Prioritizing Religious Freedoms: Islam, Pakistan, and the Human Rights Discourse
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Mohammad Waqas Sajjad
Abstract
Religious freedoms of minorities in Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan are compromised due to structural issues as well as social and historical concerns. For instance, the abuse of the blasphemy law has led to minority communities facing threats and violence. And in a country where religious scholars are often absent from, if not against, discourses about human rights, the religious rights of minorities remain a secular and hence culturally unsound discourse. There is thus a need for two parallel movements. One, an awareness within Muslim communities about the need to engage with religious freedoms, and hence the modern human rights regime, as an essentially Islamic process requiring reform from within. And two, the human rights structure also giving religion its due since religious freedoms are part of, and engender, many other rights as well. In this article, a case is made for this dual process, by exploring the work of scholars of Islam such as Abdullahi An-Na’im and Khaled Abou El Fadl as well as the insecurities of religious scholars in Pakistan who have reacted to human rights as a western agenda.
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© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- A UPR Perspective on Capital Punishment and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- “Dignity Embodies Duty”: Islamic Perspective on Combating “Hate Speech”
- Prioritizing Religious Freedoms: Islam, Pakistan, and the Human Rights Discourse
- Moderation between Religious Freedom and Harmony Concerning the Regulation on Mosque Loudspeaker: Comparison between Indonesia and Other Muslim Countries
- An Environmental Human Rights Approach to Environmental Tobacco Smoking
- Book Review
- Noura Erakat: Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- A UPR Perspective on Capital Punishment and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- “Dignity Embodies Duty”: Islamic Perspective on Combating “Hate Speech”
- Prioritizing Religious Freedoms: Islam, Pakistan, and the Human Rights Discourse
- Moderation between Religious Freedom and Harmony Concerning the Regulation on Mosque Loudspeaker: Comparison between Indonesia and Other Muslim Countries
- An Environmental Human Rights Approach to Environmental Tobacco Smoking
- Book Review
- Noura Erakat: Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine
