Download or read book Religious Freedom in Islam written by Daniel Philpott and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since at least the attacks of September 11, 2001, one of the most pressing political questions of the age has been whether Islam is hostile to religious freedom. Daniel Philpott examines conditions on the ground in forty-seven Muslim-majority countries today and offers an honest, clear-eyed answer to this urgent question. It is not, however, a simple answer. From a satellite view, the Muslim world looks unfree. But, Philpott shows, the truth is much more complex. Some one-fourth of Muslim-majority countries are in fact religiously free. Of the other countries, about forty percent are governed not by Islamists but by a hostile secularism imported from the West, while the other sixty percent are Islamist. The picture that emerges is both honest and hopeful. Yes, most Muslim-majority countries are lacking in religious freedom. But, Philpott argues, the Islamic tradition carries within it "seeds of freedom," and he offers guidance for how to cultivate those seeds in order to expand religious freedom in the Muslim world and the world at large. It is an urgent project. Religious freedom promotes goods like democracy and the advancement of women that are lacking in the Muslim-majority world and reduces ills like civil war, terrorism, and violence. Further, religious freedom is simply a matter of justice--not an exclusively Western value, but rather a universal right rooted in human nature. Its realization is critical to the aspirations of religious minorities and dissenters in Muslim countries, to Muslims living in non-Muslim countries or under secular dictatorships, and to relations between the West and the Muslim world. In this thoughtful book, Philpott seeks to establish a constructive middle ground in a fiery and long-lasting debate over Islam.

Download or read book Freedom of Religion Apostasy and Islam written by Abdullah Saeed and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Debate on freedom of religion as a human right takes place not only in the Western world but also in Muslim communities throughout the world. For Muslims concerned for this freedom, one of the major difficulties is the 'punishment for apostasy' - death for those who desert Islam. This book argues that the law of apostasy and its punishment by death in Islamic law is untenable in the modern period. Apostasy conflicts with a variety of foundation texts of Islam and with the current ethos of human rights, in particular the freedom to choose one's religion. Demonstrating the early development of the law of apostasy as largely a religio-political tool, the authors show the diversity of opinion among early Muslims on the punishment, highlighting the substantial ambiguities about what constitutes apostasy, the problematic nature of some of the key textual evidence on which the punishment of apostasy is based, and the neglect of a vast amount of clear Qur'anic texts in favour of freedom of religion in the construction of the law of apostasy. Examining the significant challenges the punishment of apostasy faces in the modern period inside and outside Muslim communities - exploring in particular how apostasy and its punishment is dealt with in a multi-religious Muslim majority country, Malaysia, and the challenges and difficulties it faces there - the authors discuss arguments by prominent Muslims today for an absolute freedom of religion and for discarding the punishment of apostasy.

Download or read book The Right to Freedom of Religion Belief written by and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the geographical diversity of the Muslim world stretches from Europe to Africa, through the Middle East and into Asia, this region mirrors a central finding of this study - that predominantly Muslim countries include an array of constitutional measures addressing the role of Islam and the scope of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief, and other related human rights.THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF RELIGION & BELIEF analyzes these constitutional measures currently in place related to the relationship between religion and the state in addition to freedom of religion or belief in predominantly Muslim countries.Issued in March 2005 as The Religion-State Relationship and the Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Comparative Textual Analysis of the Constitutions of Predominantly Muslim Countries, this report was originally prepared by Tad Stahnke, J.D., Deputy Director for Policy; and Robert C. Blitt, M.A., J.D., LL.M., Legal Policy Analyst of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).USCIRF is an independent federal commission created the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and relation or belief abroad and to give independent recommendations to the Secretary of State and Congress. For additional information about the Commission, please visit www.uscirf.gov.

Download or read book Religion Human Rights and International Law written by Javaid Rehman and published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. This book was released on 2007 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freedom of religion is a subject, which has throughout human history been a source of profound disagreements and conflict. In the modern era, religious-based intolerance continues to provide lacerative and tormenting concern to the possibility of congenial human relationships. As the present study examines, religions have been relied upon to perpetuate discrimination and inequalities, and to victimise minorities to the point of forcible assimilation and genocide. The study provides an overview of the complexities inherent in the freedom of religion within international law and an analysis of the cultural-religious relativist debate in contemporary human rights law. As many of the chapters examine, Islamic State practices have been a major source of concern. In the backdrop of the events of 11 September 2001, a considerable focus of this volume is upon the Muslim world, either through the emergent State practices and existing constitutional structures within Muslim majority States or through Islamic diasporic communities resident in Europe and North-America.

