Jean-Michel Landry: Militant Perspectives on Sharia Law Today

What can we learn about sharia law through the lens of the political struggles triggered by its application? That is the question 2009 Foundation scholar Jean-Michel Landry examined in his presentation to the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in Strategic and Diplomatic Studies at Université du Québec à Montréal on 22 March 2018 (French only). By retracing the evolution of two protest movements – one Sunni, one Shia – aiming to modify religion-based norms in Lebanese family law, Landry showed how religion is increasingly shaped by the state in secular contexts.

Jean-Michel Landry is a 2009 Foundation scholar, a Banting postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anthropology at McGill University, a doctoral fellow at the Institut Français du Proche-Orient, and an affiliated researcher at the Orient Institute of Beirut.