Download or read book Human Rights Between Universality and Islamic Legitimacy written by Mahmoud Bassiouni and published by . This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Historically, the dynamics underlying contemporary Muslim human rights discourse and the related question of identity can be traced back to the second half of the nineteenth century. Faced with European superiority and aware of their own need for reform, Muslim intellectuals pondered how to explain the stagnation of Islamic societies and what initiatives were needed to bring about the desired progress. Many Muslims were troubled not only by Europe's material superiority, but also by the sense of inferiority they felt in the face of Europe's ideological defamation of Islamic societies. "Any person," wrote the French philosopher Ernest Renan in 1883, "with a modicum of instruction in the affairs of our time clearly sees the current inferiority of Muslim countries, the decadence of the states governed by Islam, the intellectual nonentity of the races that derive their culture and education solely from this religion." Thus, the idea of reform derived its impetus from an ideological challenge that saw the causes of Muslim stagnation as residing in Islam and identified the latter as inhibiting, or even blocking, the progress of Islamic societies. Accordingly, the crisis of the Muslim search for identity unfolded in response to the question of how to define oneself in relation to Europe and what role Islam should play in this regard. In a broader sense, Muslims were confronted with the basic questions of political philosophy: What principles should we live by, and where do we derive these principles from? Can the principles of a modern society be derived from Islam? Or is it necessary to refer to the ideas and institutions of Europe? To what extent can we then still define ourselves as Muslims in relation to Europe? In response to these questions, three broad currents of thought can be identified. 2.1 Trialogue of Identities Echoing the European position, a secularist school of thought believed that Muslims, by virtue of their religion, were intellectually incapable of developing progressive thought in the European sense. According to this view, Islam was fundamentally incompatible with science and modern civilization. Muslims should therefore accept European modernity as the ultimate frame of reference and assimilate to Europe as much as possible. Politically, this assimilationist stance became most prominent in Turkey. In contrast, a second, much broader current of thought, which might be called traditionalist, argued that the plight of Muslims was due to colonization and oppression by the European West. According to this view, the stagnation of Islamic societies was caused by the exercise of European imperial power, to which Muslims had fallen victim, so that adopting European ideas would be tantamount to intellectual capitulation. Rather, Muslims should seek and rediscover their strength in their own past. The only way to express one's true identity, according to this argument, is to return to one's own tradition"--

Download or read book Human Rights with Modesty The Problem of Universalism written by and published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. This book was released on 2004-08-01 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume considers the problem of legal universals at the level of the rule of law and human rights, which have fundamentally different pedigrees, and attempts to come to terms with the new unease arising from the universal application of human rights. Given the juridicization of human rights, rule of law and human rights expectations have become significantly intertwined: human rights are enforced with the instruments of the rule of law and are thus limited by the restricted reach thereof. The first section of this volume considers the difficulties of universalistic claims and offers a number of possible solutions for adapting universal expectations to specific contexts. The second section considers problems of human rights politics; sections three and four present empirical studies about the appearance and disappearance of the rule of law and fundamental rights in Western and non-Western societies. Special attention is paid to the problems of developing countries, with a specific focus on past and present developments in Iran. These empirical studies indicate that the acceptance of human rights and the rule of law is historically contingent and cannot simply be considered as a matter of culture.

Download or read book Islam and the Challenge of Human Rights written by Abdulaziz Sachedina and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-11-05 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the International Declaration of Human Rights, a document designed to hold both individuals and nations accountable for their treatment of fellow human beings, regardless of religious or cultural affiliations. Since then, the compatibility of Islam and human rights has emerged as a particularly thorny issue of international concern, and has been addressed by Muslim rulers, conservatives, and extremists, as well as Western analysts and policymakers; all have commonly agreed that Islamic theology and human rights cannot coexist. Abdulaziz Sachedina rejects this informal consensus, arguing instead for the essential compatibility of Islam and human rights. He offers a balanced and incisive critique of Western experts who have ignored or underplayed the importance of religion to the development of human rights, contending that any theory of universal rights necessarily emerges out of particular cultural contexts. At the same time, he re-examines the juridical and theological traditions that form the basis of conservative Muslim objections to human rights, arguing that Islam, like any culture, is open to development and change. Finally, and most importantly, Sachedina articulates a fresh position that argues for a correspondence between Islam and secular notions of human rights.

