Making the Case for Religious Freedom within the Islamic Tradition
Asma Afsaruddin Sunday, 1 June 2008
In contrast to Western secular discourses, contemporary Muslim discourses on human rights and religious freedom are often grounded in religious texts and in appeals to historical praxis to establish their normativeness. Such differences in approach have led to quite a bit of hand-wringing in Western secular circles, raising the concern that Muslims may be incorrigibly beyond the pale when it comes to issues of religious freedom. In the European experience of the Reformation and Enlightenment, concepts of tolerance and religious freedom were the result of secularization, which posited the strict separation of church and state and the relegation of religion to the private sphere. By contrast, on account of their different historical experiences, Muslims have not come to assume an adversarial relationship between religion and basic human rights.
To continue reading this free sample article, please visit this article's page at informaworld, the web platform of our publishing partner Routledge.