You are here

Home » Content

Justice, Human Rights, and the Quasi-Civil Society in a Muslim Context

Journal Name:

  • European Journal of Economic and Political Studies

Publication Year:

  • 2010

Key Words:

Author NameUniversity of Author
Abstract (2. Language): 
Frequently misunderstood and portrayed negatively in the media, Islam and history of Muslims are not duly appreciated in our times. Islam’s stance to science, rational thinking, and free thought are more often than not disregarded extensively, if not completely. Efforts to develop a globally valid “human rights” project have produced many useful documents and conventions in the twentieth century; however in many ways Islam’s holistic worldview and prescriptions to “why”s and “how”s regarding human existence are not reflected in these documents. This paper aims to present evidence from Islamic code of ethics and justice with an emphasis on universal human rights and to discuss the ulama’s influence on the protection of human rights in the history of Islamic civilization. I prefer to call ulama “quasi-civil society,” for “civil society” as understood today does not have a fully matching counterpart in premodern times, and ulama seems to be the closest instrument balancing the state’s authority. I briefly touch on the guilds, which can also be considered as another quasicivil society, during the Ottoman times, as well.
Bookmark/Search this post with
FULL TEXT (PDF): 
PDF icon arastirmax-justice-human-rights-and-quasi-civil-society-muslim-context.pdf
  • 2
127-144
  • English

REFERENCES

References: 

Bulaç, Ali. 2006. “Medine Vesikasında Dinler ve Topluluklar Arası Diyalog” (Dialogue
among Religions and Communities in the Charter of Medina) in Diyaloğun Dini
ve Tarihi Temelleri (Religious and Historical Foundations of Dialogue), İstanbul:
Yeni Ümit Kitaplığı.
Cornell, Vincent J. 2009. “Religious Orthodoxy and Religious Rights in Medieval Islam: A
Reality Check on the Road to Religious Toleration,” in Justice and Rights: Christian
and Muslim Perspectives, Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
Danziger, James N. 2003. Understanding the Political World: A Comparative Approach
to Political Science, Longman.
Donnelly, Jack. 1982. “Human Rights and Human Dignity: An Analytical Critique of Non-
Western Conceptions of Human Rights” The American Political Science Review,
Vol. 76, No. 2, 303–316.
Dreisbach, Daniel L. and Mark David Hall. 2009. The Sacred Rights of Conscience:
Selected Readings on Religious Liberty and Church-State Relations in the
American Founding, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Ephrat, Daphna. 2000. A Learned Society in a Period of Transition: The Sunni ‘Ulama’ of
Eleventh-Century Baghdad, New York: Suny.
Esposito, John L. 2002. What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam. New York: OUP.
“Hak Kelimesi ve Ötesi” (Al-Haqq and Beyond). 2004. Yeni Ümit, No. 63.
Heywood, Andrew. 1997. Politics. New York: Palgrave.
Hunter, Shireen T. and Humma Malik (editors). 2005. Islam and Human Rights:
Advancing a US-Muslim Dialogue. Washington D.C.: Center for International and
Strategic Studies (CSIS), Significant Issues series.
Inalcik, Halil. 2000. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600. London:
Phoenix Press.
Ipgrave, Michael (edited by). 2009. Justice and Rights: Christian and Muslim
Perspectives. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
Kelsay, John. 2002. “Civil Society and Government in Islam,” in Sohail H. Hashmi
(edited by), Islamic Political Ethics: Civil Society, Pluralism, and Conflict, New
Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Mazrui, Shaykh Al-Amin Ali. 2005. (translated by Hamza Yusuf). The Content of
Character, USA: Sandala LLC.
Nursi, Bediüzzaman Said. 2007. İşaratü’l–İ’caz, Istanbul: Şahdamar Yayınları.
——. 2008. The Gleams: Reflections on Qur’anic Wisdom and Spirituality, New Jersey:
The Light, Inc.
Şentürk, Recep. 2002. “Adamiyyah and ‘Ismah: The Contested Relationship between
Humanity and Human Rights in Classical Islamic Law.” İslam Araştırmaları
Dergisi.
——. 2005. “Sociology of Rights: ‘I Am Therefore I Have Rights’: Human Rights in Islam
between Universalistic and Communalistic Perspectives.” Muslim World Journal
of Human Rights, Vol. 2, No. 1, Article 11.
——. 2006. İnsan Hakları ve İslam: Sosyolojik ve Fıkhi Yaklaşımlar, Istanbul: Etkileşim.
——. 2009. Ibn Haldun: Güncel Okumalar (Ibd Khaldun: Contemporary Readings),
Istanbul: İz Yayıncılık.
The Farewell Sermon of the Prophet Muhammad. 2004. New Jersey: The Light, Inc.
TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Vol. 27.
Ünal, Ali. 2008. The Qur’an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English, New
Jersey: Tughra Books.
Yılmaz, İhsan. 2005. “Inter-Madhhab Surfing, Neo-Ijtihad, and Faith-Based Movement
Leaders,” in The Islamic School of Law: Evolution, Devolution, and Progress,
edited by Peri Bearman, Rudolph Peters, Frank E. Vogel. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.

Thank you for copying data from http://www.arastirmax.com