Why Shariah?

In yesterday’s NY Times Magazine, Noah Feldman wrote an article detailing the controversy surrounding Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan William’s statements regarding the inclusion of Islamic and Orthodox Jewish courts in handling marriage and divorce. Feldman does a truly remarkable job in covering the role of law and Islam in the Middle East while also discussing Western misconceptions about Shariah.

Noah Feldman, a contributing writer for the magazine, is a law professor at Harvard University and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. This essay is adapted from his book “The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State,” which will be published later this month.