Islamic Law/Shari'a, Human Rights, Universal Morality and International Relations

Abstract

In our age near the end of the 20th century, recently described as an age of a clash of civilizations,' there is a tremendous need for morality based on a common set of norms and values shared by the entire international community. If the underpinning of this needed international morality is not basically human rights, what else could unite humanity? During the United Nations Human Rights Conference in Vienna, June 1993, those participants-including this author-who are committed to the idea of universal human rights as a basis of international morality, felt disturbed by some presentations by non-Western politicians who contested the universality of this morality. In particular, delegations from Muslim countries were among the leading contesters of the universality of human rights. In Vienna, while human rights activists from Muslim countries-like Iran and the Sudan-were drawing attention to the severe violations of human rights in their own countries (acting in the basement of the Vienna Center, where the NGOs met during the June 1993 UN Conference),