Islam and Human Rights in Practice: Perspectives Across the Ummah (Routledge Advances in Middle East and Islamic Studies)

187 Pages·2008·1.06 MB·English

by  Shahram Akbarzadeh

Islam and Human Rights
in Practice
Questions over the compatibility of Islam and human rights have become a key
area of debate in the perceived tensions between ‘Islam and the West’. In many
ways, discussion over the stance of Islam in relation to such factors as gender
rights, religious freedom, social and political freedoms, and other related issues
represents a microcosm of the broader experience of how Muslim and ‘Western’
communities interact and relate.
This volume seeks to engage with the various debates surrounding Islam and
human rights, in particular, challenging assumptions of a ‘standard’or ‘essential’
Muslim perspective on human rights. Through a survey of the experiences of
Muslim communities across the globe (the ummah), this volume highlights the
dynamic way Muslims understand andincorporate human rights into their personal,
social and political experiences.
From conceptual discussions on the issues of gender rights and religious freedom,
to examining Muslim communities from South East Asia, Central Asia, the
Middle East and North Africa, leading global experts bring forth key insights
into the way in which Muslim communities live and experience human rights.
The potential for deeper engagement with this issue is critical, as it opens
possibilities for more profound understanding and tolerance.
Associate Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh researches the politics of Central Asia
and the Middle East, political Islam and US relations with the Muslim world.
He is Deputy Director of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at
the University of Melbourne.
Benjamin MacQueen is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
His research focuses on political transformation in the Middle East and conflict
resolution theory and practice. His publications focus on Islamic political thought,
conflict resolution and the international relations of the Middle East and North
Africa.
Routledge Advances in Middle East and Islamic Studies
1 Iraqi Kurdistan 8 Beyond the Arab Disease
Political development and emergent New perspectives in politics and
democracy culture
Gareth R. V. Stansfield Riad Nourallah
2 Egypt in the Twenty-First Century 9 The Arab Diaspora
Challenges for development Voices of an anguished scream
Edited by M. Riad El-Ghonemy Zahia Smail Salhi and
Ian Richard Netton
3 The Christian-Muslim Frontier
A zone of contact, conflict or 10 Gender and Self in Islam
cooperation Etin Anwar
Mario Apostolov
11 Nietzsche and Islam
4 The Islamic World-System Roy Jackson
A study in polity-market interaction
12 The Baha’is of Iran
Masudul Alam Choudhury
Socio-historical studies
5 Regional Security in the Middle East Dominic Parvis Brookshaw and
A critical perspective Seena B. Fazel
Pinar Bilgin
13 Egypt’s Culture Wars
6 Political Thought in Islam Politics and practice
A study in intellectual boundaries Samia Mehrez
Nelly Lahoud
14 Islam and Human Rights
7 Turkey’s Kurds in Practice
A theoretical analysis of the PKK and Perspectives across the Ummah
Abdullah Ocalan Edited by Shahram Akbarzadeh and
Ali Kemal Özcan Benjamin MacQueen
Islam and Human Rights
in Practice
Perspectives across the Ummah
Edited by
Shahram Akbarzadeh and
Benjamin MacQueen
First published 2008 by
Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park,
Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2008 Editorial selection and matter; Shahram Akbazadeh & Benjamin
MacQueen; individual chapters the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form
or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Islam and Human Rights in practice: perspectives across the ummah / edited by Shahram
Akbarzadeh & Benjamin MacQueen.
p. cm. -- (Routledge advances in middle east and islamic studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Human rights--Islamic countries. 2. Human rights--Religious aspects--Islam. I. Akbarzadeh,
Shahram. II. MacQueen, Benjamin.
BP173.44.1856 2008
297.2`72--dc22
2007047898
ISBN 0-203-92675-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 10: 0-415-44959-6 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0-203-92675-7 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-44959-5 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-203-92675-8 (ebk)
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Contributors viii
1. Framing the debate on Islam and human rights 1
Shahram Akbarzadeh and Benjamin MacQueen
2. The reformulation of Islamic thought on gender 12
rights and roles
Ann Elizabeth Mayer
3. Women’s rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran: 33
the contribution of secular-oriented feminism
Rebecca Barlow
4. Islamic reformism and human rights in Iraq: 52
gender equality and religious freedom
Benjamin MacQueen and Shahram Akbarzadeh
5. The reluctant partnership between the Muslim 75
Brotherhood and human rights NGOs in Egypt
Benjamin MacQueen
6. Human rights in Afghanistan 89
William Maley
