Precept and Practice of Human Rights in Islam

Abstract

perfectability of human beings. It also defines political, economic and cultural processes designed to promote these goals. Human rights are parts of one whole-a universal dialogue of a unity of being separated by time, environment and experience. The present global system, however, is dominated by a Western attitude of cultural superiority, usually attributed to the melding of Hebraic Messianism with Hellenic rationalism, that views human rights in its own theological and ideological context. What is right for the West is right for others. This Western moral and philosophical posture projects a parochial view of human rights exclusive of the cultural realities and present existential conditions of the Muslim World which comprises thirty-six states, nearly one-fourth of the number of countries of the world, with a population of 750 million, not very far from one-fourth of the world's population. The debate on human rights assumes that in spite of the differences which characterize the diversity of cultures, political conduct can be conceptualized by certain norms and attitudes. What has occurred is the reshaping of politics to accommodate various