Download or read book Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry written by Michael Ignatieff and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-12-28 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Ignatieff draws on his extensive experience as a writer and commentator on world affairs to present a penetrating account of the successes, failures, and prospects of the human rights revolution. Since the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, this revolution has brought the world moral progress and broken the nation-state's monopoly on the conduct of international affairs. But it has also faced challenges. Ignatieff argues that human rights activists have rightly drawn criticism from Asia, the Islamic world, and within the West itself for being overambitious and unwilling to accept limits. It is now time, he writes, for activists to embrace a more modest agenda and to reestablish the balance between the rights of states and the rights of citizens. Ignatieff begins by examining the politics of human rights, assessing when it is appropriate to use the fact of human rights abuse to justify intervention in other countries. He then explores the ideas that underpin human rights, warning that human rights must not become an idolatry. In the spirit of Isaiah Berlin, he argues that human rights can command universal assent only if they are designed to protect and enhance the capacity of individuals to lead the lives they wish. By embracing this approach and recognizing that state sovereignty is the best guarantee against chaos, Ignatieff concludes, Western nations will have a better chance of extending the real progress of the past fifty years. Throughout, Ignatieff balances idealism with a sure sense of practical reality earned from his years of travel in zones of war and political turmoil around the globe. Based on the Tanner Lectures that Ignatieff delivered at Princeton University's Center for Human Values in 2000, the book includes two chapters by Ignatieff, an introduction by Amy Gutmann, comments by four leading scholars--K. Anthony Appiah, David A. Hollinger, Thomas W. Laqueur, and Diane F. Orentlicher--and a response by Ignatieff.

Download or read book Rescuing Human Rights written by Hurst Hannum and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-14 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focuses on understanding human rights as they really are and their proper role in international affairs.

Download or read book The Organization of Islamic Cooperation written by Turan Kayaoglu and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-05-22 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the world’s leading international Islamic organization. Turan Kayaoglu provides the first accessible and concise introduction and overview of this important organization. This book details the OIC’s struggle to address popular Muslim demands balanced against the member states’ reluctance to support the OIC politically and materially. Despite this predicament, the organization has made itself increasingly relevant over the last decade through increasing its visibility as the representative body of Muslim unity and promoting its role as a reliable interlocutor on behalf of Muslims in global society. Outlining the history, workings and goals of the OIC, the book also highlights key issues that may influence the OIC’s ability to realize its potential in the future. This will be of great interest to students and scholars of international relations, international organizations and islamic studies.

Download or read book Human Rights Universality and Diversity written by Eva Brems and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-10-18 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

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 Human Rights in Islam written by Syed Abul ʻAla Maudoodi and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A short exposition of the value and concept of human rights in Islam as noted in the Quran and Sunnah

Download or read book The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the 21st Century written by Gordon Brown and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2016-04-18 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Global Citizenship Commission was convened, under the leadership of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the auspices of NYU’s Global Institute for Advanced Study, to re-examine the spirit and stirring words of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The result – this volume – offers a 21st-century commentary on the original document, furthering the work of human rights and illuminating the ideal of global citizenship. What does it mean for each of us to be members of a global community? Since 1948, the Declaration has stood as a beacon and a standard for a better world. Yet the work of making its ideals real is far from over. Hideous and systemic human rights abuses continue to be perpetrated at an alarming rate around the world. Too many people, particularly those in power, are hostile to human rights or indifferent to their claims. Meanwhile, our global interdependence deepens. Bringing together world leaders and thinkers in the fields of politics, ethics, and philosophy, the Commission set out to develop a common understanding of the meaning of global citizenship – one that arises from basic human rights and empowers every individual in the world. This landmark report affirms the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and seeks to renew the 1948 enterprise, and the very ideal of the human family, for our day and generation.