Download or read book Islamic Law and International Human Rights Law written by Anver M. Emon and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship between Islamic law and international human rights law has been the subject of considerable, and heated, debate in recent years. The usual starting point has been to test one system by the standards of the other, asking is Islamic law 'compatible' with international human rights standards, or vice versa. This approach quickly ends in acrimony and accusations of misunderstanding. By overlaying one set of norms on another we overlook the deeply contextual nature of how legal rules operate in a society, and meaningful comparison and discussion is impossible. In this volume, leading experts in Islamic law and international human rights law attempt to deepen the understanding of human rights and Islam, paving the way for a more meaningful debate. Focusing on central areas of controversy, such as freedom of speech and religion, gender equality, and minority rights, the authors examine the contextual nature of how Islamic law and international human rights law are legitimately formed, interpreted, and applied within a community. They examine how these fundamental interests are recognized and protected within the law, and what restrictions are placed on the freedoms associated with them. By examining how each system recognizes and limits fundamental freedoms, this volume clears the ground for exploring the relationship between Islamic law and international human rights law on a sounder footing. In doing so it offers a challenging and distinctive contribution to the literature on the subject, and will be an invaluable reference for students, academics, and policy-makers engaged in the legal and religious debates surrounding Islam and the West.

Download or read book Religious Legal Traditions International Human Rights Law and Muslim States written by Kamran Hashemi and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-08-31 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an exploration of aspects of the subject, Islam and Human Rights, which is the focus of considerable scholarship in recent years predominantly from Western scholars. Thus it is interesting and important to have the field addressed from a non -Western perspective and by an Iranian scholar. The study draws on Persian language literature that addresses both theological and legal dimensions of the theme. The work is also distinctive in that it tackles three areas that have been largely ignored in the literature. It undertakes a comparative study of the laws of several Muslim States with respect to religious freedom, minorities and the rights of the child. The study offers an optimistic vision of the fundamental compatibility of Islam and international human rights standards.

Download or read book When Islam Is Not a Religion written by Asma T Uddin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Muslim religious liberty lawyer Asma Uddin has long considered her work defending people of all faiths to be a calling more than a job. Yet even as she seeks equal protection for Evangelicals, Sikhs, Muslims, Native Americans, Jews, and Catholics alike, she has seen an ominous increase in attempts to criminalize Islam and exclude Muslim Americans from those protections.Somehow, the view that Muslims aren’t human enough for human rights or constitutional protections is moving from the fringe to the mainstream—along with the claim “Islam is not a religion.” This conceit is not just a threat to the First Amendment rights of American Muslims. It is a threat to the freedom of all Americans.Her new book reveals a significant but overlooked danger to our religious liberty. Woven throughout this national saga is Uddin’s own story and the stories of American Muslims and other people of faith who have faced tremendous indignities as they attempt to live and worship freely.Combining her experience of Islam as a religious truth and her legal and philosophical appreciation that all individuals have a right to religious liberty, Uddin examines the shifting tides of American culture and outlines a way forward for individuals and communities navigating today’s culture wars.

Download or read book Religious Liberty in Western and Islamic Law written by Kristine Kalanges and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-04 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Religious Liberty in Western and Islamic Law: Toward a World Legal Tradition, Kristine Kalanges argues that differences between Western and Islamic legal formulations of religious freedom are attributable, in substantial part, to variations in their respective religious and intellectual histories. Kalanges suggests that while divergence between the two bodies of law challenges the characterization of religious liberty as a universal human right, the "dilemma of religious freedom" - the difficult choice between the universality of religious liberty rights and peaceful co-existence of diverse legal cultures - may yet be transformed through the cultivation of a world legal tradition. This argument is advanced through comparative analysis of human rights instruments from the Western and Muslim worlds, with attention to the legal-political processes by which religious and philosophical ideas have been institutionalized.

Download or read book The Changing Nature of Religious Rights Under International Law written by Malcolm David Evans and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The right to freedom of religion or belief has become a matter of increasing controversy, both politically and in international law. This book provides a detailed assessment of the right in its contemporary context, analysing its current status, the impact of the 1981 Declaration, and the challenges facing the continued existence of the right.

Download or read book The Rule of Law Freedom of Expression and Islamic Law written by Hossein Esmaeili and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-12-14 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The importance of the rule of law is universally recognised and of fundamental value for most societies. Establishing and promoting the rule of law in the Muslim world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, has become a pressing but complicated issue. These states have Muslim majority populations, and the religion of Islam has an important role in the traditional structures of their societies. While the Muslim world is taking gradual steps towards the establishment of rule of law systems, most Muslim majority countries may not yet have effective legal systems with independent judiciaries, which would allow the state and institutions to be controlled by an effective rule of law system. One important aspect of the rule of law is freedom of expression. Given the sensitivity of Muslim societies in relation to their sacred beliefs, freedom of expression, as an international human rights issue, has raised some controversial cases. This book, drawing on both International and Islamic Law, explores the rule of law, and freedom of expression and its practical application in the Muslim world.

Download or read book Human Rights and Islam written by Abdullah Saeed and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-27 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there a basis for human rights in Islam? Beginning with an exploration of what rights are and how the human rights discourse developed, Abdullah Saeed explores the resources that exist within Islamic tradition. He looks at those that are compatible with international human rights law and can be garnered to promote and protect human rights in Muslim-majority states. A number of rights are given specific focus, including the rights of women and children, freedom of expression and religion, as well as jihad and the laws of war. Human Rights and Islam emphasises the need for Muslims to rethink problematic areas of Islamic thought that are difficult to reconcile with contemporary conceptions of human rights.

