Introduction
According to Pratt (2005), after the synchronized terrorist attacks that led to the collapse of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City, and damages to Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the question how the Western world perceives Islam and looks at Muslim has become an ongoing concern. Although, there have been hopeful and promising actions that are undertaken by the Arab nations and the Western countries, the gap between these two regions has already polarized into clash of religion and politics. In the study of Stilt (2012), growing up in the Islam environment fostered a different perspective and outlook concerning the Islam faith and Muslims in general than what the Western world thinks. At the top of the question concerning Islam is its view of law and order. This encompasses the question on how Islam faith acknowledges human rights as the basic tenets of religion and politics. The link between the justice system of Muslims and the Islam faith is clearly manifested by the examples and practices of most Arab nations. This integration of people from all denominations and religions becomes a big issue that comes with the question on how each religion groomed its people to provide justice and equality.
For Muslims, the Islamic faith believes and adheres to the rule of human rights as the fundamental tenets of the religious discourse as expressed on the way Islam forbids discrimination in whatsoever form; the way Islamic teachings elevate women to a pedestal of respect; and how Islamic faith extols the idea of respect of religious views; while the perception of the Western world comes home with the point that the Islamic view of human rights is distorted and not properly accentuated on peace, rather the Western view sees Islam as the driver of chaos and division of people. But is there really Islamic human rights and equality or it is just a myth that is being viewed by Muslims? And the question goes further why Islam has been view by the Western world as opposed to what Muslims understood it. This essay seeks to present an overview of how Islam faith understands equality and discrimination of race, belief, language, etc; the right women as afforded and written in Islam's Qur'an; and how Islam respects the belief of a person without forcible pushing the person to accept the Islam faith. In the end, it is necessary to contrast the view of the Western world with what Islam really is about.
Islam Promotes Equality and Human Rights
Looking intently at the arguments of those who support Islam as a major motivator of human rights and equality in the Middle East region and around the world, it is easy to the three major arguments. First, the Islamic faith does not promote discrimination of any person, regardless of race, gender, status in life, color, belief, language, etc; this means that Islam ensures that all men are treated equal and regarded as brothers and sisters within the premise of respect and value to each other. Second, as much as women's rights advocacy is a major factor in determining human rights, the Islamic faith provides respect to women for their contribution and value to the society and as part of the religious values of the Islam faith. And lastly, unlike other regions that have limited respect and tolerance to other religious beliefs, Islam promotes respect to all kinds of religions because it transcends the idea of brotherhood of man.
In the perspective of Muslims and those who believe that the Islamic faith encourages respect and human rights equality among people, the Islam culture forbids discrimination. As oppose to what the world view and the action being taken against Muslims, Islam ethic dictate that Muslim should not discriminate people, race, colour, belief, language etc. Islam being the religious and political ground of Muslim countries provides a direction for the value of equality and the elimination of discrimination within the sovereignty of the state. Mainly, Islam's foundation is equality among all people; that each person has a distinct role to plat in the world as such it being accorded to him by Allah. Islam provides a way for Arab nations to replace "chaos, disorder, tribal rivalry, and corrupt feudal governments with peace, order, equality, justice, mutual relationship, decency, and fraternity (Izzatī & Ezzati, 2002)." The premise behind the equality principle of the Islam faith is the brotherhood of man. This basic understanding of the brotherhood and being Muslim of all people of the world provides the way for Islam to promote equality than discrimination. This principle is deeply embodied on Islam that Goldstein (2010) writes:
“Islam honours human beings. This honour embraces all the children of Adam, both male and female, without discrimination. By virtue of this honour, human beings are to be protected from anything that is an effort to their dignity, it harmful to their mental faculties, is damaging to their health or which abuses their rights by exploiting their vulnerabilities (p. 228).“
This standpoint is clearly expressed in Prophet's emphasis on the universal character of Islam, as mentioned above, which is deeply traced on statements such as "None of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what he desires for himself (Muslim, iman, 71, 72.)" The background of Islam capitalize the importance of social dimension and the demand for mutual support, cooperation and brotherhood of people, and the need of compassion for each other. This background works as the framework of the rights of parents, and the necessity to help the poor, the needy and the elderly. From this standpoint, Islam promotes the "new beneficent society" concept that works on the humanitarian understanding of equality.
