scholarly journals The Religious Freedom: Universalism Claim, Resistance of Islamic World, Reconceptualization

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fawaizul Umam

AbstractReligious freedom is one type of human rights which caused major resistance to the universalism claim of human rights in Muslim countries. This article attempted to describe why that resistance arose and how Islam should reconceptualize religious freedom. The religious freedom issues are important to be explored in the context of contemporary Islamic studies because its value and scope tended to be limited in the Islamic conservatism discourse. One of the issues is the fallacy in categorizing the apostasy (riddah)—a non-derogable right—verdicted as a blasphemy in Islam. By reconceptualizing the Islamic meaning of religious freedom, this study applied document analysis to enrich the contemporary Islamist studies, especially to postulate the significant relationship between Islam and human rights and to argue that Islam actually legitimized religious freedom as one of the non-derogable rights.

Significance Any Trump-Rouhani meeting would undoubtedly involve discussion of religion and politics, since these issues have set both governments at odds since the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979. This is important, since the nature of the influence that religion is having on US foreign policy is changing under Trump’s administration. The administration has often downplayed the role of ‘values’ (understood to be the promotion of democracy and human rights) in foreign policy. Now, religious freedom is emerging as a values framework. Religion is also used more frequently to justify the administration’s policies towards complicated issues including Iran and Syria, and counterterrorism. Impacts Defense Secretary James Mattis would likely oppose any attempt at regime change in Iran. Emphasising religious freedom will play well to pro-evangelical voters, likely most benefitting Republicans. The administration will increase funding for anti-genocide and anti-religious-persecution measures. Perceptions that the Trump administration is ‘anti-Muslim’ could constrain it advancing foreign policy in Muslim countries. US sanctions could be imposed on religious grounds, which could affect US and other investors.


2021 ◽  
pp. 36-51
Author(s):  
Dmytro Sharovych ◽  
Ivanna Maryniv

Problem setting. Islam is the youngest Abrahamic religion in the world. Its beginning was laid in the first half of the VII century AD on the territory of the Arabian Peninsula. The Islamic world is a unique regional phenomenon that causes many people to have different and in some cases even opposing views. The issue of human rights in the Islamic world is also much debated. Every day we receive information about the systematic violation of the honor and dignity of a certain category of the population (women, children) in the region. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The article uses the works of well-known experts in the field of Sharia and legal systems of Muslim countries such as: Syukiyaynen L. R., Abdullah ibn Abd al-Mukhsin at-Turki, Zhdanov N. V., Abashidze A. Kh., Abdul Aziiz Olaemi and others. Special attention is paid to the concepts of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Target of research. The objective of this work is a general overview of the concept of human rights in the Islamic world. Article`s main body. Analyzed the issues of human rights in different countries where Sharia has a significant impact on their systems of law, namely: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The article notes that despite the significant impact of Sharia law on the legal systems of the above countries, certain human rights standards differ between them. Also, the article reveals the first practice of codifying human rights in muslim insight - the General Islamic Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the non-governmental organization Islamic Council in Europe. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (until 2012 - the Organization of the Islamic Conference) (hereinafter - OIC) - is an international intergovernmental organization whose members are representatives of the Muslim world. Thus, the explored activity of the international intergovernmental organization in the field of human rights, namely the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which unites all Muslim countries of the world and in its activities is guided by the principles of Sharia. The study of the activities of this organization in the field of human rights contains an analysis of sectoral acts (for example, the Dhaka and Cairo Declarations), a study of the activities of bodies of special (Independent Permanent Commission on Human Rights) and general (Islamic Summit) competencies and other issues that relate to the mechanism of promoting and protecting human rights. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The authors came to the conclusion that the concept of human rights in the Islamic world is quite heterogeneous, even in comparison between countries where Sharia is dominant. The authors note the special role of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation as a leading basis in the Islamic doctrine of human rights, as this organization unites all Muslim countries into one monolithic bloc, which leads to the formation of a single Muslim autonomous will, which includes all national doctrines and approaches.