Download or read book Islam and Good Governance written by M. A. Muqtedar Khan and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-04-08 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book advances an Islamic political philosophy based on the concept of Ihsan, which means to do beautiful things. The author moves beyond the dominant model of Islamic governance advanced by modern day Islamists. The political philosophy of Ihsan privileges process over structure, deeds over identity, love over law and mercy and forgiveness over retribution. The work invites Muslims to move away from thinking about the form of Islamic government and to strive to create a self-critical society that defends national virtue and generates institutions and practices that provide good governance.

Download or read book Religions and Constitutional Transitions in the Muslim Mediterranean written by Alessandro Ferrari and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the role of Islam and religious freedom in the constitutional transitions of six North African and Middle Eastern countries, namely Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, and Palestine. In particular, the book, with an interdisciplinary approach, investigates the role of Islam as a political, institutional and societal force. Issues covered include: the role played by Islam as a constitutional reference – a "static force" able to strengthen and legitimize the entire constitutional order; Islam as a political reference used by some political parties in their struggle to acquire political power; and Islam as a specific religion that, like other religions in the area, embodies diverse perspectives on the nature and role of religious freedom in society. The volume provides insight about the political dimension of Islam, as used by political forces, as well as the religious dimension of Islam. This provides a new and wider perspective able to take into account the increasing social pluralism of the South-Mediterranean region. By analyzing three different topics – Islam and constitutionalism, religious political parties, and religious freedom – the book offers a dynamic picture of the role played by Islam and religious freedom in the process of state-building in a globalized age in which human rights and pluralism are crucial dimensions.

Download or read book Religion as Empowerment written by Kyriaki Topidi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-10 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume shows how and why legal empowerment is important for those exercising their religious rights under various jurisdictions, in conditions of legal pluralism. At the same time, it also questions the thesis that as societies become more modern, they also become less religious. The authors look beyond the rule of law orthodoxy in their consideration of the freedom of religion as a human right and place this discussion in a more plurality-sensitive context. The book sheds more light on the informal and/or customary mechanisms that explain the limited impact of law on individuals and groups, especially in non-Western societies. The focus is on discussing how religion and the exercise of religious rights may or may not empower individuals and social groups and improve access to human rights in general. This book is important reading for academics and practitioners of law and religion, religious rights, religious diversity and cultural difference, as well as NGOs, policy makers, lawyers and advocates at multicultural jurisdictions. It offers a contemporary take on comparative legal studies, with a distinct focus on religion as an identity marker.

Download or read book Current Issues in Law and Religion written by Silvio Ferrari and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on issues that have only recently come to the forefront of the discipline such as freedom from religion, ordination of homosexuals, apostasy, security and fundamentalism, issues that are linked to the common themes of secularism and globalization. Although these subjects are not new to the academic debate, they have become prominent in law and religion circles as a result of recent and rapid changes in society. The essays in this volume present multiple points of view, facilitate scholars in understanding this evolving discipline and act as a stimulus for further research.This collection gives the reader a sense of the key topics and current debates in law and religion and is of interest to law, politics, human rights, and religion scholars.

Download or read book Public Freedoms in the Islamic State written by Rached Ghannouchi and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Available now for the first time in English, the most important work of one of the great moderate political leaders of the Muslim world Rached Ghannouchi has long been known as a reformist or moderate Islamist thinker. In Public Freedoms in the Islamic State, his most influential book, he argues that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—in its broad outlines—should be widely accepted by Muslims under the correct interpretation of Islamic law and theology. Under his theory of the purposes of Shari‘a, justice and human welfare are not exclusive to Islamic governance, and the objectives of Islamic law can be advanced in multiple ways. Appearing in English translation here for the first time, this book is a major statement by one of the most important political theorists in the modern Middle East.

Download or read book Religious Minorities Islam and the Law written by Al Khanif and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the legal conundrum of reconciling international human rights law in a Muslim majority country and identifies a trajectory for negotiating the protection of religious minorities within Islam. The work explores the history of religious minorities within Islam in Indonesia, which contains the world’s largest Muslim population, as well as the present-day ways by which the government may address issues through reconciling international human rights law and Islamic law. Given the context of multiple sets of religious norms in Indonesia, this is a complicated endeavour. In addition to amending and enacting human rights norms, the government is also negotiating with the long history of Islamisation in Indonesia. Particularly relevant is the practice of customary law, which puts the rights of community over individualism. This practice directly affects the rights of religious minorities within Islam. Readers, especially those conducting research, will also be provided with information and references which are relevant to the field of human rights, especially in relation to religious minorities and international law. The book will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers in the fields of International Human Rights Law, Law and Religion, and Islamic Studies.