Islamic Law and International Protection of Minority Rights in Context

Abstract

This chapter endeavores to carefully show that despite its complexity and challenges, the flexibility of Islamic law enables modern Muslim-majority States to be able to arise to the challenges of international protection of minority rights. On the one hand, it has been shown that Islamic law can absolutely facilitate the guarantee and protection of the rights of individuals belonging to ethnic and linguistic minorities without hindrance. On the other hand, while it is acknowledged that there are challenges with the classical Islamic rules on the rights of individuals belonging to religious minorities in relation to standards of modern international minority rights protection, it has nevertheless also been shown that with the right political will, Muslim-majority States can ensure the protection of religious minorities through the contextual understanding of the classical rules and an evolutional perspective of the rules as evidenced by contemporary Islamic jurisprudence in that regard. Keywords:international protection; Islamic law; linguistic minorities; minority rights; Muslim-majority States