Human rights in Muslim law: current issues

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the legal system of Muslim countries. The author analyzes the essence of the concept of human rights and freedoms in Muslim law, as well as comparative characteristics with the Western legal system. The general principles of law in the Muslim system, due to the peculiarities of its historical formation, establish the criteria of conformity of positive law to the values of a particular society, limiting the action of a law to generally accepted moral criteria. It is noted that certain aspects of Sharia have different meanings for followers of Islam and those who do not adhere to this faith. In a ratio religious and secular rules of conduct operate differently. The author points out that in the theory of Muslim law, all people are equal regardless of their social background, skin color or language. It also speaks of the equality of all before the law and the court, but in practice a completely different situation arises. The article analyzes the disrespect for women's rights and the fact that women are essentially unprotected in Islam. It is noted that human rights, which should be universal in nature, were neglected by delegates to the 1993 UN Human Rights Conference in Vienna. In view of this, Islamic society is faced with the question: either Islam and Sharia, or democracy and human rights. At the same time, no explanation was given as to why one should be chosen over the other. The author proposes to gradually incorporate Muslim law into the law of Western countries, but only with respect for the national and cultural peculiarities of the East. It also highlights the importance of developing categories of human rights in the Muslim legal system, taking into account the standards of the Western concept of human rights and conducting a detailed study of Islamic law, rather than simply adding Western notions of natural human rights to Muslim law.