Shi‘ism in the American Diaspora: Challenges and Opportunities

This paper examines the new diasporic jurisprudence or jurisprudence of minorities (fiqh al-aqalliyyāt) that has emerged within Shi‘i juridical circles. Shi‘i jurists (maraji‘) have responded to the needs of Shi‘i communities that live as minorities in the West by recasting Islamic legal discourse on Muslim minorities and reconciling Islamic legal categories to the demands of the times. New situations and contingencies have prompted the experts …