented the main
points of discussion about the subject mat-
ters. Therefore, this book is a significant
contribution for researchers and academ-
ics who study legal plurality and alternative
applications of the official legal systems.
Kemal Özden, Fatih University