| As the Muslim presence continues to grow in the US and Canada, questions of identity, integration, and Islam's compatibility with North American cultures and values have become increasingly urgent and controversial. In an effort to address critiques of Islamic law as alien to the ethos of North America, and to accommodate Islamic law to the realities of the continent and the needs of Muslim individuals and communities, Muslims are increasingly resorting to ijtihad as the tool of legal reinterpretation, innovation, and welding of identities. As the calls for ijtihad and its practice gain greater momentum in North America, it is vital to analyze the ijtihadic discourse and definitions to better understand it as a phenomenon and gauge its potentials, limitations, and its role in shaping the present and future of Muslims on the continent.;In this work, I interview sixteen Muslim academics and community leaders in North America on their definitions of ijtihad and its capacity to respond to Muslim aspirations and challenges. I ask questions on the construction of Muslim religious authority and who could be charged with the practice of ijtihad today. I also investigate the role of the North American context in (re)shaping ijtihad and (re)ordering its priorities, imparting both new possibilities and limitations. And finally I explore the persistence of the historical parameters of legal ijtihad and their (post)modern transformations, where hybridic North American identities create new legal hybrids. |
