Islamic Law and International Human Rights Law: Searching for Common Ground?By Anver M. Emon, Mark S. Ellis, and Benjamin Glahn.

Abstract

With a parade of headlines recounting the relentless atrocities committed by the self-proclaimed ‘Islamic State’ terrorist organization, not to mention the brutal killings of the Charlie Hebdo staff in Paris in January 2015 because of their ‘offense’ of publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, Islamic law, and its purported tensions with basic human rights norms, are again at the forefront of public consciousness. There is no escaping the perception today that Islam and human rights values are locked in a state of irreconcilable conflict. Islamic Law and International Human Rights Law: Searching for Common Ground? takes on the question of whether this conflict is inevitable and how it can be solved. The work consists of a series of essays written by experts and edited by Anver M Emon, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Toronto; Mark S Ellis, Executive Director of the International Bar Association; and Benjamin Glahn, Former Deputy Chief Program Officer and Program Director at the Salzburg Global Seminar. The essays grew out of a series of three conferences and dialogues convened and hosted by the Salzburg Global Seminar, in partnership with the International Bar Association, and with the support of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey.