Hassan, Said, " Fiqh al-Aqalliyyāt: Negotiating Discourse of Tradition, Modernity and Reform" in Faculty of Languages and Translation's Journal, al-Azhar University, Issue 5, part 2, July 2013, pp. 219-244. 1 Fiqh al-Aqalliyyāt: Negotiating Discourse of Tradition, Modernity and Reform Dr. Said Fares Hassan Dept. of Islamic Studies in Foreign Languages Fiqh al-Aqalliyyāt has become a focus of research for the last few years. Scholars studied its development, examined its legal questions and relevant fatwās. The focus of the present study, however, is to lay out the various elements that came together to produce fiqh al-aqalliyyāt and to relate its production to the debate on tradition, modernity and reform in Islamic Law. In other words, this study provides a macro-contextualization of fiqh al-aqalliyyāt. It discusses three main points. First it defines the place and the subjects of research, i.e. Muslim minorities in Western Europe and North America. Second, it sheds light on the context where the debate takes place, i.e. liberal states. Third, it attempts to relate the phenomenon to its wider intellectual framework, i.e. questions of modernity and reform and the role of Islam in modern life. The goal of the present study is not to present a detailed analysis of each of these issues. This has been done elsewhere. 1 Rather the focus here is to connect the dots and to demonstrate the subtle interaction among these elements to produce a complicated form of a complex law. 1 For a review of the Muslim minority communities in Western Europe and North America see for example: Stefano Allievi and Jorgen S. Nielsen (eds.), Muslim Networks and Transnational Communities in and across Europe (Leiden: Brill, 2003); Zahid Bukhari, Sulayman S Nyang, Mumtaz Ahmad and John Esposito (eds), Muslims’ Place in the American Public Square, Hope, Fears and Aspirations (California: AltaMira, 2004); Richard Phillips (ed.), Muslim Spaces of Hope, Geographies of Possibilities in Britain and the West (London: Zed Books, 2009); Jocelyne Cesari (ed.), Muslims in the West after 9/11: Religion, Politics and Law (New York: Routledge, 2010). For a review of the question of Muslim minorities and western liberal democracy, see for example: Jocelyne Cesari, When Islam and Democracy Meet, Muslims in Europe and in the United States (New York: Palgrave, 2004); Andrew March, Islam and Liberal Citizenship, the Search for an Overlapping Consensus (Oxford University Press, 2011); H.A. Hellyer, Muslims of Europe, the Other Europeans (Edinburg, Edinburg University Press, 2009); Jocelyne Cesari and Sean McLoughlin (eds.), European Muslims and the Secular State (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2005). For a review of the interaction between tradition, modernity and reform in Islam, see for example, B.A. Roberson (ed.), Shaping the Current Islamic Reformation (London: Frank Cass, 2003); John Esposito and Francois