Normative Pluralism and the Theological Challenge of Progressive Islam

Lecture by Dr. Mohammad Fadel

Muslims have been engaged in numerous reform movements throughout the Islamic world over the last 200 years. While not all of these reform movements are liberal or progressive in any sense of that term, many of them are: numerous books and articles and scores of public lectures have offered what is believed to be the “true” message of Islam. Professor Fadel discusses the nature of the challenge for reformists working within the already-existing galaxy of Islamic pluralism.

Date: Friday December 11, 2009
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Auditorium, Noor Cultural Centre
Admission: $5

Mohammad H. Fadel joined University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law in January 2006. He received his B.A. in Government and Foreign Affairs (1988), a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago (1995) and his J.D. from the University of Virginia (1999). While at the University of Virginia School of Law, Professor Fadel was a John M. Olin Law and Economics Scholar and Articles Development Editor of the Virginia Law Review. Prior to law school, Professor Fadel completed his Ph.D in Chicago, where he wrote his dissertation on legal process in medieval Islamic law. Professor Fadel was admitted to the Bar of New York in 2000 and practiced law with the firm of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York, New York, where he worked on a wide variety of corporate finance transactions and securities-related regulatory investigations. In addition, Professor Fadel served as a law clerk to the Honorable Paul V. Niemeyer of the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and the Honorable Anthony A. Alaimo of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. Professor Fadel has published numerous articles in Islamic legal history.