It is also in the Islam culture that women’s rights should be recognized; that women’s rights should be equal to those rights of men; that gender should not be a reason for inequality, especially inequality of human rights (Goldstein, 2010). Though it can’t be denied that women was once treated as slaves in the Islam culture, just like how blacks were treated as slaves in the United States before. But just like them, equal rights are shared among them (Joseph & Naǧmābādī, 2003). But as days go by, the rights of Muslim women were given to them by Allah, who is all-compassionate, all-merciful, all-just, all-unbiased, all-knowing and most wise. These rights were granted to women more than 1400 years ago, and were taught by the Prophet Muhammad. Years ago, Muslims tend to disagree on the view of marriages; some groups believe that Allah provides a moral and legal framework for Muslims to enter polygamous marriages, but with the interaction with Western world, Muslims start to think that polygamy is not the rule, but rather the exception to monogamy, which is considered as the norm (Roald, 2001). This context of women's right is also expanded with the provision of "no-fault divorce". Qur'an provides that man and woman must choose whether to live together in kindness or to separate in kindness. Yet, even with this clause, the problem is the extreme difficulty for women to get a divorce due to the legal and society penalties. But in this direction, we see how the religious authority seeks to provide an easy way out for women so they will be able to live a happy life than to live in the monotony and agony of the marriage life; the only problem is the unwillingness of the state to affirm the stand of Islam. Plainly, this is the statement of Islam for the protection of women against abuses of men.
Islam does not recommend doing bad things to be done as other culture and religion would do as well. The simplistic idea of Islam provides that people want to be happy as others would want to be as well, that it is necessary to form of evil deeds that may harm of hinder the rights of other people. This can even be ratified by simply reading over the Holy Quran:
"...And they say: "None shall enter paradise unless he be a Jew or a Christian." Those are their (vain) desires. Say: "Produce your proof if you are truthful." Nay whoever submits his whole self to Allah and is a doer of good, he will get his reward with his Lord; on such shall be no fear nor shall they grieve (Qur'an 2:111-112).”
Islam is the religion taught in its fundamentals by all the prophets. It is the religion of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad and all other prophets (peace be upon them all) throughout the existence of human beings. Islam does not promote violence and any disregard of other religion, but rather the dialogue between faiths to ensure the total understanding of this premise (Sikand, 2004, p. 21). According to Fleming (2001), although Islam claims as the true religion of the world, that all people are Muslims in the beginning, it does not promote monopoly of the truth and authoritarianism, which will clearly abhor other religion. In fact, the respect for creed and the avoidance of clash between religions places Islam as the prime driver of peace and not as a spoiling religion that aims to “islamicize” the rest of the world. The declaration of "Human Rights in Islam" drafted by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Cairo modernize the concept of human rights according to the Islam faith. The 10th Article of the Cairo Declaration emphasizes the fact that Islam is superior over other religions; however, the same says: "Islam is the religion of unspoiled nature. It is prohibited to exercise, in any form of compulsion on man or to exploit his poverty or ignorance in order to convert him to another religion or to atheism (qtd. Hafez & Kenny, 2000)." This means that any person who travels to Muslim countries is free to exercise his or her beliefs and practices without fear of any reprisal by the state or by the religious authorities of the region.
Misconception of the Western World; Depictions
On the other side of the spectrum, oppositions also have their arguments on why Islam does not promote the inherent and divine rights of man to live, and have equal opportunity and standing before the eyes of the law. At the top of the logical reasons they give is the act of violence done by Muslim terrorists who believe on the idea of divine war or jihad as the major framework and background of their actions; these acts are horrible and will never fall on the standard of human rights and equality. Second, reports on persecutions, torture, killing, rape, and other heinous crimes happening throughout the Middle East region are clear representation on the view of Islam concerning equality and human rights of men. Lastly, from the very beginning until this age, women have been fighting to gain their rights and respect from the patriarchal society as being promoted by Islam; it is impossible to categorize Islam as a prime mover of equality when there's a clear example of inequality as voiced by the plight of women.
