Islam and Human Rights: Contemporary Controversies

Islam and Human Rights: Contemporary Controversies
For many around the world, there is a fear that Islamic Law seeks to greatly restrict freedoms and “human rights.” This is one of the first objections raised whenever any country proposes the idea of implementing Islamic Law. Such reactions have occurred in Pakistan, Nigeria, Mauritania and Algerian in the past. In fact, according to Baderin, “Such apprehension is believed to have also contributed to the abortion of the democratization process in Algeria in 1992 through a military takeover, when it appeared that the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) would emerge victorious in the overall elections.”

It has been the thesis of this author that Islam and the contemporary human rights paradigm are two very separate and distinct entities. In fact, one could say that they have competing claims about humans and what is best for them. The last two chapters have demonstrated the great divide between the two approaches. This chapter shall deal with some recent controversies surrounding the issue of Islam and human rights. It will seek to discuss how much Islam supposedly violates the contemporary human rights platform by discussing some very visible cases. It will seek to determine how much of the current debate has been nothing more than hype and how much are true impasses.

The discussion will first center on a controversial issue that has been decided by a number of courts in France and Europe as a whole, long considered the bastions of the human rights movement. Drawing from some of the arguments and conclusions from that experience, the same sorts of arguments will be applied to some particular controversial issues related to Islam, in particular apostasy and freedom of speech.

The author would further like to point out that this chapter is being finalized shortly after the killing of Marwa Sherbini in Germany (apparently simply because of her Muslim dress and with an astonishing lack of response on the part of the German government as she was killed within a German courtroom) and after the very negative statements of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s about the Muslim woman’s dress. Perhaps, this chapter should begin with some comment on the question of the Muslim woman.

It is amazing how some feminist writers speak about the pressure on Muslim women to wear the hijab (Muslim women’s dress) and they could consider this societal pressure as a violation of her human rights.  At the same time, though, none of them seem to mention the great societal pressure on Muslim women to discard the hijab. This pressure comes within Muslim societies, as they are told that wearing hijab is a sign of backwardness , as well as within the “free” countries of the West, where some Muslim women face ridicule or truly fear for their safety if they dress in hijab in public. This author can attest from personal experience that the number of Muslim women who feel that way is not small at all. In fact, M. Parris argues that “social disapproval would be enough to discourage the veils.”  Certainly, if one argues against the first scenario as a violation of human rights then this also must be considered a violation of their human rights, but for some reason this is not commented upon. Thus, McGoldrick can make a statement like the following, “[The veil] can in certain circumstances be an instrument of oppression”  while never making a statement like, “Prohibiting the veil can be an instrument of oppression.” Furthermore, the Muslim woman’s dress has become, once again, one of those paradoxes of human rights. Human rights advocates are fighting against the “freedom” to wear the hijab in the name of defending human rights. Thus, the French philosopher Bernard-Henry Levy said, “The fight against the veil is for the liberty of women and therefore for human rights.”

It is in the light of this type of atmosphere the human rights advocates continue to speak about Islam’s contradictions with human rights theory. The serious question being posed here is: Does the human rights movement seemingly look the other way when it is “human rights proponents” who take stances that would not be acceptable when done in the name of Islam or in the name of any other religion for that matter?