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4 Temp. Int'l & Comp. L.J. 23 (1990)
Islam and Human Rights: Congruence or Dichotomy

handle is hein.journals/tclj4 and id is 29 raw text is: ISLAM AND HUMAN RIGHTS: CONGRUENCE OR DICHOTOMY? Amyn B. Sajoot INTRODUCTION The quest for global human rights standards since World War II has pro- duced many agreements seeking to establish a minimum order of civil-polit- ical and socioeconomic norms regardless of nationality or culture.1 As a result of the multinational attempts to establish a uniform standard of human rights, the prisms of ideology and culture have refracted our understanding of human rights in various societies,2 especially with respect to the Muslim world. A hodgepodge of political and ideological issues and claims regarding human rights has been attributed to the influence of Islamic doctrine, in an attempt to vindicate preconceptions and prejudices. The legacy of orientalist discourse in the West,3 and one-sided reporting of developments in the Middle East,4 have, in part, distorted the concepts of human rights in the Islamic world. Events like the recent Salman Rushdie af- fair5only compound the situation. The ensuing perception of human rights in t Bachelor of Laws, University of London; Doctor of Laws, McGill University, Institute of Comparative Law (Montreal). Mr. Sajoo is currently with the Canadian Human Rights Commis- sion, Ottawa, Canada. The views expressed in this article are soleley those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. 1. See International Human Rights Overview, in HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE WORLD COMMUNITY 1 (R.P. Claude & B. H. Weston eds. 1989); 1 Part II. Global Protection of Human Rights, in HUMAN RIGHTS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: LEGAL AND POLICY ISSUES 115-271 (T. Merion ed. 1984); R. Vincent, Human Rights and Cultural Relativism and Human Rights in Contemporary Society, in HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 37, 92 (1986). 2. See Renteln, The Unanswered Challenge of Relativism and the Consequences for Human Rights, 7 HUM. RTS. Q. 514 (1985); R. Vincent, supra note 1, ch. 3. 3. See ORIENTALISM, ISLAM AND ISLAMISTS (A. Hussein, R. Olson & J. Qureshi eds. 1984); E. SAID, ORIENTALISM (1978); N. DANIEL, ISLAM AND THE WEST: THE MAKING OF AN IMAGE (1980). 4. The tendency among political commentators and the media at large to readily dehumanize antagonists of Middle Eastern origin has been conspicuous during the Persian Gulf crisis of 1990. While this is admittedly common with regard to Third World enemies of the United States, racist attitudes against Arabs, Iranians, and Muslims in general are blatant even for the respectable press. See E. SAID, COVERING ISLAM: How THE MEDIA AND THE EXPERTS DETERMINE How WE SEE THE REST OF THE WORLD (1981); W. DORMAN & M. FARHANG, THE U.S. PRESS AND IRAN: FOREIGN POLICY AND THE JOURNALISM OF DEFENCE (1987), E. HERMAN & N. CHOMSKY, MAN- UFACTURING CONSENT: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE MASS MEDIA (1988). 5. On February 14, 1989, Iran's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, called on Muslims throughout the world to find and kill Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie for publishing the book THE SATANIC VERSES (1988) which Khomenei regarded as blasphemous to Islam. The author claimed that the book was not blasphemous and went into hiding. The principal cleric in Sunni Islam to which Mr. Rushdie belongs-Grand Sheikhof Al Azhar, Gad el-Haq Ali Gad el-Haq--did not find the Ayatollah's order to be valid under Islamic law. See Clerics Challenge Rushdie 'Sen-

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