Islam and Human Rights

Mission interests in “turning the world upside down” must grasp the significance of Islam, its political-religious system, and its own human rights concerns.

by David Bentley

obert Qambar Ali, age 44, a Kuwaiti ious discrimination. Modern Islamic a wide range of human activities from R convert to , became the Human Rights documents, 1981 and prayer and eating habits to warfare. focal point of international concern early 1990, reveal an attitude attributable to the A guiding principle of the nearly fifty this year. His series of trials for apos- Hadith. This article closes with sug- nations that form the Islamic crescent tasy before the Islamic Shi’a court of his gestions for further understanding of ways is that the whole world consists of two home country was well covered by of making meaningful mission con- houses, dar al-islam, (house of peace the Arab press while the Kuwaiti govern- tacts with Muslims. where Shari’a is settled) and dar al-harb, ment deftly rebuffed global appeals Muslim Majority Nations (house of war where Islamic law is including letters from members of the not yet instituted). In the 50 nations of the world where United States Congress. To the Chris- The Christian worldview Muslims form the majority popula- tians in the West, Robert’s death sentence includes some thoughts of freedom, jus- tion, the perceptions of Christian evangel- for abandoning Islam is a clear viola- ical activities vary significantly. Gen- tice, and equality that emerged as a tion of international human and religious part of the message of the first century erally, however, there is a profound rights and raises questions about the church. Although the term “human distrust of both the missionary and reasons for the recently fought war for the rights” does not appear in the there the government departments who are defense of Kuwait following the 1990 responsible for allowing the mission- are the cries of a minority faith aspir- Iraqi invasion. ing to be tolerated by the major players in aries into their country. Often it is the In the same week of Robert’s the Roman empire. A few centuries sentence of death,similar reports government of an Asian or Middle later when Christianity became the offi- appeared: East country that faces the brunt of the attack when Muslims begin to perse- cial religion, it assumed the power of Surabaya, Indonesia: Ten churches were a majority religion. Along with this torched by mobs of Muslims in broad cute Christians. power, the medieval church fre- daylight endangering worshipers gather- Contemporary missions are not ing for Sunday services.1 unlike the events that Paul and quently ceased to concern itself with Cairo, Egypt: A secular magazine many of the aspects of human rights exposes the practice of forcing Christian faced when they evoked the wrath of such as justice for the minorities. Today teenage girls to adopt Islam after the religious leaders in Thessalonica (Acts the orthodox churches in Russia are “arranged” marriages and incidents of 17:1-9). The accused the first rape.2 Christian apostles in a civil court of “turn- making the same claims that they repre- Khartoum, Sudan: Two US reporters for sent the established faith of the Rus- a Baltimore newspaper buy a couple of ing the world upside down.” The Jew- sian population and are working through slave boys who can recall their early life ish leaders almost succeeded in bringing in southern Sudan.3 the Roman authorities into the fray the political system to restrain evan- Incidents similar to these occur when the synagogue charged Paul and gelicals and other voices of dissent. far too often across the Islamic crescent, Silas with making another king Persecution and Treason stretching from North Africa to South in place of Caesar. Jason was among An example of a minority which was Asia, as multiple cases of religious perse- those who were assessed a fine but successful in overcoming persecution cution and intolerance go unreported. later was allowed to go free. to achieve majority status, only to become This article will be limited to some of the An early important lesson for the persecutors, is reflected in a single root causes of violations of human Christians to understand is that the con- word in the Quran. When the first Mus- and religious rights of non-Muslims cept of mosque-state separation is for- lims were a persecuted minority and within this vast swath of humanity. eign to Islamic law, to the Shari’a, which denied access to the Meccan holy place Muslim persecution of Christians as well is considered superior to any human the word fitnah clearly meant ‘perse- as other religious groups, including laws. Missions to Muslims cannot over- cution’. Later, when the Muslims became Muslim sects, can be traced to the Quran, look the importance that all Muslims the dominant majority, fitnah would but the Hadith, i.e., the traditional place in establishing a just political order be defined as ‘treason’ and ‘sedition’. The acts and sayings of the Prophet Muham- based upon Shari’a in order to main- phrase can also be translated as ‘sub- mad, is more inclined to cause relig- tain a state of purity and readiness for version’ which is an act that is worse than INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FRONTIER MISSIONS, VOL 13:3 JULY-SEPT. 1996 156 Islam and Human Rights

