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IfI Press Release on the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam from August, 1990

http://www.islaminstitut.de/View-News.110+M55a67025b17.0.html

Schirrmacher: Universal human rights may not be undermined through particularistic “human rights”.

BONN (August 23, 2010) Twenty years ago, the “Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam” was signed by the forty-five foreign ministers of the “Organization of the Islamic Conference” (OIC). Therein, human rights are subjected to Sharia. The scholar of Islamic studies, Prof. Christine Schirrmacher, from the Institute of Islamic Studies, calls for a stronger commitment on the part of the liberal-democratic states in the rejection of Islamic-defined restrictions of human rights. Universal human rights, so Schirrmacher, may not be undermined through particularistic “human rights”.

According to the preamble of the declaration, the Muslim community is the “best nation”. For this reason, it should take over the leading role in the “solution of the constant problems” of “materialistic civilization”. The OIC understands the individual articles of the declaration as “binding commandments of God”. All freedoms are, for this reason, guaranteed only within the limits of Sharia, that is, the relevant instructions of Islamic law (Articles 24 and 25). This stands in clear contradiction to the “General Declaration of Human Rights” issued by the United Nations in 1948. Most of the, in the meantime, fifty-seven OIC states have signed this declaration also, although they officially reject the binding effect of these, in their view, human-made laws of Jewish-Christian character.

The Human Rights Commission of the United Nations has allowed a vote, in the consequence of which any form of criticism of religiously based acts at variance with human rights is inadmissible. Pakistan, in the name of the OIC, was successful in preventing a discussion of Sharia-justified human rights violations in Islamic countries in the Human Rights Commission.

A look at the individual articles of the Cairo Declaration shows the particular aims of the intended Islamization of human rights.

Women: Equally “Worthy”, but not Endowed with Equal Rights

Article 5, for example, guarantees men and women the right of marriage. According to it, they may “not be deterred from it through any kind of limitations on the basis of race, color of skin, or nationality”. “Religion” is lacking here because, according to Sharia, Muslim men may, of course, marry non-Muslim (Jewish or Christian) women, but Muslim women may not have non-Muslim husbands. Other discriminations against women justified by Sharia in family, inheritance, and evidentiary law also are assessed by Muslim apologists as not being in violation of human rights.

Physical Integrity Guaranteed only by Conduct in Conformity with Sharia

In Article 2d, it is stated: “The right of physical integrity is guaranteed. Every state is obligated to protect this right, and it is forbidden to violate this right except when a reason prescribed by Sharia exists.” Thus, for example, according to the majority opinion of Muslim legal scholars, the husband may punish his wife (more or less severely) when she is disobedient. In individual Islamic countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, and in parts of Nigeria, the amputation of the hand in cases of theft and stoning in cases of adultery are possible. In the course of a campaign by the Interior Ministry in Egypt in 2009 to force compliance with the demands of the fasting month of Ramadan, hundreds of people (also non-Muslims) were arrested because they had eaten or smoked on the street. In this way, the right of citizens (also of non-Muslim citizens) to physical integrity is linked with compliance with Sharia norms.

“Religion in Its Pure Nature” precludes a Change of Religion with the Treat of the Death Penalty

In Article 10, it is stated: “Islam is religion in its pure nature. It is forbidden to exert any kind of pressure on a human being or to exploit his poverty or ignorance in order to convert him to another religion or to atheism.” The prohibition prevailing in nearly all Islam-dominated countries against non-Islamic, especially Christian, mission is justified in a quite similar way. The portrayal of Islam as a kind of pure, unadulterated original religion of human beings reflects the conviction of Muslim scholars that there cannot be any understandable, reasonable grounds for turning away from Islam and to another religion. For this reason, the majority of the Islamic scholarly world to the present day justifies the death penalty for those who discernibly turn away from Islam and thus, in its view, betrays the foundation of state and society. Consequently, the right to life in Article 2a also stands under the reservation of Sharia: “… it is forbidden to take another person’s life, except when Sharia demands it.”

Freedom of Opinion only Within the Limits of Sharia: Criticism of Islam is Tabu

In Article 22a and b, it says: “Every human being has the right to the free expression of opinion, so far as he thereby does not violate the principles of Sharia. Every human being has the right to champion the cause of justice, promote the good, and warn against injustice and evil in accord with the norms of Sharia.” Every critical reflection upon the norms of Sharia or the model character of Muhammad, understood as eternally valid, thus, is not covered by the freedom of opinion defined here. On the contrary: In Pakistan, the blasphemy law that foresees the death penalty for insulting Muhammad is repeatedly used as an instrument for the persecution of religious minorities.

