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7 ICJ 1 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/icjuris7 and id is 1 raw text is: International Comparative Jurisprudence 2021 Volume 7 Issue 1 ISSN 2351-6674 (online) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13165/j.icj.2021.06.001 INTERNATIONAL COM PARfATIV F JUR1PRgUDENCE MYKOLA5 ROMERI5 International Comparative Jurisprudence UNIVERSITY THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE: WESTERN AND ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES Juozas Valciukas Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania E-mail: viuozas@mruni.eu Mohammad Khazer Saleh Al Majali2 Qatar University, Qatar E-mail: mkmaiali@gu.edu.ga Received: 29 April 2021; accepted: 19 May 2021 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/l0.13165/i.ici.2021.06.001 Abstract. With the constant reoccurrence of the question of peaceful coexistence among people of different religions, legal traditions, and understandings of freedom and human nature, there is a need for a fresh study of the concept of freedom of conscience. This article addresses conceptual, doctrinal, and normative issues relating to the concept of freedom of conscience as a human right by examining it from Islamic and Western perspectives. Chapter 1 of this paper considers the Western perspective on the right to freedom of conscience in three key areas. The religious, philosophical, and legal aspects of this concept receive particular attention in an attempt to discern the essence of what freedom of conscience means in the West. To understand how this concept is articulated in legal terms, this article analyses both its national and international legal bases, alongside the relevant case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Chapter 2 of this paper is devoted to the study of the Islamic perspective on the concept of freedom in general and on the right to freedom of conscience in particular, in order to ascertain whether or not this right exists in Islamic legal tradition. In doing so, this paper explores the most fundamental Islamic sources - namely, the Quran and the Sunna - in order to understand the role that this freedom plays in them. Two constitutional examples from Jordan and Qatar are then analyzed, before final conclusions are delivered. Keywords: conscience, right to freedom of conscience, religious freedom, Western legal tradition, Islam, Islamic law Introduction In seeking to understand the Western and Islamic origins of the concept of conscience, Christian and Islamic thought can provide us with a key. Both elucidate the human capacity to choose between what is right and what is wrong. As Jacques Maritain noted, the only practical knowledge that all men in the world naturally and infallibly have in common is that we do good and we avoid evil (Maritain, 2011). The question that then needs to be posed is: how independent and free does a person remain in their conscience-based decisions in the West and in Islam. How free is the conscience of a Muslim living in the West? Should a religion, a government, a positive law, or the inner moral code of an autonomous person be the main source of personal conscience from the Western and Islamic perspectives? To consider an analogy which might illustrate the profound transformation of the status of the freedom of conscience in the West, one might look to the personal experience of Thomas Jefferson - specifically, his 1 Dr. Juozas Valciukas is a lecturer at the Law School of Mykolas Romeris University. 2 Dr. Mohammad Khazer Saleh Al Majali is a professor of Qur'anic studies at the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies of Qatar University.

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