‘killing and slaughtering’ according to the modern rational, logical mind....” She of Islamic militant fundamentalism today. Quran. added, A wider community exists which They ask thee [Muhammad] concern- The fundamentalists want to replace is also interested in religious freedom for ing fighting in the prohibited month. democracy with theocracy and to all. This community exists apart from Say: “Fighting therein is a grave impose old theocratic laws instead of the secularists and officials of national (offense); But graver is it in the sight modern secular laws on the members of God to prevent access to the path of of their own society, not on other dis- governments but often they are found Allah to deny Him, to prevent access tant powerful states which they con- in these two entities. They hold an affinity sider their enemies.5 to the Sacred Mosque, and drive out its with Christian missionaries about members. Subversion (fitnah) is Isma’il al-Farouki is another dis- greater than killing. (2:217) 4 human rights that are universal when it sonant voice from within the Islamic com- comes to an understanding of human Christianity evolved into “Chris- munity who was a victim of a US worth as expressed in the Universal tendom” over three to four centuries while inner city murder ten years ago. Rather Human Rights Declaration. “All Islam took only Muhammad’s life- than accuse a disparate group within human beings are born free and equal in time, between 609 to 632 AD, to evolve Islam as a cause of the human rights vio- dignity and rights.”7 To the secular- from a persecuted handful in Mecca lations, as did Taslima with the funda- ists these “rights and freedoms” are often to the persecuting majority led by a “com- mentalists, he saw the impact of Western described as “inherent” and “inaliena- mander of the faithful” in the last ten imperialism on Islam as the culprit. ble”, but for those within the Hebraic- years in Medina. The primary advocates Christian tradition the declaration of of human rights, who naturally When politics get so intermingled with Christian mission, what sort of situa- human rights created as we are in the include voices for religious rights, are tion would you expect if total religious “image of God” is more than an ade- found among the non-orthodox freedom were allowed? Give us the quate definition. Muslims reject this Gen- minorities and “liberal” Muslims. They, assurance that political involvement in mission will cease, and that power pol- esis precept as it violates their con- like Christian evangelists, face an itics will no longer intrude, then the cepts of monotheism wherein God has no aroused Islam that has been inappropri- principles of religious freedom would partners. ately named “fundamentalists”. The be approved by every sensible Muslim on earth. We Muslims are at the word itself sprang out of the early twenti- Islamic Human Rights receiving end of the line injustice. We eth century conflicts within Protes- haven’t emerged yet from two centu- The Muslim majority nations, tantism when the “Fundamentalists” ries of colonizations.6 however, have come up with their own refused to accept the liberal view of Secularists, Christian Alliances Declarations of Human Rights which the place of Christian Scriptures. Muslims Are these secularists such as the Ban- in the end support Islam but insist that today believe that the Quran is the gladesh Taslima ready to defend men there are some principles that the uncreated word of God, thus making the and women who are caught between the framers felt were “universal” that are overwhelmingly majority of Muslims religious and civil authorities on the beyond laws and codes that men have fundamentalists. The term here refers to a issues facing minority Christians, established. fringe group who would replace any women, evangelism, and rights of The 1981 Islamic Declaration of opposition, Islamic or non-Islamic, secu- converts? The evidence of this once hap- Human Rights Preamble, as is the case lar or religious, with their narrow pening comes from Turkey where the with other human rights documents, view of applying Islamic law, Shari’a, up leftist lawyers guilds helped the Turkish is a statement of principles without any to and including the use of violence believers who were under attack by force of statutory law. It begins by and terrorism. the government and the entrenched Mus- setting forth an Islamic order (Article g) Taslima Nasrin is a Bangladeshi lim leadership. At this time, Christian in our obligation to establish