"Shariah," the Islamic legal tradition, has become almost as controversial a word as "jihad," and frequently as poorly misunderstood. While Muslim countries have not experienced the secularization of Western societies, and shariah thus remains more powerful and traditional than Jewish and Christian parallels, its most notorious aspects are extremely rare, or confused with local tribal practices not actually justified by classic Islamic jurisprudence. Bill Davnie has lived and worked in three Muslim-majority countries and has a background in religious studies. He will seek to sketch out how shariah law operates in Muslim-majority countries and among Muslim minority communities, and why it’s not a threat to Western legal systems.