Problems of Islamic Reform: Nigeria, Egypt and the United States

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Sarah Eltantawi is Associate Professor of Modern Islam in the Department of Theology at Fordham University in New York. She is a specialist in contemporary Islam and Islamic law, with a focus in authoritarian and post-colonial contexts. Professor Eltantawi holds a PhD from Harvard University in the Study of Religion (Islamic studies), where she was the Jennifer W. Oppenheimer Fellow, an MA from Harvard University in International Studies (Middle East), and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley in Rhetoric and English literature.

Professor Eltantawi's book Shari'ah on Trial: Northern Nigeria's Islamic Revolution (University of California Press, 2017) examines why Northern Nigerians took to the streets starting in 1999 to demand the re-impimentation of shari'ah law. Her book focuses on the career of the stoning punishment in Islam, centered on the famous case of Amina Lawal, who was sentenced to death by stoning at the turn of this century for committing adultery (and ultimately acquitted). Professor Eltantawi is currently at work on two projects: one that examines the political theology of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and another, a book of essays that looks at several issues in Contemporary Islam, especially in the United States, most of which concentrate on problems attending the question of Islamic reform.