A Muslim calling the adhan. Muslims have consistently spoken out on human rights issues.
Answer: Muslims have not been silent on human rights. My founding of this website, and my statement that I want to bring Muslims into the arena of anti-torture work, is not meant to imply that other Muslims have been silent in this area.
Actually, many Muslim organizations have issued repeated condemnations of torture in general, and of specific incidents of human rights abuses as they have occurred, both in the West and in the Muslim world.
In addition, there are Islamic organizations devoted solely to human rights issues, again both in the West and in the Muslim world.
Human rights workers in the Muslim world have showed amazing bravery, speaking up on these issues even as their members have frequently been arrested, imprisoned, and tortured.
Even in the West, Muslims who write too frequently about human rights abuses by countries like the USA, Israel and Russia have been subjected to governmental scrutiny and questioning, on the theory that, for example, any Muslim who is overly concerned by Russia’s human rights abuses in Chechnya may have ties to the Chechen resistance fighters, who are considered to be terrorists.
The one area that is lacking (and I could be wrong even about this) is that I do not see any Muslim organizations in the West devoted specifically to the issues of torture and political imprisonment, perhaps because of the fear of intimidation that I mentioned.
Therefore I have started this website to fill that gap. It is a vitally important issue, one that has been weighing on my mind for years, and I am glad to finally be addressing it directly.
#1 by Joe P on April 16, 2010 - 7:31 pm
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Is there any place on earth where muslims get along peacefully with their non-muslim neighbors?
#2 by Wael on April 17, 2010 - 12:04 am
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Hi Joe. The answer is of course, Muslims live peacefully with their neighbors all over the world. The story of Rwanda is particularly striking. During the massacre the Muslims actively protected those who were being hunted, hiding them in back rooms, attics and basements. Since the massacre the percentage of Muslims in the country has almost doubled. Tutsis, grateful and impressed by the heroism of the Muslims, have converted in large numbers. Interestingly, many Hutus have also converted, feeling that it offers them a hope for redemption.
In Cambodia, the Cham Muslim people have lived peacefully along the Yangtze for hundreds of years. In Bulgaria, the Muslim minority lives peacefully in the mountains, though they suffer from poverty and discrimination from the central government. In China, the Hui Muslims are well integrated into society. Almost every non-Muslim nation has a Muslim minority.
Many Muslim majority countries have harbored people of other religions for millenia. In the 15th century, Jews seeking refuge from the persecution of the Catholic inquisition fled from Spain and settled in Morocco. They are still there today, thriving and unmolested by the Muslim majority. Syria is another country that has sheltered Christians, Jews and others.
So why the conflicts? The hot spots are areas where the Muslims have been colonized, brutalized, their customs and religion suppressed, their land stolen… Chechnya, with 300 years of Russian imperialism, has suffered abominably. Stalin shipped the entire Chechen population to camps in Siberia. They were only allowed back years later, and only half the population survived. They have suffered terribly under the Russians. Personally, I believe it’s time for Russia to grant them freedom and independence. They have never wanted to be part of Russia.
Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Xinjiang, Mindanao… these are all areas where Muslims have been oppressed, invaded, taken over, etc.
As for the rest of the Muslim world, it’s groaning under the weight of dictatorships installed by the British, French and Americans after they carved up the Ottoman Caliphate. They drew up borders deliberately designed to create conflict and weakness. They engineered coups, installed puppets, and continue to support tyrants.
It’s easy for an American or Westerner to point to someone who has been invaded and brutalized and blame them for not being peaceful. Imagine the tables turned, with the USA invaded by a foreign power, citizens herded into camps (like the Palestinians), their homes demolished, farms burned and crops razed, people rounded up and tortured and “disappeared”, women raped by foreign troops… do you think Americans would be peaceful under those circumstances?
My point is not to defend violence, and certainly not to defend terrorism. My point is that we need to look at the root causes and address them if we want to make any progress.
#3 by Fozia on May 22, 2011 - 12:55 pm
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Execellent response Wael, maashaAllah!