Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law. His specialties include human rights in Islam and cross-cultural issues in human rights, and he is the director of the Religion and Human Rights Program at Emory. He is also a senior fellow of Emory's Center for the Study of Law and Religion. An-Naim was formerly the Executive Director of the African bureau of Human Rights Watch. At present he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Migrant Rights. He argues for a synergy and interdependence between human rights, religion and secularism, instead of a dichotomy and incompatibility between them.

Early life

An-Naim was born in 1946, in the Sudan, where he was greatly influenced by the Islamic reform movement of Mahmoud Mohamed Taha. He is a naturalized American citizen, but retains Sudanese citizenship.

Career

In February 2009, An-Na`im received an Honorary Doctorate from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL, Louvain-la-Neuve) and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U. Leuven, Leuven), Belgium. He also serves as Global Legal Scholar at the Law School, University of Warwick, UK (until August 2010); and Extraordinary Professor at the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria (until December 2010).

Publications

Author

Muslims and Global Justice. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press (2010).
Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari'a. Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press (2008).
African Constitutionalism and the Contingent Role of Islam. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press (2006).
Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights and International Law. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1990 (soft-cover edition by American University in Cairo, 1992). Translated in Arabic (1994), Indonesian (1995), Russian (1999), and Persian 2003.
Sudanese Criminal Law: General Principles of Criminal Responsibility (Arabic). Omdurman, Sudan: Huriya Press, 1985.

Editor

Human Rights Under African Constitutions: Realizing the Promise for Ourselves. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.
Islamic Family Law in a Changing World: A Global Resource Book. London: Zed Books, 2002.
Cultural Transformation and Human Rights in Africa. London: Zed Books, 2002.
Proselytization and Communal Self-Determination in Africa. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999.
Universal Rights, Local Remedies: Legal Protection of Human Rights under the Constitutions of African Countries. London: Interights, 1999.
The Cultural Dimensions of Human Rights in the Arab World (Arabic). Cairo: Ibn Khaldoun Center, 1993.
Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspectives: Quest for Consensus. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Co-editor

With Ifi Amadiume: The Politics of Memory: Truth, Healing and Social Justice. London: Zed Books, 2000.
With J. D. Gort, H. Jansen, & H. M. Vroom: Human Rights and Religious Values: An Uneasy Relationship? Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995.
With Francis Deng: Human Rights in Africa: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1990.

Translator

Arabic translation: Francis Deng: Cry of the Owl (a political novel). Cairo: Midlight, 1991.
English translation with an Introduction: Ustadh Mahmoud Mohamed Taha: The Second Message of Islam. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1987.

Foreword

Foreword in Pranoto Iskandar, Hukum HAM Internasional, Cianjur: The Institute for Migrant Rights Press, 2010.

Related media

Video Presentation Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of the Religious Law of Islam. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (September 5, 2007).
Video Presentation Conversations With History: Islam and the Secular State (May 3, 2010).