Download or read book The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Human Rights written by Marie Juul Petersen and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2019-07-05 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Established in 1969, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is an intergovernmental organization the purpose of which is the strengthening of solidarity among Muslims. Headquartered in Jeddah, the OIC today consists of fifty seven states from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The OIC's longevity and geographic reach, combined with its self-proclaimed role as the United Nations of the Muslim world, raise certain expectations as to its role in global human rights politics. However, to date, these hopes have been unfulfilled. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Human Rights sets out to demonstrate the potential and shortcomings of the OIC and the obstacles on the paths it has navigated. Historically, the OIC has had a complicated relationship with the international human rights regime. Palestinian self-determination was an important catalyst for the founding of the OIC, but the OIC did not develop a comprehensive human rights approach in its first decades. In fact, human rights issues were rarely, if at all, mentioned at the organization's summits or annual conferences of foreign ministers. Instead, the OIC tended to focus on protecting Islamic holy sites and strengthening economic cooperation among member states. As other international and regional organizations expanded the international human rights system in the 1990s, the OIC began to pay greater attention to human rights, although not always in a manner that aligned with Western conceptions. This volume provides essential empirical and theoretical insights into OIC practices, contemporary challenges to human rights, intergovernmental organizations, and global Islam. Essays by some of the world's leading scholars examine the OIC's human rights activities at different levels—in the UN, the organization's own institutions, and at the member-state level—and assess different aspects of the OIC's approach, identifying priority areas of involvement and underlying conceptions of human rights. Contributors: Hirah Azhar, Mashood A. Baderin, Anthony Tirado Chase, Ioana Cismas, Moataz El Fegiery, Turan Kayaoglu, Martin Lestra, Ann Elizabeth Mayer, Mahmood Monshipouri, Marie Juul Petersen, Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek, Heiní Skorini, M. Evren Tok.

Download or read book Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference written by Brooke A. Ackerly and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-26 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the diverse work and often competing insights of women's human rights activists, Brooke Ackerly has written a feminist and a universal theory of human rights that bridges the relativists' concerns about universalizing from particulars and the activists' commitment to justice. Unlike universal theories that rely on shared commitments to divine authority or to an 'enlightened' way of reasoning, Ackerly's theory relies on rigorous methodological attention to difference and disagreement. She sets out human rights as at once a research ethic, a tool for criticism of injustice and a call to recognize our obligations to promote justice through our actions. This book will be of great interest to political theorists, feminist and gender studies scholars and researchers of social movements.

Download or read book UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies written by Leena Grover and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-16 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of the UN human rights treaty bodies, their methods of interpretation, their effectiveness and issues of legitimacy.

Download or read book Asian Perspectives On Human Rights written by Claude Welch and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-28 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes Asian perspectives on human rights in terms of cultural traditions, grassroots and regional organizations, and economic constraints on the expression of rights. The book asks: are human rights western in their inception, are they universal or do they differ by region and culture.

Download or read book Islam and Human Rights written by Muhammad Zafrulla Khan and published by . This book was released on 2022-06-27 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: was an eminent scholar in the field of comparative religion. He was appointed Foreign Minister of Pakistan in 1947; for many years he led the Pakistan Delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations, and he was President of the General Assembly's Seventeenth Session. Since then he has served as Judge and President of the International Court of Justice at the Hague. He is the author of a number of books about Islam and about its comparison with other faiths.

Download or read book The Culturalization of Human Rights Law written by Federico Lenzerini and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International human rights law was originally focused on universal individual rights. This text examines the developments which have seen it change to a multi-cultural approach, one more sensitive to the cultures of the people directly affected by them. It argues that this can provide benefits, but that aspects of universalism must be retained.

Download or read book Why Religion Towards a Critical Philosophy of Law Peace and God written by Dawid Bunikowski and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-02-11 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the relation between religion and jurisprudence, God, and peace respectively. It argues that in order to elucidate the possible role religion can play in the contemporary world, it is useful to analyse religion by associating it with other concepts. Why peace? Because peace is probably the greatest promise made by religions and the greatest concern in the contemporary world. Why jurisprudence? Because, quoting Kelsen’s famous book "Peace through Law", peace is usually understood as something achievable by international legal instruments. But what if we replace "Peace through Law" with "Peace through Religion"? Does law, as an instrument for achieving peace, incorporate a religious dimension? Is law, ultimately, a religious and normative construction oriented to peace, to the protection of humanity, in order to keep humans from the violence of nature? Is the hope for peace rational, or just a question of faith? Is religion itself a question of faith or a rational choice? Is the relatively recent legal concept of “responsibility to protect” a secular expression of the oldest duty of humankind? The book follows the structure of interdisciplinary research in which the international legal scholar, the moral philosopher, the philosopher of religion, the theologian, and the political scientist contribute to the construction of the necessary bridges. Moreover, it gives voice to different monotheistic traditions and, more importantly, it analyses religion in the various dimensions in which it determines the authors' cultures: as a set of rituals, as a source of moral norms, as a universal project for peace, and as a political discourse.