7. Competing domains of control: Islam and human 108
rights in Malaysia
Shamsul Amri Bin Baharuddin
vi Contents
8. Muslims in Malaysia: notions of human rights reform, 118
and their contexts
Patricia Martinez
9. Indonesian Islamist perspectives on human rights 142
Greg Fealy
Bibliography 154
Index 167
Acknowledgements
We are grateful for the generous support of the Australian Research
Council and the International Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies
(ANU) which made possible the 2005 convention on Islam and Human
Rights in Melbourne.
Contributors
Shahram Akbarzadeh is Associate Professor and Director of the
National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies, University of
Melbourne. His research interests include Islam in Australia, the Middle
East and Central Asia. Among his latest publications are (with Abdullah
Saeed) Muslim Communities in Australia (Sydney: University of New
South Wales, 2001), Uzbekistan and the United States (London: Zed
Books, 2005), Islam and Globalization– 4 volumes (London: Routledge,
2006) and (with Kylie Baxter) US Foreign Policy in the Middle East
(London: Routledge, 2008).
Shamsul Amri Bin Baharuddinis Professor of Social Anthropology and
is currently the Director of the Institute of Occidental Studies (IKON) at
the National University of Malaysia. He researches, writes and lectures
extensively on the theme ‘politics and culture in developing countries’
with an empirical focus on the Malay-speaking Islamic region of South-
East Asia. Besides his award-winning book From British to Bumiputera
Rule(1986), which has been reprinted three times (latest in 2004), he has
also written numerous articles on Islamic Revivalism in South-East Asia.
Rebecca Barlow graduated with a BA(Hons) in international relations
and global politics from Monash University in 2005. Since 2006 she has
been undertaking her PhD research and working as a research assistant
focusing on the rights of Muslim women, the international human rights
system and Middle Eastern politics. Rebecca’s PhD focuses on the
Iranian women’s movement and the implementation of international
human rights law in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Significant focus lies
on the ideology and activism of lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Shirin Ebadi, a devoted Muslim who has advocated for secular forms of
rights-based governance.
Contributors ix
Greg Fealy holds a joint appointment as Fellow and Senior Lecturer in
South-East Asian Politics at the Research School of Pacific and Asian
Studies, and the Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University,
Canberra. He specializes in Indonesian politics, particularly political
Islam and radical movements. His recent publications include:
Ijtihad Politik Ulama: Sejarah NU, 1952–1967, Joining the Caravan?
The Middle East, Islamism and Indonesia (co-authored with Anthony
Bubalo), and Voices of Islam in South-East Asia: A Contemporary
Sourcebook (co-edited with Virginia Hooker).
Dr Benjamin MacQueenis an Australian Research Council (ARC) Post-
Doctoral Fellow at the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies,
University of Melbourne. He completed his PhD in 2006 at Deakin
University, focusing on conflict resolution and the role of political culture
on the form and legitimacy of peace agreements in Lebanon and Algeria.
Currently, he is working on a major ARC project exploring the impacts of
US foreign policy on political transformation in the Middle East and
Central Asia. He previously served as a research fellow on an ARC-funded
project exploring Muslim perspectives on global justice and the possibili-
ties for accommodation and reform within the structure of the United
Nations. He is the author of various articles and chapters examiningpoliti-
cal transformation in the Middle East, conflict resolution, as well as the
role of external powers in the Middle East.
Dr William Maley is Professor and Director of the Asia-Pacific College
of Diplomacy at the Australian National University, and has served as a
Visiting Professor at the Russian Diplomatic Academy, a Visiting Fellow
at the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the University of
Strathclyde and a Visiting Research Fellow in the Refugee Studies
Programme at Oxford University. A regular visitor to Afghanistan, he is
author of Rescuing Afghanistan (London: Hurst & Co., 2006), and
The Afghanistan Wars (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002);
co-authored Regime Change in Afghanistan: Foreign Intervention and the
Politics of Legitimacy (Boulder: Westview Press, 1991), and Political
Order in Post-Communist Afghanistan (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1992);
edited Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban(New York:
New York University Press, 1998, 2001); and co-edited The Soviet Withdrawal
from Afghanistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989) and
From Civil Strife to Civil Society: Civil and Military Responsibilities in
Disrupted States (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2003).