TAJDID ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Hasan Bisri

The concept of wilâyat al-faqîh from Imam Khomeini was one of the products of Islamic thought. It has revive discourse on Islamic studies in various parts of the Islamic world. It is not only become a threat to the status quo of the Muslim rulers, in fact it has been raising the academic and scholarly discussion in the forums of national, regional, and international levels. The influence of  the concept of wilâyat al-faqîh from Imam Khomeini to contemporary Islamic thought in Indonesia looked on discourse about the relation between religion and state. Indeed, the debate on religion-state relations have long occurred in Indonesia, but in academic discourse becomes increasingly crowded since the concept of wilâyat al-faqîh serve as the basis for the establishment of the Islamic State of Iran by Imam Khomeini. Effect the concept of wilâyat al-faqîh in contemporary Indonesian Islamic thought encouraged by the publication of books by/about Imam Khoemini and about Shia in general and the development of Shi'i institutions in Indonesia.


This volume reframes the debate around Islam and women’s rights within a broader comparative literature. It examines the complex and contingent historical relationships between religion, secularism, democracy, law, and gender equality. Part I addresses the nexus of religion, law, gender, and democracy through different disciplinary perspectives (sociology, anthropology, political science, law). Part II localizes the implementation of this nexus between law, gender, and democracy, and provides contextualized responses to questions raised in Part I. The contributors explore the situation of Muslim women’s rights vis-à-vis human rights to shed light on gender politics in the modernization of the nation and to ponder over the role of Islam in gender inequality across different Muslim countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cekli Setya Pratiwi ◽  
Sidik Sunaryo

Abstract Blasphemy law (BL) has become a central issue for the international community in various parts of the world in the last three decades. In almost every case involving the BL, especially in Muslim countries, such as Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia, they are always responded with violence or threats of attack that cause many victims, loss of homes, damage to places of worship, evictions, stigma of being heretical, severe punishments, or extra-judicial killings. When international human rights law (IHLR) and declaration of the right to peace are adopted by the international community, at the same time, the number of violence related to the application of BL continues to increase. This paper aims to examine the ambiguity of the concept of the BL in Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and how its lead to the weak of enforcement that creates social injustice and inequality. Then, referring to Galtung’s theory of structural violence and other experts of peace studies, this paper argues that blasphemy law should be included as a form of structural violence. Therefore its challenges these States to reform their BL in which its provisions accommodate the state’s neutrality and content high legal standards. Thus, through guarantee the fully enjoyment of human rights for everyone may support the States to achieve sustainable peace.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-53
Author(s):  
Kaushik Paul

In recent years, the wearing of Islamic dress in public spaces and elsewhere has generated widespread controversy all over Europe. The wearing of the hijab and other Islamic veils has been the subject of adjudication before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on many occasions. The most recent case before the ECtHR as to the prohibition on wearing the hijab is Lachiri v Belgium. In this case, the ECtHR held that a prohibition on wearing the hijab in the courtroom constitutes an infringement of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which guarantees the right to freedom of religion or belief. From the perspective of religious freedom, the ruling of the Strasbourg Court in Lachiri is very significant for many reasons. The purpose of this comment is critically to analyse the ECtHR's decision in Lachiri from the standpoint of religious liberty.


2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen Temperman

AbstractThis article suggests a signicant correlation between the notions of state neutrality and religious freedom. The absence of a considerable degree of state neutrality has a detrimental effect on human rights compliance. Under states which identify themselves strongly with a single religious denomination as well as under states which identify themselves negatively in relation to religion, there is no scope for human rights compliance. Both extreme types of state–religion identication are characterised by repression of all beliefs and manifestations thereof which do not correspond with the state sanctioned view on belief. This may be either the upholding of a specic religious denomination or of militant ideological secularism. Consequently, discrimination and marginalisation rather than compliance with the norms of freedom of religion and the promotion of non-discrimination comprise policy and practice under these regimes. Intermediate forms of state–religion afliation, i.e. types of identication in which the state is not drenched with the excluding ideals of a single denomination or with anti-religious sentiments, allow for a degree of democratic inclusion of religious difference and of religious tolerance. The most substantial scope for full compliance, however, lies in the combination of democratic inclusion of people from different religions and the indispensable political commitment characterised as state neutrality with respect to all people. State neutrality refers to a regime of state–religion identi cation that can best be understood as 'accommodative non-partisanship'.


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