an author who had a death sentence pro- workers do have a common ally with the Islamic order: nounced against her by an Islamic usually Western thinking secularists (1) where all human beings shall be fundamentalist court in 1994. She lives that desire to see Islam open up to a equal and none shall enjoy a privilege or suffer a disadvantage or discrimina- outside of her native Bangladesh and broader idea of human rights. The tion by reason of race, color, sex, ori- publicly upbraids those who have charged governments of the Muslim majority gin or language.8 her with blasphemy and sedition. The areas are a possible ally also, but red The omission of any reference to following is part of the Harvard Univer- flags appear all over the place when religious equality in this Preamble is sity address she gave on April 28, Christian missions, secularists, partially balanced by Article III (c) which 1996, when she referred to “fundamental- women, and civil governments are seen reads: ist” conflict...”[that] is basically colluding with each other. However, No person shall be denied the opportu- between irrational blind faith and the these groups all face the common enemy nity to work or be discriminated

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FRONTIER MISSIONS David Bentley 157

against in any manner or exposed to non-Muslims. The next stage for Muslims ets of this unsigned document which they greater physical risk by reason of relig- is to see the folly of denying to others find objectionable. The problems ious belief, color, race, origin, sex, or language. what they do dearly claim for themselves. started from the beginning of the U.N., Three other articles of this Universal This is most apparent in cases where when Saudi Arabia led an assault on Islamic Human Rights Declaration non-Muslims embrace Islam freely but the the UDHR in 1948. The original attack touch upon religion. The applicable sec- reverse is opposed in solidly Islamic was generally directed toward the tions are quoted below: regions. Western terminology of the Preamble and specifically toward the Eighteenth X (a) The quranic principle “There is Evangelism Attacked as Slandering no compulsion in religion”(2:256) The 1981 and a later 1990 Declara- Article: shall govern the religious rights of Article 18 Everyone has the right to non-Muslim minorities. (b) In a Mus- tion prepared for Islamic Foreign freedom of thought, conscience and lim country, religious minorities shall Ministers Conference were eager to pro- religion; this right includes freedom to have the choice to be governed in tect the favored status of Muslims change his religion or belief, and free- respect of the civil and personal mat- dom, either alone or in community ters by Islamic Law or by their own when they used very transparent language with others and in public or private, to laws. to warn that those adults who volun- manifest his religion or belief in teach- XII Right to Freedom of Belief, teer to leave Islam will be held accounta- ing, or belief in teaching, practice, Thought and Speech 10 ble for slander or corrupting socie- worship and observance. (a) Every person has the right to ties.9 Evangelism in Muslim societies express his thoughts and beliefs so The UDHR asserts that the source of long as he remains within the limits adeptly falls under the rubric of “slan- its authority is located in such criteria prescribed by Law. No one, however, dering and corrupting” a nation’s cultural, as ‘inherent dignity’ and "inalienable is entitled to disseminate falsehood or i.e., Islamic heritage. The task of to circulate reports which may outrage rights", and goes on to thoughtfully public decency, or to indulge in slan- Christian mission to Muslims is to con- register a list of rights that are definitely der, innuendo or to cast defamatory vince the “authorities” that Christians human and universal. aspersions on other persons, (e) No are in favor of a national state where one shall hold in contempt or ridicule The Central Message of Jesus the religious beliefs of others or incite human rights for all its citizens are public hostility against them; respect upheld. This follows the principle found Islam has endured under various for the religious feelings of others is in the United Nations sponsored political and social conditions for 1,417 obligatory on all Muslims. human rights documents that call for years of the Hegira calendar which XIII Right of Freedom of Religion: places Muslims as recent successors of a Every person has the right to freedom unconditional religious freedom for of conscience and worship in accor- all adults which the secular Muslim long “medieval” period. Increasingly dance with his religious beliefs. accepts as an inherently human deci- in their modern periods, Muslim nations XIV Right of Free Association: (a) sion and the Christian accepts as part of are adopting Western styles of gov- Every person is entitled to participate