Indonesian Islam: Social Change Through Contemporary Fatawa »

Focusing on some 2000 religious-legal judgments issued in Indonesia between 1920 and 1990, a period that witnessed both colonialism and nominal independence, Hooker (law, Australian National U.) argues that the fatawa show a "remarkable engagement between [religious] texts and contemporary social reality" and are the only proper way to understand contemporary Islam as separated from the state. After an explanation of the role of fatawa in Islamic life, separate chapters examine the responses of four strains of Indonesian Islam to the problems of the individual and religious duty, the status and obligation of women, Allah as creator versus medical science, and offences against religion. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR