Do Islam and Islamic law constitute real obstacles to human rights? In this revised and updated edition, the author offers critical assessments of recent Islamic human rights schemes that dilute or eliminate the human rights protections afforded by international law and compares these both with the Islamic legal heritage and with international human rights law. Contesting stereotypes about a supposedly monolithic Islam inherently incompatible with human rights, Mayer dissects the political motives behind the selective use of elements of the Islamic tradition by conservative groups opposed to democracy and human rights. The third edition considers recent developments in human rights law and policy. For example, in Egypt, the notorious Abu Zaid case—where a scholar was declared an apostate and divorced against his will—marked a dramatic setback for human rights in the name of upholding Islamic law. However, some regimes are rethinking their previous attacks on the international human rights system—Iran being an example of a country that has recently been moving in the direction of combating the view that its Islamic ideology necessarily leads to human rights violations. In addition, the debates on whether Islam stands in the way of human rights continue in the UN, provoked in part by recent ”Islamic” reservations to human rights conventions. This edition considers these recent events and many others. Also new to the third edition: the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam and many excerpts from the Iranian constitution.
Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
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"Must reading for anyone interested in the changing order in the Middle East and Islamic societies in general, and certainly for human rights activists with interest in the Muslim world."
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Ann Elizabeth Mayer is Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania . She holds a PhD in Middle Eastern History from the University of Michigan, a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and a Certificate in Islamic and Comparative Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She has conducted research in countries ranging from Morocco to Pakistan and has published extensively on Islamic law in the contemporary Middle East and on international human rights law, especially women’s international human rights.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
On the Jeffersonian wall of separation between church and state in Middle Eastern societies,
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This review is from: Islam And Human Rights: Tradition And Politics, Third Edition (Paperback)
Ms Mayer does a very good job in this book. As correctly the author points out, the most accurate title would have been: "A Comparison of Selected Civil and Political Rights Formulations in International Law and in Actual and Proposed Rights Schemes Purporting to Embody Islamic Principles, with a critical Appraisal of the Latter in Terms of International Law and Islamic Jurisprudence and Relevant State Practice". The Human Rights Schemes meant to embody Islamic Principles and reviewed by the author are: 1) The 1981 Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights; 2) "The Draft of the Islamic constitution" published in 1979 on the Azhar journal Majallat al-Azhar; 3) The 1979 Iranian Constitution; 4) The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam presented at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna; 5) The Basic Law of Saudi Arabia of 1992; 6) A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Sultanhussein Tabandeh; 7) A pamphlet entitled Human Rights in Islam by the religious leader Abu'l A'la Mawdudi. Therefore, the author does not try to extract Human Rights principles from the Qur'an, since she assume that this job could have been done better by Islamic jurists through their human rights scheme.The main thesis is that the premodern shari'a law did not conceive a modern state and therefore its potential abuses against men and women. Shari'a laws were not elaborated with a view to provide institutional mechanisms to deal with cases where governments disregarded Islamic law and oppressed its subjects. Islamic thought stressed not the rights of citizens but their duties to obey God. The implicit assumption is that both ruler and ruled were obedient to God's commands. If this harmony is not satisfied, the Shari'a remains vague in its consequences. Whether the shari'a puts constitutional constraints on governments and safeguards for individual rights is a divisive issue, that in Middle Eastern despotic regimes is solved by recourse to tradition and the good ol' ways. According to Ms Mayer current Human rights schemes with built-in Islamic principles suffer from vagueness and are ineffective in providing real protection to human rights. The main outcome from this state of affairs is a consistent discrimination based on sex and religion. The author does not exclude that a combination of a more democratic environment and more rational interpretations of the Shari'a taking into due account the contemporary reality might generate a more effective outcomes. Without ignoring that each great religion contains important humanistic elements that anticipated our conception of human rights, a Jeffersonian wall of separation between church and state would provide a better and more friendly environment for a real and meaningful protection of rights and freedoms for all men and all women. This book is highly recommended.
17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Meticulously Documented Must Read,
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This review is from: Islam And Human Rights: Tradition And Politics, Third Edition (Paperback)
Ms. Mayer does the difficult scholarly work needed to shed light on the issue of the Muslim treatment of women. She goes directly to the original sources. It can be fairly said that Ms. Mayer's allows Islamic sources to speak for themselves. Everything is amply documented and footnoted to allow the reader to go to the specific document and confirm Ms. Mayer's statments.Ms. Mayer reveals the differences between the English version and the Arabic translation of the "Islamic" human rights declaration. It is literally a two-faced document, the Arabic version containing limitations and derogations of women, while the English version appears to grant equality. This is the book that Islamic apologists in the Western world need to read. One can hope that someday in the future Islam will reform its treatment of women, but, unfortunately, according to many informed sources there is in effect an upsurge in fundamentalism in the Middle East and elsewhere which is taking Islam in the wrong direction.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tensions between Islamic and International Law,
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This review is from: Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics (Paperback)
Mayer assesses human rights in Islam by comparing Shariah law to international human rights standards. She usefully looks at the commentary of several Islamic scholars, as well as several case studies from countries that have adopted Islamic law, such as Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. She shows the tensions between Islam and human rights, but also how they can (or should) be compatible. For example, she cites several scholars who question whether the Prophet Muhammad ever executed anybody for apostasy, as opposed to mere political treason.Because the book covers so much ground, it can at times be superficial. However, it l paints a reasonably accurate picture of the tensions between the two legal systems and human rights challenges in the Muslim world.
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