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Book Book Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Islam and human rights: tradition and politics
Author:Mayer, Ann ElizabethISNI
Year:1991
Pages:258
Language:English
City of publisher:Boulder, CO
Publisher:Westview Press
ISBN:081338091X; 0861870913
Geographic term:Islamic countries
Subjects:Islam
human rights
Abstract:In this book the author offers a critical assessment of recent human rights schemes proposed by Muslim conservatives as alternatives to the International Bill of Human Rights. She argues that these schemes possess no direct antecedents in the premodern Islamic tradition but are legal hybrids of Islamic and international principles. She contrasts the position of Muslim conservatives with that of Muslims who endorse international human rights standards as fully compatible with Islam and offers evidence that the provisions of Islamic human rights schemes tend to dilute and nullify rights guaranteed by international law, particularly women's rights. In addition, she evaluates the political significance of Islamic rights schemes by examining the actual patterns of rights deprivations in Muslim countries, notably in the Middle East, and the policies of governments that have pursued Islamization campaigns, amongst others in the Sudan. She demonstrates that it is not Islamic tradition that discourages respect for human rights, but the selective interpretation and application of Islamic law and tradition by Muslim groups who are threatened by the demand for democratic freedoms throughout the Muslim world.
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