Shari’a, InshAllah: Finding God in Somali Legal Politics by Mark Fathi Massoud

Authors

Danyal Maqbool, Osgoode Hall Law School of York University (Student Author)

Document Type

Book Review

Abstract

Shari’a, InshAllah: Finding God in Somali Legal Politics (“Shari’a InshAllah”), written by Mark Fathi Massoud, professor of politics and legal studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is a compelling and fascinating work chronicling the relationship between law, religion, and politics in the context of Somalia’s recent history. In this book, Massoud explores the inextricability of religion from Somali legal politics as the country grapples with its colonial and post-colonial legacies and relationships to power in a society where God serves as a conduit for both faith and aspirations of self-determination. In a region where distrust of Western institutions and fears of authoritarian rule dominate state and capacity-building exercises, Massoud demonstrates how activists, lawyers, lawmakers, dictators, rebel groups, militants, and international aid organizations contend with competing sources of law, power, and politics in a fractured state. He further demonstrates the potential of Shari’a (i.e., Islamic law) to bridge divides across the most diverse of actors in order to produce a common logic of deference, submission, and adherence to the Rule of Law. Perhaps most critically, Massoud investigates the position of Shari’a in global discourse and how Western conceptions of Shari’a (seemingly influenced by orientalist tropes, imperialism, and Western hegemony and exceptionalism) give rise to misapprehensions of its utility, flexibility, necessity, and effectiveness in societies where Islam transcends political disagreements, clan affiliation, and personal identity.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Citation Information

Maqbool, Danyal. "Shari’a, InshAllah: Finding God in Somali Legal Politics by Mark Fathi Massoud." Osgoode Hall Law Journal 61.3 (2025) :
DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.4075
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol61/iss3/11