Religious Liberty in Western and Islamic Law
Kristine Kalanges
Abstract
This book argues that differences between Western and Islamic legal formulations of religious freedom are attributable, in substantial part, to variations in their respective religious and intellectual histories. The book suggests that while divergence between the two bodies of law challenges the characterization of religious liberty as a universal human right, the “dilemma of religious freedom”—the difficult choice between the universality of religious liberty rights and peaceful co-existence of diverse legal cultures—may yet be transformed through the cultivation of a world legal tradition. ... More
This book argues that differences between Western and Islamic legal formulations of religious freedom are attributable, in substantial part, to variations in their respective religious and intellectual histories. The book suggests that while divergence between the two bodies of law challenges the characterization of religious liberty as a universal human right, the “dilemma of religious freedom”—the difficult choice between the universality of religious liberty rights and peaceful co-existence of diverse legal cultures—may yet be transformed through the cultivation of a world legal tradition. This argument is advanced through comparative analysis of human rights instruments from the Western and Muslim worlds, with attention to the legal-political processes by which religious and philosophical ideas have been institutionalized.
Keywords:
Western legal formulations,
Islamic legal formulations,
religious freedom,
religious liberty,
universal human right,
legal tradition
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199859467 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2012 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199859467.001.0001 |