Focus: Islamic Law and Forced Migration

Refugee Status in the Arab and Islamic Traditions: Safe-conduct and the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, by Arafat Shoukri, is a forthcoming book from I.B. Tauris.

Here is the publisher's description:

What are the views, principles and regulations of the Islamic tradition concerning refugee status? Are there any similarities between the Islamic tradition relating to the laws of aman (safe conduct) and the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees? In this book, Arafat Shoukri delves into fifteen centuries of Arab and Islamic history examining hundreds of ancient sources to establish Islam's position on refugees. This is the first examination of the 1951 Geneva Convention on refugees from an Islamic perspective. In adopting this approach, Shoukri is able to compare and contrast the principles of international law with those of the Islamic tradition.

The book is due to be published at the end of October 2010. Update 15 Nov. 2010: The book is now slated for the end of November; it has also been re-titled Refugee Status in Islam: Concepts of Protection in Islamic Tradition and International Law.

In the interim, here is a sampling of other related resources:

"Asylum and Islam," Refugee Survey Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 2 (2008) [contents]
- Special issue reproducing papers presented at a conference by the same name, held on 10 December 2007 in Kuala Lumpur.

Combating Trafficking in Persons in Accordance with the Principles of Islamic Law (UNODC, July 2009) [access]

"Islam, Human Rights and Displacement," Forced Migration Review, Supplement (Jan. 2009) [access]
- Includes these articles: "Islam, international law and the protection of refugees and IDPs," "The rights of refugee women and children in Islam," and "Child rights and Islam."

The Protection of Forced Migrants in Islamic Law, New Issues in Refugee Research, no. 146 (Dec. 2007) [text]

Reconciling Notions of Asylum and Refugees in Islam and International Law: A Case Study of Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, Univ. of British Columbia (Aug. 2009) [text]

The Right to Asylum between Islamic Shari'ah and International Refugee Law: A Comparative Study (UNHCR, June 2009) [text]

Tagged Publications and Periodicals.