ernment with elections, parliaments, and individually and collectively in the the imagio deo precepts found in the religious, social, cultural and political creation account. constitutions. The fact will remain life of his community. In most past history, Christianity that Muslims will continue to have a diffi- Despite the fact that this document has seen its adherents freely convert to cult time of accepting the distinctive purports to be a human rights declara- Islam from the beginning of the Mus- Christian message of salvation, the unity tion that comes closer to a statement lim conquests of the seventh century to of God and the non-negotiables of our defending Muslim orthodoxy, Mus- the present day. Modern Western faith: Jesus Christ’s incarnation, crucifix- lims recognize the need to respond to the societies, as reflected in the language of ion and resurrection. Converts to questions posed by human rights the- the Universal Declaration of Human Christ will continue to be the pariahs of ories. It should be noted that most serious Rights, UDHR, expect that the converse societies and it may take a couple of restrictions are placed on those who would also be accepted: that Muslims generations before they will eventually be could be charged with denigrating the may leave their faith without threats of accepted as full citizens in states that Law, i.e., Shari’a. Any man or persecution and death. live under the dream of an uncontested woman who chooses to leave Islam can be The whole modern issue of Human Islamic “house of peace”. accused of slander. He or she may not Rights arose out of the ashes of The convert, or apostate, under the rely on the usual interpretations of free- World War II when the United Nations strictest interpretation of the Hadith, dom of worship, association, and con- adopted as a preamble to the member- (not the Quran) would be forced to science. All of these freedoms are permis- ship of the world body the UDHR. Today, renounce any faith but the religion of sible only under the tenets of Islam Muslim majority nations are in the Islam. The penalty for leaving Islam is which are unavailable to minorities and forefront of tacitly avoiding selective ten- death and this penalty is authorized

VOL 13:3 JULY-SEPT. 1996 158 Islam and Human Rights by the readings of the Hadith, “Whoever ious rights of Muslims and Christians Christians face will be intense as they changes his religion, kill him.”11 The alike. leave a very secure environment Quran is clear that armed rebellion should where their nations are supposedly ruled National Churches and Converts be punished by death but defers to the by “God’s Law,” the Shari’a. West- Suggestions for possible out- ern missions to Muslims can point out life hereafter the exact nature of punish- comes for those directly involved in mis- how much this rule of God is manipu- ment for anyone who apostasizes sionary activity under adverse condi- lated by man. However, the greater chal- from Islam. tions are as follows: Christian responses to any relig- lenge will be to help new converts 1) The cross-cultural mission- develop their own confidence in follow- ious-political system that openly perse- ary’s “no entry” in a passport when trou- ing and serving Christ who is the cutes and criminalizes converts and ble arises may be the severest abuse King over all the nations of the earth! others should remember that discrimina- that an expatriate receives. But it is the tion is usually directed against non- national churches and the individual End Notes orthodox Muslims. Until the convert or members, converts and others, without the 1. Compass Direct Flash News, Santa any Muslim takes a strong stand to security of “Roman citizenship” who Ana, CA. June 20, 1996, p.1. 2. Rose Al-Youssef, Number 3549, Cairo, reverse the trends against his or her relig- will face the crowds and the wrath of Egypt, June 17, 1996 ious freedom, there is little an outside local and higher government officials. 3. The State, Columbia, SC, June 18, mediator can do. When believers in Christ (2) The new follower of Christ who 1996, p.A-4 are ready to openly challenge the has peacefully left Islam, (an equal to 4. Yusuf Ali, The Holy Quran, Transla- authorities on their free choice, at that Jason of Thessalonica) truly represents tion and Commentary Cambridge, time the body of Christ should rally to high risk ventures. The Lord selects MA, 1946, p.85. give unequivocal moral support. specific men and women to be part of the 5. Nasrin, Taslima, On Islamic Fun- Isolation, intimidation and viola- divine, spiritual drama that is still damentalism, The Humanist, April 28, tions of human and religious rights are unfolding throughout the Muslim- 1996, p.24. always unacceptable! There is a place majority nations. This drama is better 6. Al-Faruqi, Isma'il, Christian Mission for serious advocacy in behalf of those understood as a conflict in the heavens and Islamic Da’wah, International who suffer and this can be done from that begs Christians not to dwell at Institute of Islamic Thought, Herndon, VA, p.92. the safety of our democratic homelands. length upon present earthly circum- 7. Life in all its Fullness–The Word of Prisoners, as well as other persecuted stances, but to look to our God to fin- God & Human Rights, American individuals, sometimes can be contacted ish the work of calling sinners from all the Bible Society, 1992, p. 65. directly with letters, e-mail and per- peoples of the world. 