Art and Scholarship Protected only When They Further Islamic Values

In Article 22c, it is stated further: “Information is vital for society. However, it may not be employed and abused in injuring the sanctity and dignity of the Prophet, eroding moral and ethical values, and dividing society, corrupting it, harming it, or weakening its faith.” A religiously as well as also politically motivated censorship thus is given free reign, and a critical discussion of Islamic-defined roots and values is nipped in the bud. Consequently, art and scholarship also are subject to the guidelines of Sharia (Article 16). The murder threats against Salman Rushdie after the publication of his book The Satanic Verses (1988) and the violent protests in many parts of the world against the Muhammad caricatures in the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten showed to what such a limited definition of artistic and scholarly freedom can lead.

No Alternative to the Renunciation of the Claim to Political Supremacy

Schirrmacher identifies two reasons above all for the strong resistance to a fundamental reform of this Islamic conception of human rights. On the one hand, the uncompromising acceptance of the understanding of human rights that underlies the declaration of the United Nations would mean the renunciation of the claim to political supremacy of the regimes founded upon Islam. (For the OIC, “Islamophobia” represents the “most terrible form of terrorism”, and critics of Islam’s claim to political supremacy endanger world peace, in this view.) On the other hand, the model character of Muhammad, understood to the present as comprehensive and timeless, and his seventh-century politics would be qualified.

There are Muslim scholars, to the present almost exclusively at Western universities, who already call for a fundamental separation of state and religion in Islam and a non-political exegesis of the Koran. “The liberal-democratic states, for this reason, need the courage to voice a well-founded and resolute contradiction when the states of the OIC attempt to block precisely this necessary reform process on the regional as well as the global level”, so Schirrmacher.

Tags: -, Analysis, Cairo, Declaration, Human, Rights, The, an, on

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Replies to This Discussion

Sultan Tabandeh (an Iranian) wrote a book called A Muslim commentory on the universal declaration of human rights


It was published in the late 1960s, and translated into English a few years later.  This book is the precursor to the Cairo Declaration.  Tabandeh argues that under sharia law slavery is legal, but is no longer fashionable, and the conditions for enslavement are not (at this point in time) pertaining (but if conditions change, sharia law will have no problem returning to slaving, after a hiatus since the 1950s).

Also of note, the "Islamic Human Rights Commission" (sic) in the UK is paid for by the Iranians.  http://ihrc.org.uk/

You couldn't make it up.

Indeed.  And therein lies the problem.  Which informed (conceited) liberal would believe:

  • islamic experts say that an old muslim man can marry a pre-pubescent child
  • the biography of Mohammed was known for hundreds of years as The Book of Wars
  • christianity was turned around by Pope Urban to become a warrior religion in order to fight the Crusades against the depredations of islam
  • the greatest genocide in history was carried out by muslims
  • Mohammed destroyed the multi-cultural society of Arabia
  • shia muslims regard non-muslims as faeces
  • the Muslim Brotherhood was modelled on a combination of the Nazi Party and the Communist Party
  • that muslim slaving ships raided Ireland and Denmark, and even sailed up the Thames, enslaving white people as little as 300 years ago.

I know that when I first came across the items in that list, I was incredulous.  The gap between what people think they know, and the facts is huge.  That gap works in the favour of islam.  But once people become informed and turn against it, I don't ever believe they will be kindly disposed towards islam ever again.  Until that gap is crossed, people do think that hostility towards islam is based on fiction.


Alan Lake said:

You couldn't make it up.

This guy makes a very interesting observation at 07:55 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VvD47TLE...

The sound is bad so you might have to lean close to listen to it, but it's worth it, because he explains very clearly how it is that islam can withdraw human rights from non-muslims (which explains what is behind the Cairo Declaration, and how it goes back to the foundations of islam). 

You don't need to watch the full 30 mins or so. Just watch 5 mins from 07:55 in.  In fact, he loses it towards the end, where he claims that immigration was brought about because of deaths from WW2 followed by smaller families & divorce.  Those were excuses for immigration.  Japan has had exactly the same falling birth rates, and hasn't bothered to bring in mass immigration, because Japan wants to have a smaller population.  Mass immigration was brought to the west to counter the rising power of the workers (MPs in Britain seriously thought during WW2 that Britain might be subject to a workers revolution after the war).

This guy's belief that the problem of islam in the west will be solved in 5 -15 years by the average person having more children is an extraordinary delusion.

The attached from Magnus: an excellent comparison between the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Sharia Law.

Attachments:

The problem is, at the time that the UDHR was drawn up, the UN's expert committee on slavery produced a report. They said "under islamic law slavery is legal", then went into all the ways why slavery under islam was not so bad after all.

This report is really, really hard to get hold of. I searched the UN website and could not find it. I have a copy but it is scanned pages in a PDF, so it is too large to put on 4F.

http://4freedoms.com/group/slaves/forum/topics/un-slavery-report-1951

The UN simply does not care that the UDHR is incompatible with islam. IMO that is why the UN expert report on slavery is made so difficult to find.

If you send it to me I can put it on 4F's Box.com account, as publicly accessible.

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