The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State.

• Author: Smith, Anthony
• Position: Book review

THE FALL AND RISE OF THE ISLAMIC STATE

Author: Noah Feldman

Published by: Council on Foreign Relations and Princeton University Press (distributed by Footprint Books in New Zealand), Princeton, 2012 (new paperback edition), 189pp, US$14.95.

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Noah Feldman, a professor of the Harvard Law School, is most famously associated with his role in the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in advising on the construction of a (then) new Iraqi constitution. Modern constitutions in Iraq and Afghanistan, under US tutelage, have combined modern constitutional practice with reference to sharia law--a fact that may have come as a surprise to many in the West who championed those interventions. Feldman's articulation of that compromise, and his belief that not only was Islam compatible with democracy but also that ideological Islamism (the belief that Islam has a place in the polity and jurisprudence in Muslim majority countries) was a legitimate expression of the popular will, has not always been a welcomed message.

First issued in 2008, the 2012 reissue of this short book contains an additional introduction on a development of great significance for his original thesis, namely the meaning the Arab Spring and the rise of Islamist parties to some prominence.

Feldman's thesis needs to be taken seriously, and gives a strong insight into the debate within the Islamic world to reconcile tradition with the demands of what might be considered good government in a modern context. While some have labelled Feldman shortsighted for his work on the Iraqi constitution, his attempts to reconcile Sunni Islamist views on governance are about finding commonality within Islamic jurisprudence for modern conceptions of governance and human rights--and blaming one US academic for the Iraqi constitution may overlook the fact that the direction of the document was at heart the product of the Iraqi government itself.

A survey of political and legal practice around the world does confirm a number of Feldman's propositions. Islamist parties, and Muslim majority countries generally, are accepting a 'complex synthesis with constitutional democracy'. The Islamist movements, often Muslim Brotherhood offshoots, at least in the Sunni world, are not generally the product of the clerical establishment, and are run by laymen (often from the professional classes). The Shia world is witnessing a different kind of dynamic, and Feldman notes the case of Iran in...