8. Universal Islamic Declaration of sonal contacts. Zwemer Institute is among (3) Christians who have been well Human Rights, 1981. in C. G. Weera- several groups that monitor religious prepared to work with Muslims know mantry, Islamic Jurisprudence–An rights practices throughout the Islamic that the message of the Cross could turn International Perspective, St. Martin’s world. Letters to heads of govern- the world upside down. Missions Press, NY, 1988, Appendix B, ments and to foreign embassies may be should prepare the new churches and 176f. useful in making appeals for those believers to pray for the day of perse- 9. Mayer, Elizabeth Ann, “Islam & who are openly asking for help or in cution that their faith remains true. Radio Human Rights–Tradition and Politics”, West View Press, 1991. extreme cases where life is threat- broadcasts and other materials 10. op. cit., Life ened. beamed toward Muslim audiences may 11. Hadith from al-Bukhari (9c) from Apart from these types of public openly proclaim the acceptable year Ibn Abbas from Ali. This statement advocacy, prayers can be offered on of the Lord when men and women will be contradicts all other statements on behalf of kings, heads of states, par- set free. apostasy by al-Bukhari. Rafiq Zakaria liaments, and other government agencies In conclusion, historic precedence Muhammad and the Quran, pp. who are often on the first line of promising mass response to Christian 86-7. defense against terrorism and radical faith from Islam are meager. It’s more Islamic political-religious move- likely that more individuals will come Dr. David Bentley is a researcher in ments. Christians should be ready to com- to Christ when they are able to see that Islam and Human Rights at the mend those individuals and govern- their rights as believers and human Zwemer Institute. He and his wife ments who take a courageous stand beings are adequately protected by their served brief mission terms in Iran against those who violate the relig- host nations. The contest that the new and Jordan.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FRONTIER MISSIONS Editorial: Reaching Neglected Muslims... continuation from page 109 159 of their faith as Muslims, are realities that another great tool to evangelize the tunity to hear, understand and receive the we all should seek after. They also neglected unreached peoples and Good News.” prove the great mission fact that God has plant the church among them in obedience not left Himself without witness in to our Lord’s commission. May we Hans M. Weerstra, the Muslim world. And do we need to use“all available means and at the earliest IJFM Editor know that! possible time” so that in the Muslim October 1996, In this issue we will take a good look world “every person will have the oppor- El Paso, TX USA at another reason for our mission neglect—the Muslim women. Make sure to assimilate the thought provoking article by Fran Love concerning this neglected factor—a strategy that by and large has neglected the “rare and beautiful treasures” of evangelizing Muslim women and planting churches that include them. Last but not least, we need to explore a possible “justified reason” for the large number of unreached Muslims. Both past and current mission history indi- cate that Muslim missions has been very hard. One mission agency that focuses all its efforts on church planting among Muslims advertises for mis- sion recruits as follows: WANTED: MISSIONARIES TO MUSLIMS Bitter cold, scorching heat, long hours. Sickness almost certain. Possible imprisonment, Safe return not guaranteed. Honor and recognition from peers doubtful. Eternal rewards. Interested parties apply.

What makes Muslim missions so dif- ficult? Although by no means impos- sible, we will have to conclude that these are no easy mission fields, both for evangelism as well as for church planting. Again there are no easy answers. But one thing will certainly help: We need to learn to evangelize and plant the church of Jesus Christ in hostile environ- ments were we can expect mild to intense persecution. We seriously need to read Joshua Massey’s article on plant- ing the church undergound in hostile Mus- lim contexts along with David Bent- ley’s article on human rights in the Muslim world. Planting the church underground, by means of home-based fellowships, following the New Testa- ment model of house churches, gives us VOL 13:3 JULY-SEPT. 1996