ABSTRACT. The purpose of this article is to gain a deeper understanding of the tensions between the religious law of a specific community and the secular law of the state, religious and secular law in a complex multicultural society, the nature of the secular state, and the role of religion in public life. This paper seeks to fill a gap in the current literature by examining different aspects of the application of religious law in a secular state, the clash between religious and secular law, the tension between the religious neutrality of the state and the connectedness of Islam and public policy, and the essentially religious nature of Shari‘a. pp. 191–196

Keywords: secular law, religion, Islam, right, state