4,547
edits
Portal: Islam and Human Rights: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
→Other articles in this section
| [checked revision] | [checked revision] |
(→Women) |
|||
| (9 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
While some modern Islamic scholars have struggled to reconcile | While some modern Islamic scholars have struggled to reconcile Islamic and modern, largely Western notions of human rights, the majority of traditional Islamic scholars today have generally defied what they perceive as an attempt at intellectual colonialism. The conflict between modern human rights doctrine and Islamic law can, for the most part, be understood as a product of their extreme historical and contextual distance. Whereas Islamic law was formulated in the harsh, unpredictable, and austere environment of 7th-9th century Arabia, modern Human rights doctrine is generally traced back to the European Enlightenment, starting especially with the English philosopher John Locke's ideas of ''natural rights'' in the 17th century. | ||
==Women== | ==Women== | ||
Islamic scriptures generally employ the masculine pronoun in Arabic, which is used to refer to both men and women. On occasion, the scriptures diverge from this standard, inclusive usage, and comment specifically on men or women. The perspective taken by Islamic scriptures on women is of special interest in recent times due to frequent collision with modern values. | |||
<div class="articleSummaryColumnsWrapper"> | <div class="articleSummaryColumnsWrapper"> | ||
<div class="articleSummaryColumn"> | |||
{{PortalArticle|title=Islam and Women|image=Muslim-usa.jpg|summary=|description=Islamic law and doctrine holds women to be inferior to men in many respects, including in their intellect, their ability to serve as witnesses on topics other than female biology, ability to handle wealth, and ability to operate independently in society, among other things. While modernist Islamic movements have attempted to reconcile Islam with feminism, mainstream orthodox thought remains strictly antithetical. With some adjustments, Islamic law enshrines the gender norms of 7th century Arabia.}}{{PortalArticle|title=Rape in Islamic Law|summary=|image=Crimean-slave-trade.png|description=Rape, known in Islamic law as ''zina bil-ikrah'' or ''zina bil-jabr'' (literally "fornication by force"), is generally defined by Muslim jurists as forced intercourse by a man with a woman who is not his wife or slave and without her consent. As with enslaved females, according to Islamic law, married women are required to oblige their husbands sexual advances - raping one's wife is permissible. The concept of "rape" is thus deemed to be equally non-existent in the contexts of both marriage and slavery.}} | {{PortalArticle|title=Islam and Women|image=Muslim-usa.jpg|summary=|description=Islamic law and doctrine holds women to be inferior to men in many respects, including in their intellect, their ability to serve as witnesses on topics other than female biology, ability to handle wealth, and ability to operate independently in society, among other things. While modernist Islamic movements have attempted to reconcile Islam with feminism, mainstream orthodox thought remains strictly antithetical. With some adjustments, Islamic law enshrines the gender norms of 7th century Arabia.}}{{PortalArticle|title=Rape in Islamic Law|summary=|image=Crimean-slave-trade.png|description=Rape, known in Islamic law as ''zina bil-ikrah'' or ''zina bil-jabr'' (literally "fornication by force"), is generally defined by Muslim jurists as forced intercourse by a man with a woman who is not his wife or slave and without her consent. As with enslaved females, according to Islamic law, married women are required to oblige their husbands sexual advances - raping one's wife is permissible. The concept of "rape" is thus deemed to be equally non-existent in the contexts of both marriage and slavery.}} | ||
</div><div class="articleSummaryColumn"> | </div><div class="articleSummaryColumn"> | ||
| Line 13: | Line 14: | ||
*[[Forced Marriage]] | *[[Forced Marriage]] | ||
*[[Hijab]] | *[[Hijab]] | ||
*[[Wife Beating in Islamic Law]] | |||
{{col-float-break|width=25em}} | {{col-float-break|width=25em}} | ||
