Shari'ah and the Secular State: Popular Support for and Opposition to Islamic Family Law in Senegal.

Abstract

Why do citizens disagree about the extent to which state law should be based on Islamic law? And why do some view state laws that conform to Shari’ah as a threat to secularism, while others do not? I argue in this dissertation that how local elites frame the issues shapes the kinds of values and considerations ordinary citizens mobilize as they form their preferences. In Senegal, some Muslim groups have advocated a personal status law that would apply only to Muslims and that would conform to Shari’ah principles. They framed a Muslim personal law as a question of faith and the religious authority of the Shari’ah. Defenders of the state Family Code framed the issue in terms of the secularism of the state and the principle of legal equality for all citizens. For some men and women, religious values and commitments do lead them to support a Muslim personal law. For others, commitment to secularism and the principle of legal equality lead them to oppose such a law. Many men and women, however, profess commitment to each of the principles invoked in these debates and do not view a Muslim personal law as incompatible with Senegalese secularism or legal equality. To explain how citizens reconcile competing values and commitments, I argue that awareness of elite discourse plays a critical role. The most educated and media-exposed men and women tend to view these as incompatible issues, in part, because they are more aware of the prevailing secular interpretive package offered in the media. These findings stem from analyses using multiple methods — statistical analysis of an original survey of public opinion in urban Senegal, interpretive analysis of coded narratives with 800 randomly selected men and women, and content analysis of print media debates about family law reform. Through public debate over family law reform, elites and the public constantly negotiate the boundaries of the religion-state relationship and the prevailing meaning of secularism and legal equality.