According to White (2008), Osama bin Laden, in an explanation on the war, justified the terrorist attacks being hammered on the World Trade Center and Pentagon to the doctrine of jihad. The rationale of the war, according to bi Laden, is the continuous attacks that are carried by Americans on Muslims in various fronts and places such as Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq. Generally, the bad notion concerning Islam is its act of terrorism that is embedded in the doctrine of Jihad. Jihad means "to exert utmost effort, to strive, struggle (Bennett, 2007)." The broadness and vagueness of the definition offers a wide interpretation that serves as the background of the military struggle. With several terrorist attacks that are waged against cities of the Western world, the position and opinion of the Western people has basis and foundation. By allowing violence in any form and any level of the Islam faith offers a problem of conflicting views. The rationale of the protection of the people against violence, which is the prime contributory factor to inequality and human rights violation, is easily undermined with the loss of lives of people, as an act of religious practice punctuated by the notion of beliefs and practices of Islam (Falk, et.al., 2008). When religious practices and beliefs promote violence as a divine intervention, it is easy to see the conflicting views on the equality and rights of men to live in harmony, the opposition speaks.
The opposite side has been worried of the conditions of the people in the region who had been subjected to various human rights violations due to the religious and civilian dissents. Persecutions, in forms of torture, murder, and such other means, are still rampant throughout the Middle East region as shown by the reports of harassment that being raised against people of another religion, especially Protestant Christians in the region and those who had been converted from Islam to other faiths (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2004). In addition Behdad, et.al. (2006) affirmed that although there are Middle Eastern (Muslim) countries that signed the human rights policy and convention of the United Nations, the situation remains the same; the policies and conventions being drafted and signed remained part of the rhetoric of the government and the religious extremism of the region that are unwilling to recognize the number of persecutions and executions being done in the region. And not only the problem persists in the view of religious beliefs and practices, but it also transcends the political and social environment as shown by torture of political opponents, routine recourse for cruel treament and brutality to prisoners, censorship of art and media to avoid the clash of opinions and hinder freedom of expression, and unfair trials. According to Haddad, et.al. (2004), the lack of supranational authority and accountability of the people in the region adds problem to the massive and real inequality and human rights violation of the region. The domestic affairs of the region are not properly reported in the international arena due to the repressive nature of the government and the values of the religious beliefs and practices. It could have been that Islam, as a religion and faith, is the prime authority that will serve for the check and balance of the region to ensure human rights and equality; however, it is the same faith that does not act on the problem for in itself it has problems with inequality.
Aside from these views, Muslim, and of course, the Islam faith is also described and viewed as an oppressive religion. The repressive and oppressive nature of most stage governments on women's rights and position in the society is a conflicting view of the Western world. Although women's rights and activism was not regarded until the early 20th century, Western nations have afforded women their proper place in the society as a co-equal of men. Yet, this is not the case with most Arab states. In fact, in the 1980s, feminist oppositions have been raised and revived against Islam for the promotion of the right of women (Paidar, 2007). In addition, the birth of a daughter in a family was not an occasion for rejoicing, but was regarded with humiliation. The practice of killing female children was uncontrolled. With the advent of Islam came the verse from the Quran condemning those who practiced female infanticide:
"And when the news of (the birth of) a female (child) is brought to any of them, his face becomes dark, and he is filled with inward grief! He hides himself from the people because of the evil of that whereof he has been informed. Shall he keep her with dishonour or bury her in the earth? Certainly, evil is their decision." (An-Nahl 16:58-59)
Muslim women are not accorded the best support they can get due to the discrimination being raised against them (Hunter & Malik, 2005). This discrimination to women becomes an irony and a legal problem to the equality of human beings, as discussed in the preceding section. In the Islam faith, women are not given their proper respect, this is the reason why the government has not tried to make efforts to protect women from abuses, rather women are just left in the shadows in this patriarchal system of religious beliefs.
Conclusion
Islam has its own distinct characteristics that promote human rights and equality. It's basic understanding of the rights of man is deeply rooted on the principle that all men are equal and are Muslims in the sight of Allah. The universal brotherhood of men is a principle of Qur'an that binds the human rights understanding of Islam. This basic principle is the major standpoint, wherein all other tenets of the Islamic justice system resounds. Although, the Islam justice system is not definitely in accordance to the Western standards, but the Arab region had done an overhaul of the Islam justice system by creating documents of international patterns. The 10thArticle of the Human Rights Declaration in Cairo offered a paradigm shift of the Islamic justice system. It offered a more defined and clear statement of the equality of men and their inherent right as afforded by Allah, and as ratified by the statements of Qur'an. The justice system of Islam works for Muslims and can work in harmony with the Western justice system. The linkage between states creates a better relationship among them for a dialogue and convention of peace. Yet, still there are instances the Islamic justice system may go in clash with the Western system due to their differences of ideals and principles, but as far as human rights is concerned, the Islamic justice system promotes equality and respect.
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