Michigan Law Review Volume 100 Issue 6 2002 Islamic Law and Ambivalent Scholarship Khaled Abou El Fadl UCLA School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the Religion Law Commons Recommended Citation Khaled A. El Fadl, Islamic Law and Ambivalent Scholarship, 100 MICH. L. REV. 1421 (2002). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol100/iss6/11 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ISLAMIC LAW AND AMBIVALENT SCHOLARSHIP Khaled Abou El Fad/* THE JUSTICE OF ISLAM: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON ISLAMIC LA w AND SOCIETY. By Lawrence Rosen. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2000. Pp. 248. Cloth, $80; paper, $29.95. This book reminds me of the image of the arrogantly condescend ing and blustering tourist in Cairo who drifts into a store that has taken the trouble of prominently displaying the price of their com modities in nicely typed tags. Nevertheless, the tourist walks in, reads the price tag, and then proclaims, "Okay, what is the real price?" The poor store employee stares at him with incredulity, and simply repeats the price on the tag,· and, in response, the tourist emits this knowing and smug smile as if saying, "I know you guys, you never mean what you say; everything in Arab culture is negotiable, everything is subject to bargaining, and I will not be fooled." Of course, the tourist misses the point.