Religion and Human Rights; Compatibility, Conflict and Resolution Workshop at Al-Mahdi Institute

BIRMINGHAM, U.K. - Sept. 12, 2014 - PRLog -- Religions have been a primary source of guidance and normativity for their followers for centuries. They emerged to cater for the needs of the communities of different eras and locales by providing systems of norms and rules on how to live a moral and spiritual life. These religious normative systems were very successful in fulfilling the needs of their communities; indeed, their systems of social organisation, and spiritual practice became established to the extent that they continue to be significant and authoritative for the overwhelming majority of the global population. Paradoxically, human history attests that religions have also been a source of division and discord between adherents of different faiths, resulting in some of the bloodiest wars and killings, and oppression based on doctrinal discriminations against the ‘other’.

In the wake of the number of human lives lost in the first and second world wars, the advent of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as international law for its plenipotentiaries was a hallmark in human history, whereby discriminatory treatment of individuals could be outlawed. Although intended as a legal measure to prevent the escalation of nation-wide discriminatory events to mass genocide, its implications extended to curbing the norms and laws of nation states founded directly upon religion. Thus the conflict and antagonism was born between human rights and religion, and debates ensued within religious seminaries and religious departments in universities regarding the compatibility of individual religions and human rights.

To explore this further, Al-Mahdi Institute hosted an inaugural workshop as part of a series of events on Socio-political issues and Religion called, ‘Religion and Human Rights’ bringing together human rights specialists and scholars from different world religions with expertise on human rights. Scholars such as, Ayatullah Muhaqiq Damad, Professor Abdul Aziz Sachedina, Sheikh Arif Abdulhussein, Kishan Manocha, Anicee Van England, David van Dusen, Susannah Cornwall and many more spoke of different issues related to this.

Around 19 different scholars and specialists presented their findings to an audience of academics, scholars, students and members of the public, after which, questions were put across to each participant to encourage an interactive discussion. The event facilitated for not only Inter-faith talk but also allowed participants to freely engage with other like-minded participants from different religions, cultures and societies.

Topics discussed included;

Religion and Human Rights between Theo-centralism and Human Centralism by Ayatullah Syed Muhaqiq Damad (Shahid Behesti University)

The relationship between Religion and human Rights in light of Existantialism by Sheikh Arif Abdulhussain (Al-Mahdi Institute)

Combining Sharia with Human Rights Obligations: Defending New Forms in the Constitutional and Penal Reforms in the Maldives by Ahmed Shaheed (University of Essex)

International law, International Human Rights and Religion by Dr Anicée Van Engeland (University of London)

Whence human rights? Some moral evidence for theism by Callum Miller (Oxford University)

‘Defining Religious Diversity: The Bureaucratization of Religious Identity in Egypt’ by Daniele Bolazzi (King’s College London)

Peace-Building In Nigeria: Evaluating The Influence Of Tolerance And Peace Education In A Heterogeneous Society by Dennis U. Ashara (University of Ibadan)

The Muslim wife in Britain: In pursuit of divorce in a multicultural society, in light of Human Rights by Islam Uddin (Middlesex University)

Back to Essentials: Rediscovering Human Nature. An Existential and Spiritual Dialogue by Giovanni Patriarca (Italian Cultural Institution in Nuremberg, Bavaria-Germany)

Dialogue And Mediation For The Right To Religious Freedom by Jose Ferrer Sanchez (Granada University)

Religious duties and human rights: a meeting point? by José Luis Llaquet (University of Loyola Andalucia)

Principles and processes that facilitate the realisation of the freedom to believe in the individual lives of Bahá’ís by Kishan Manocha (Barrister and Chair, International Association for Religious Freedom, British Chapter)

Why is religion at the heart of modern liberty? Benjamin Constant on religious experience, the power of the clergy and the 'vivid love of individual independence' by Maria Dimova Cooksons (Durham University)

Hindu and Buddhist Challenges to Human Rights in South and Southeast Asia by Mark Juergensmeyer (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Can Islam Become A Legitimating Source For The Cultural Legitimacy Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights? by Professor Abdulaziz Sachedina (University of Virginia)

Have religions been the basis for human rights, or impeded them? by Ranbir Singh (HHR, the organisation for Hindu Human Rights)

Moralists-Realists divides on modern state and human rights: An Islamic virtue-mystical observation by Syed Mohammad Ghari S. Fatemi (Al-Mahdi Institute)

Bodily Rights and Gifts: Intersex, Religion, and Human Rights by Dr Susannah Cornwall (University of Exeter)

“A Crime against Human Nature” Revisiting Immanuel Kant’s Argument against Religiously Closed Constitutions by David van Dusen (University of Leuven)

To view partipants abstracts of the papers and images from the event, please click on the following link: http://almahdi.edu/almahdiresearch/index.php?option=com_e...