Oldal 278 [278]
HERBERT HANREICH
Despite much rarer occurrences of the term Sharia the new version conspic¬
uously often stresses the importance of national sovereignty, cementing political
and religious priority over the individual, since many OIC Member states have
introduced Sharia legislation. Subseguently, commentators have concluded that
"there appears to be a legal trick behind all this rhetoric which leaves us with a
notion that is completely empty...”””
Let us go back and have a look at the crucial paragraphs of the CDHR that deal
with its foundation. Basically, there is only one paragraph — to be found in the
Preamble — that hints at the ‘transcendental’ sources from where those provisions
originate; it is what comes closest to a ‘foundation’ of Islamic human rights in that
document:
“Believing that fundamental rights and freedoms according to Islam are an
integral part of the Islamic religion and ... they are binding divine commands,
which are contained in the Revealed Books of Allah... [as]...divine messages and
that safeguarding those fundamental rights and freedoms is an act of worship
whereas the neglect or violation thereof is an abominable sin...” (my emphasis).
A culture that takes its most fundamental rights of its people as deriving from
divine commands, revealed as divine messages that must be worshipped, has the
tremendous and unenvious task to explain, first, why anybody else from a different
culture should take those rights seriously and, second, what rights would have those
who happen to live in that very same culture but do not share such revealed insights.
Apparently, those infidels commit abominable sins for which they must be
punished accordingly. The CDHR clearly states that faithful Muslims must not
consider non-Muslims as equal.
There is no wiggle room for other interpretations.
Asian values
We have a similar problem with so-called ‘Asian values’, a set of principles
designed to offer a counter-view to existing human rights purportedly on the basis
of Confucianism. The main document containing those principles — The Bangkok
Declaration of Human Rights (BDHR) — emerged from regional preparatory
meetings for the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993, just
like the CDHR.
The nations that signed the BDHR have been authoritarian states as well".
2 Mozaffari, OIC Declaration, 25.
B A very brief but quite useful overview on background and political implications invoking
‘Asian Values’ can be found in: Susan J. Henders, Asian Values, Editors of Encyclopaedia
Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Asian-values#ref338316.
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