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Islam and Religious Freedom ISLAM AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM A Sourcebook of Scriptural, Theological, and Legal Texts In partnership with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University Islam and Religious Freedom: A Sourcebook of Scriptural, Theological, and Legal Texts The Religious Freedom Project Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs Georgetown University Author of Introduction and Commentary: Abdullah Saeed, Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia Editors: Matthew Anderson, Ph.D. Student, Theology and Religious Studies, Georgetown University; Karen Taliaferro, Ph.D. Student, Government, Georgetown University DECEMBER 2014 The author gratefully acknowledges the many individuals who contributed to the drafting of this sourcebook with their suggestions, comments, and expert review, including Thomas Farr, Timothy Samuel Shah, Nick Fedyk, and Claudia Winkler. The final content of the sourcebook is the responsibility of the Religious Freedom Project and the principal authors. The research for this RFP publication was carried out in collaboration with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. This publication was made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not neccessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation. Table of Contents Introduction Development of Religious Freedom in Islamic Thought........................5 The Formative Period (ca. 610-1000 CE)................................................ 7 TheTransition to Medina.....................................................................8 The Question of Apostasy.....................................................................9 Religious Freedom of Non-Muslims in the Post-Prophetic Period......11 The Formative Period: Sources Scriptural Texts.....................................................................................13 Official Religious Texts.........................................................................22 Theological and hilosophicalP Texts......................................................30 Legal and Political Texts........................................................................45 The Middle Period (1000-1800 CE).......................................................49 The Middle Period: Sources Theological and hilosophicalP Texts....................................................50 Legal and Political Texts........................................................................58 The Modern Period (1800 CE-Present).................................................65 Rethinking Apostasy in the Twentieth Century......................................67 The Modern Period: Sources Theological and hilosophicalP Texts......................................................69 Legal and Political Texts........................................................................94 Notes..............................................................................................................104 4 BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, PEACE & WORLD AFFAIRS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Introduction DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT by Abdullah Saeed1 As it stands today, religious freedomi is a contested human right within Islam.While Qur’an 2:256 famously states that there is to be “no coercion in religion,” other texts seem to endorse contradictory principles, appearing to enjoin coercion, sometimes even violent coercion, in matters of conscience and religious practice. Modernist Muslim interpreters increasingly advocate an approach toward the Qur’an and Islamic jurisprudence that would place Islam on a path toward broader appreciation of religious freedom, including equality under the law for all religious individuals and groups. On the other hand, some Islamists invoking these same texts urge a return to an earlier, “purer” Islam that forbids conversion from Islam, as well as proselytization on the part of non- Muslims. This interpretation of Islam denies both non-Muslims and disfavored Muslims equal status in law and society. Modern legal texts are just as unclear. The Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (1981) and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990) nominally affirm the idea of religious freedom but limit its protections to conscience and worship. Indeed, these documents limit the protection of all human rights, including freedom of belief and worship, through the requirements of traditional Islamic law. i. The understanding of religious freedom adopted by the Religious Freedom Project is robust and has two parts. First is the right to believe or not (freedom of belief or of conscience), to worship, alone or with others, and to exit religious groups because of belief or conscience. These components of religious freedom are essentially interior (belief and conscience) or private (worship). As such, they are, or ought to be, virtually absolute. There is no legitimate rationale for their restriction by any human agent, including governments. The second element entails both individuals and groups, and has distinctive public dimensions. It includes the rights of individuals and groups to act in civil and political society on the basis of religious conscience or belief, within very broad limits equally applied to all—religious or not. This two-part understanding of religious freedom, with its robust public components, is not present within any religious tradition or nation until the modern era. Even then, the degree of religious freedom present in any given nation was, and continues to be, contingent on historical and contempo- rary forces that may or may not be related to the dominant religious tradition. Restrictions on religious freedom, especially in its public forms, result from a variety of conditions, including communism, religious nationalism, violent religious extremism, and aggressive modern secularism. ISLAM AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 5 Furthermore, freedom of belief and worship has often been understood—and practiced—differently for Muslims than for non-Muslims. This has historical roots in the concept of dhimma, a protected but inferior status for non-Muslims granted in traditional Islamic law. Reconciling an Islamic understanding of religious freedom with the growing modern insistence on equal rights for all people—as witnessed in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example—has therefore proven somewhat challenging.2 As we shall see, strains of thought in strong tension with a robust conception of religious freedom have been present in the Islamic tradition from the beginning, and they continue to exercise an important influence in many Muslim-majority societies. Scholars disagree, then, on the extent to which the idea of religious freedom developed in Islam. However, the broad textual outlines of a developing Islamic understanding of religious freedom, especially the limited idea of freedom of belief and private worship, are discernible. As we shall discuss in the following sections, the concept evolved progressively throughout Islamic history. This sourcebook presents the challenges concerning religious freedom within the Islamic tradition, while also illuminating currents of possibility and reform. 6 BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, PEACE & WORLD AFFAIRS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY The Formative Period (ca. 610-1000 CE) For Muslims, the foundational era for the formation of ideas about freedom of belief and religion is found in the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (ca. 570- 632). Later developments in Islamic thought on religious freedom were based (at least in theory) on the concepts and practices that existed and evolved during this period. Two primary sources provide insight into the understanding of religious freedom in this early period: the Qur’an and the hadith (the oral traditions of and about Muhammad). These sources provide the central basis for Islamic norms, values, and laws.3 During Muhammad’s early ministry in Mecca (ca. 610-622), Islam had relatively few followers, and Muslims lived as a persecuted minority. The Qur’anic texts associated with this period frequently suggest values of commitment, patience, perseverance, steadfastness in the new religion, non-violence, and freedom of belief. For example, the Qur’an supports a concept of individual freedom of belief when it says, “Now the truth has come from your Lord: let those who wish to believe in it do so, and let those who wish to reject it do so” (18:29). A similar passage emphasizes the responsibility of the individual to believe or not: “Now clear proof has come to you from your Lord: if anyone sees it, that will be to his advantage; if anyone is blind to it, that will be to his loss” (6:104). Despite the severe persecution that Muslims experienced in Mecca—including the deaths of some who were not protected by their masters or clans, and attempts to drive Muslims from the Meccan marketplace—the first Muslims remained steadfast in their new religion. Islamic legal scholar Mohammad Hashim Kamali observes that this period of Islam’s textual development suggests a conviction that individuals must possess the freedom to believe in God and in the new religion of the Prophet.4 Numerous Qur’anic texts emphasize the Prophet’s responsibility to communicate the messages he received from God, while allowing his listeners the freedom to make decisions about what to believe (see Qur’an 88:21; 10:108; 27:92). Such texts indicate that forced conversion
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