Proposed expansions for Islamic law in 340 Law and related changes: Draft for Comment

As noted in earlier discussion papers (2010, 2010rev, 2011) and in earlier blog entries (2010 and 2011), we have been working with Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), home of the Arabic DDC translation team, on expansions and revisions for Islam. Iman Khairy (formerly at BA) and Ossama Mahmoud have been especially helpful.

In the discussion paper that has just been posted on the Dewey discussion page, we focus on expansions for Islamic law in 340 Law—and on a few topics that came to our attention because of our work on Islamic law, especially religious activities and religious groups in 341 Law of nations and 342 Constitutional law. Outside of 340 Law, the affected numbers are 211.4 Rationalism (Free thought) and 239 [Christian] Apologetics and polemics.

We seek comments:
• Does the proposed draft provide a general framework that can be used for organization of and access to diverse collections throughout the world?
• Can you help us improve the English descriptions for Arabic terms?
• Do the Relative Index entries provide appropriate access to the development?

Please comment directly to this blog entry or by one of the alternative methods given with the draft by September 15, 2012.

Comments

[Jonathan Bishop]

As someone applying to be an MCLIP, I think it is important for Islamic law to have equal footing as other legal systems. However, I think this should be reflected as follows:
* General books on Islamic Law in a non-religious context, like the one edited by Simon Abram should categorised against other generalist books on the law of England and Wales, Welsh Law, French Law, etc.
* General books on Islamic Law from a religious point of view should be on a level footing with Canon Law.
* Specific books should be in the equivalent categories. For instance, books on Islamic human rights should be alongside Human Rights books, and books on Islamic criminal law among criminal law books, contract law among contract law books, etc.

Anything other than the above would be giving precedence to non-Islamic legal systems, which goes against our multi-cultural as opposed to a secular/Christian society.