*[[Women in Islamic Law]] | |||
*[[Child Marriage in the Muslim World]] | *[[Child Marriage in the Muslim World]] | ||
*[[Child Marriage in the Qur'an]] | *[[Child Marriage in the Qur'an]] | ||
| Line 19: | Line 22: | ||
*[[Islamic Attire and Health]] | *[[Islamic Attire and Health]] | ||
*[[Thighing|Thighing Children]] | *[[Thighing|Thighing Children]] | ||
*[[Female Genital Mutilation in Islamic Law]] | |||
*[[Polygamy in Islamic Law]] | |||
{{col-float-end}} | {{col-float-end}} | ||
==Religious Minorities== | ==Religious Minorities== | ||
Islamic law permits the residence of Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians (the three groups constituting the People of The Book) in the Islamic caliphate, or state, provided they accept the legal, social, and financial subjugation (the Dhimma system) whose explicit aim, as mentioned in the Quran, is their humiliation viz-a-viz the Muslims. Traditionally, per Islamic scriptures, polytheists and persons of non-Abrahamic faiths were deemed unsuitable for residence in Islamic lands and would have either to convert or face execution following military defeat. Historically, however, the challenge of implementing such policies against large numbers of polytheists (following, for instance, the Islamic conquest of Hindu lands) brought Islamic scholars and political leaders to arrange compromises and additional constraints whereby certain polytheists could live as Dhimmis. The persecution of non-Muslim minorities and unorthodox Muslim sects in Muslim-majority countries continues today. | |||
<div class="articleSummaryColumnsWrapper"> | <div class="articleSummaryColumnsWrapper"> | ||
<div class="articleSummaryColumn"> | <div class="articleSummaryColumn"> | ||
| Line 39: | Line 45: | ||
==Freedom of Conscience== | ==Freedom of Conscience== | ||
Traditional Islamic legal scholars overwhelmingly agreed that blasphemers and apostates should be put to death. Most also demanded the death penalty for practicing homosexuals. Religion-critical perspectives were outlawed under the former set of laws, as pronouncing a disagreement with scriptures amounted to apostasy or, at least, heresy, as in much of the pre-modern European world. Similar attitudes prevail in Muslim-majority lands today, with nearly a dozen Muslim-majority countries placing the death penalty on apostasy and/or blasphemy and several more punishing those crimes with imprisonment, fines, and various forms of civil death. | |||
<div class="articleSummaryColumnsWrapper"> | <div class="articleSummaryColumnsWrapper"> | ||
<div class="articleSummaryColumn"> | <div class="articleSummaryColumn"> | ||
| Line 46: | Line 53: | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
==Corporal punishment== | ==Corporal punishment== | ||
Several forms of corporal punishment feature in Islamic law. Crimes for which punishments are not explicitly prescribed in scripture can earn a discretionary corporal punishment so long as it does not exceed the least-severe corporal punishment prescribed by scripture. This upper limit is 80 lashes according to some scholars and 40 lashes according to others. Scriptural punishments include crucifixion, stoning to death, execution by other means, various amputations, and lashings. | |||
<div class="articleSummaryColumnsWrapper"> | <div class="articleSummaryColumnsWrapper"> | ||
<div class="articleSummaryColumn"> | <div class="articleSummaryColumn"> | ||
| Line 63: | Line 72: | ||
==Modern movements and events== | ==Modern movements and events== | ||
The sharp contrast between still-practiced Islamic law and modern norms of human rights has brought the archaisms of Islamic law to achieve considerable public attention. International controversies surrounding intentional and unintentional acts of blasphemy against Islam have become commonplace in the twenty first century, the first major harbinger of these events being the supreme leader of Iran's call for the killing of the British novelist Salman Rushdie in 1989 for a book that was deemed blasphemous. | |||
<div class="articleSummaryColumnsWrapper"> | <div class="articleSummaryColumnsWrapper"> | ||
<div class="articleSummaryColumn"> | <div class="articleSummaryColumn"> | ||