Islam and Human Rights: a brief summary

In His farewell address the Prophet admonished: Your personas, properties and honor are declared sacred like the sanctity attached to this day, this month and this spot. Let them not to be violated. M. Z. Khan, Islam and Human Rights

Marco De Cave Human Rights Organizations, Dr Dominik Smyrgaa Spring Semester 2011-2012, Collegium Civitas

Brief chronology of Islam

570-632 A.D. , Life of Muhammad (622 A.D. Hejira and the draft of the Charter of Medina) VII-IX cent. : 4 Caliphs (Shi'a party and breaking of the unity, expansion of the Empire world wide) IX-XIV cent: Interior divisions (Mongolians, Crusades) 1453: conquest of Constantinople 1489: retreat of the Muslims from Europe XV-XIX: decline of the Empire

An overall view of the spread of the Empire

Brief chronology of Islam 1914- 1918 : WW1 and the end of Ottoman Empire 1923: Kemal president of Turkey 1979: Islamic revolution in Iran 1981: Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights 1990: Cairo Declaration on Human Rights by the States of the Organisation of Islamic Conference 1997: Islamic Human Rights Commission (UN DESA) 2004: Arab Charter on Human Rights by the League of Arab States

Five pillars of Islam: the basis of the rising State

Charter of Medina (622 A.D.): the Constitution

Protection of people (social, legal and economic)

Trial system (abandoning The Lex Talionis)

Legal framework

Religious freedom

Security of women

The birth of the first Muslim federation

Ummah and pacific relations

Equality for all the people in the community

Individual responsibility

From blood ties to the faith as basis of the 'nation'

The structure of the Law (fiqh) Non political part (naql) Koran (the Holy Book of the word of God) Hadith (statements of the Prophet, habits, practices; Sunnah) Political part (shari'a) Jima (agreements of the scholars) Quiyas (deductions interpretations) and

The Koran is the constitution and the Bill of Rights of the Islamic state (Majid Khadduri)

Shari'a (it can be compared to the Common Law)

Ibdt Immutable (jus cogens) 5 pillars

Mu malt Mutable It can be interpreted

God is the basis of the jurisprudence

Jihad to enjoin good and forbid evil (3:104) Greater jihad: reaching God as a main mission per each believer (striving)

The absence of a rational State building

Lesser jihad: Holy war (historically cancelled, it can be called by the political and religious authorities)

Watan (nation) as a concept linked only to the spirit of people (=ummah)

Failure of adopting western laws: takfir (apostasy)

Reddite quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo

 NOT THE JIHAD WE THINK!

Refusal of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran)
Art. 1 : All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights [...]

Art. 16: Men and women of full age,without any limitation [] have the right to marry [...]

Shari'a is superior

A non-muslim man can't marry a muslim woman

THE BELIEVER Art. 18: [...] freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, [...] to manifest his religion

Women are subordinated to men

Crime of apostasy

Human Rights: the Islamic approach Human Rights in Islam (a book by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi) Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights, 19th September 1981, Paris Cairo Declaration on Human Rights, 1990, Cairo Arab Charter on Human Rights, 22nd May 2004, Cairo

References

http://www.apologeticsindex.org http://www.constitution.org/ http://muslimvoices.org/ http://www.geopolitica.info http://www.un.org/ http://www.unhcr.org http://www.wikipedia.org/