Is the Islamic Human Rights Declaration a Compliment to Global Human Rights?
The International Quran News Agency (IQNA), in its politics and economy section on 31 August 2023 in Persian, published an article titled “Islamic Declaration of Human Rights Complements the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” analyzing the importance of Islamic human rights, which was adopted in Cairo in 1990 as a document that It completes the declaration of human rights. This article was written with the help of the human rights adviser of Iran’s representation in the United Nations, whose name has not been mentioned, and who seems to be Ali Bahraini. After a simple review of this article, the only conclusion that can be drawn from it is another baseless defense to prove the universality and humanitarianism of the extremist laws of Islamic jurisprudence and the promotion of the status of Islamic scholars.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 after the end of World War II due to the crimes that occurred in the war and to prevent the recurrence of such evils. Of course, in the past 75 years, many clauses have been added to it due to the commission of war crimes and religious, racial, and ethnic conflicts. Still, its main elements are “ recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world,” has not changed significantly.
If we are satisfied with the human perspective and only this above definition and do not even pay attention to the notes and other materials of this declaration, this sentence simply defines the rights of every human being in the framework of a just, fair, and civilized society.
But by reviewing the article of IQNA and paying more attention to the provisions of the Declaration of Islamic Human Rights, we realize that this declaration not only violates the “inherent dignity” of human beings but also sheds light on the bigotry, petrification, and backwardness of the Ulama who still identify themselves as the spiritual saviors of the world. They consider everyone other than Muslims to be “Others,” they have explained these materials to dehumanize these “Others.” In this article, we read, “Many Islamic countries became independent and members of the United Nations after the drafting of this declaration… For this reason, at the time of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Muslim Nations did not have a significant presence in drafting it. But later, in the framework of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, they decided to fix this shortcoming by drafting the Cairo Declaration and expressing their views and interpretations on some human rights issues to prevent misuse and abuse of issues related to human rights. The Cairo Declaration tried to explain the perspective of Islamic countries on some controversial issues in human rights. At the same time, there are many commonalities in both declarations, which were emphasized by the Islamic countries in the Cairo Declaration to prevent the accusation of the world assemblies against the Islamic countries that they do not believe in and do not respect human rights.
This Iranian human rights advisor adds: “It should be noted that human rights are rooted in religions and not in conflict with them. If we refer to the history of drafting human rights, we find out that when the Treaty of Westphalia was approved, power and religion were separated, and faith was considered an individual matter, problems arose in society. To compensate for these gaps and issues, such as the non-appearance of religion and religious values, people like John Locke demanded the approval of the Declaration of Human Rights to eliminate these defects. With the difference that human rights no longer had a divine origin and were part of the natural rights of every human being, which he enjoyed from the beginning of his birth. This is even though in all the divine religions, the rights are mentioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, still with the difference that the legitimacy of these rights had a divine origin. In all religions, the right to use housing, health, clean water, a favorable environment, and other civil, political, economic, and social rights have been raised and confirmed, But the Declaration of Human Rights considered the legitimacy of these rights to be human and not divine; Therefore, if other religions issue declarations to complete and interpret the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is only to explain the problems that are currently disputed by the countries; Such as citizenship rights, topics related to homosexuality, limits and loopholes of freedom of speech, etc.
He even went beyond the limits of a human rights adviser and continued: “Obviously, Western countries are trying to promote some undesirable phenomena from the perspective of Islamic countries as the inalienable rights of human beings; For example, homosexuality is considered one of the examples of human rights; But some countries, including member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, strongly oppose this phenomenon. From their point of view, the issue of Qoran burning is also considered a form of freedom of expression, But many countries believe this incident insults religions and strongly condemn it Because they know it is in conflict with human rights.
As expected, this article does not show that the Islamic Human Rights complements the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but, in many ways, defies it. We can boldly say that many explanations about the declaration of Islamic human rights can be found, contrary to the universal declaration and any civilized human thought.
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