|
|
|
From the Program Director | Back to list
This section of the website is intended as a space for the exchange of ideas and reflections on issues of Islam and human rights. I will initiate it by offering my personal reflections on the current situation as a participant in the struggle for human rights everywhere, though my primary responsibility as a Muslim relates to Islam and Islamic societies in this context. Please send your responses to these remarks, or your own reflections on any of the issues of Islam and human rights, to our contact address, ihrfellowship@law.emory.edu, in order to be posted on this section of the website. One of the challenges facing Muslim scholars/advocates of human rights in the present international environment is how to maintain focus on these concerns as our own priority, without being either apologetic or despondent. This particular challenge is primarily due to the current foreign policy of the United States government that is increasingly becoming one of the obstacles facing the universal acceptance and implementation of international human rights standards at a global level. I also strongly believe, however, that this alarming reality should not lead me to neither being apologetic for Islam and Muslims in general, nor abandon my commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights everywhere. In addition to its long standing reluctance to ratify human rights treaties in order to be judged by the same standards it claims to apply to others, the United States government is now engaged in a deliberate effort to undermine the very foundations of international legality which is the basis of the binding force and practical efficacy of human rights. Moreover, in response to the crimes against humanity of September 11, 2001, the United States government has shown a weak commitment to the essence of human rights as the rights of all human beings by failing to apply the minimum requirements of due process and international humanitarian law to so-called 'aliens' and 'enemy combatants' who are subject to its own domestic jurisdiction. At the same time, the United States government, with the active support and encouragement of the United Kingdom and other allies, has embarked on an illegal, immoral and obviously counter-productive colonization of Iraq. The only difference between this and 19th century European colonialism is the fact that the invasion of Iraq was strongly protested by millions of people throughout the world, including hundreds of thousands of the citizens of the United States itself, even before the war started in late March 2003. By the time of writing, mid September 2003, the Bush administration has been forced to openly acknowledge that its colonization of Iraq is practically untenable, though still failing to concede Iraqi sovereignty to the people of Iraq, or to the United Nations as the legitimate representative of the international community. It is with full realization and appreciation of these realities that I must personally renew my commitment to the universality of human rights from my own perspective as a Muslim. The atrocities of September 11 are the responsibility of those who perpetrated those crimes against humanity, not of Islam as a religion and civilization, or of Muslims at large. At the same time, the failure of the United States government to uphold international legality should enhance my commitment to the rule of law in international relations, rather than cause me to abandon that ideal. Otherwise, I would be conceding that the United States government is the primary author of this ideal, which stands or falls by its actions. Top |
|