Islam of the Egyptian state open and fatwas of the Dar al-Ifta

This book is a doctoral thesis conducted by researcher Jacob Skovgaard Petersen, and it is a unique thesis, worthy of being followed in analyzing both the dialectic relationship between Islam and politics, and the dialectic relationship between the state and society, in the era of the nation-state. Studies related to these two interconnected dialectics, as the author decided at the end of his study, are rare, even extremely rare, despite their utmost importance for both the present and the future. Solving the dilemma of the modern nation-state in the Islamic world has, and still is, dependent on exploring a formula for a balanced and solid relationship between Islam, the state, and society. And the basis of this dilemma is: who determines whom? Is it the state that defines what Islam is, and what society is? Or is it Islam that defines what the state is and what society is? This question, in turn, raises a series of subsidiary questions: where is the concept of the nation? What is Islam? What is the state? Who has the authority to determine what Islam is, and what the state is? What is the measure for separating the various perspectives regarding all these question marks? The importance of this book is not limited to pioneering this vital topic in Egypt, given its geopolitical and Islamic significance. It is the result of intense and comprehensive research over six years, producing a highly documented study that relied on references in several European languages, in addition to Arabic. Its titles span about twenty pages, along with records of fatwas from the Egyptian Dar al-Ifta since its establishment in 1895 until 1996. The researcher followed an analytical contextual methodology for both axes of his study: defining the state in Islam, and the Muftis and the Egyptian Dar al-Ifta.