Sharia and the State in Pakistan

Farhat Haq is Professor and Chair in the Department of Political Science at Monmouth College, USA. Her research interests include ethnic politics, gender and politics, Islam and Human Rights and militarism and motherhood.

"[This book] challenges the simplistic generalisations about the growing significance of blasphemy in Pakistan by focusing on the politics of blasphemy in the country and by comparing it with attitudes towards similar developments elsewhere in the Muslim world. […] Haq’s book succeeds at many levels. She provides a strong analysis of the various conceptions of sharia and the manner in which these have been adopted by Muslim states. She traces the gradual, yet firm spread of sharia in Pakistan to a point where it appears to have overwhelmed the ordinary business of government. She provides anecdotal evidence of her arguments which help contextualise and explain them. She also provides a sharia map of Muslim countries which help the reader understand where Pakistan may be located on the spectrum of Islamisation. For all these reasons the book makes an important contribution to the study not only of blasphemy politics but also sharia politics more generally." - Amber Darr, University College London, Bloomsbury Pakistan 2019"Few doctrinal and political issues are more controversial in Pakistan today than that of blasphemy. In her excellent and engaging new book Shariʿa and the State in Pakistan: Blasphemy Politics (Routledge, 2019), Farhat Haq presents the history and present of blasphemy laws, debates, and politics in Pakistan, in a manner that carefully weaves the historical backdrop of blasphemy politics with detailed descriptions of important discursive moments and contributions involving a range of different state and non-state actors. Equally conversant with Islamic Studies, South Asian Studies, and Political Science, this book will speak to and interest multiple audiences, while familiarizing readers in eminently accessible prose with the legal, political, and theological complexities invested in the question of blasphemy in Pakistan and beyond. Throughout the book, Haq convincingly shows and argues that blasphemy politics in Pakistan escapes any neat narratives or conceptual framings, and one must attend to its contingencies in order to develop a more nuanced understanding of its thorniest implications and consequences. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the hugely critical and controversial topic of blasphemy in Islam and in Pakistan." - SherAli Tareen, Franklin and Marshall College

• 1 A Tale of Two Saints: The Politics of Blasphemy in Pakistan; 2 Blasphemy, Apostasy and Heresy and the Politics of Outrage; 3 Debating Blasphemy: Sharia and the Constitution; 4 Sacralizing the State and Secularizing Sharia: Islamic Politics in the Age of the Nation-State; 5 The Administrative State Chasing the Goldilocks Moment: The Conundrums of a Muslim Nation-State; 6 The Fatigue of the Sharia and Contemporary Muslim Politics