Islam and Human Rights

Every individual deserves to have basic human rights regardless of their religion, culture or socio-economic background. In recent times however, there have been questions about weather Islam provides these basic human rights to its followers and the followers of other religions under Muslim rule. The search for the truth behind the religion has increased since 9/11 and 7/7, the findings rather unexpected for some, to whom the religion was alien before the catastrophic terrorist attacks.

Most Islamic states formulated only within the last century; while the Western World has been through the process of consistent development for many centuries. A country such as Pakistan, which has equal voting rights for both men and women and was only formulated in 1947, has done when you compare it to Greece where the democratic process first came into existence in at least 508 BC; women had to wait till 1952 (more than 2000 years) till they were given the right to vote). Even in Britain there was a gap of over 100 years between men and women getting the right to vote.

Also, there is the question on what is a human right. What we in the West may perceive as a human right may not be considered a human right in other parts of the world.

Many human rights, such as the right to life, freedom, justice along with almost all of the rights mentioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are also given to all humans, regardless of their religion, in Islam. These rights are mentioned in many versus of the Quran (Muslim holy Book), the Hadith (Sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, P.B.U.H.) and also the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights 1981.

There is one key difference between the Western Understanding of democracy and the Islamic understanding: Sovereignty. In the Western understanding, Sovereignty is embedded in the head of state or the legislature. However in Islam there is a vital difference. Sovereignty is not with the legislature of the Head of State, but rather with God. As Sayyed Sulaiman Nadvi said “To Allah belongs the sovereignty of the Heavens and the Earth.” This concept in theory can be seen in practice (in theory at least) in the 1973 constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, which begins with the statement that sovereignty belongs to Allah and that the governments shall only exercise it's powers within limits prescribed by Allah.

This difference may seem extravagant, but when looked at closely it is not that big a difference at all. One could even say it is no different to the US system of government whereby every new legislation has to be in the spirit of the constitution. There are effectively two constitutions within an Islamic state, one being a religious constitutional and one being a political constitution. The religious one is not in codified form but rather just an understanding of not contradicting Islam.

When we understand that Islam gives the same rights as the Western legislation and declarations of human rights, it in essence means that there is no real contradiction between Islam and the Human Rights regime, they in fact both stand for the same principles. And any Islamic State who violates human rights, also violates Islamic codes of practice.