International relations and the universality of human rights as a background for Islam's predicament with the western concept of human rights

The author argues that individual human rights are an originally Western concept which has become universal. The concept of human dignity which exists in Islam must not be confused with that of human rights, as secular entitlements, which are lacking in Islam. Human rights are a common concern for all humanity. In admitting that the origin of the concept of human rights is Western, this author — who is a Muslim — emphasizes the universality of human rights and questions cultural relativism. However, he does not argue for an imposition of these rights on non‐Western cultures. There is a basic need for establishing cross‐cultural foundations of human rights. Without these, human rights cannot thrive in cultures in which they did not grow.     

Major themes in the Arabic political literature of Islamic revivalism, 1970–1985: The Islamic system of government (al‐nizam al‐islami), shūra democracy and the implementation of the Sharica as opposed to secularism (cilmaniyya)

The analysis of the political literature of Islamic revivalism belongs to the pertinent issues of Muslim‐Christian dialogue. This article is an inquiry into the major themes of this literature published in Arabic. The historical context of the writings of political Islam is the failure of the secular nation‐state in the world of Islam to cope with the processes of modernization and development. The political Islamic response to this failure is the revival of the dream of reconstructing the Islamic state along the model of Medina on the eve of the rise of Islam. The analysis of the intellectual reconstruction of the early Islamic state as an expression of divine order, which ought to replace the secular state, reveals that this construction is imbued with projections of modern times into the Islamic past. Thus the alleged Islamic government of nizam islami/Islamic system as a modern issue is an outgrowth of political Islam. In this sense, the notion that Islam is a din wa‐dawla/ divine order of the state cannot be found in classical Islamic sources. Part one of this two‐part article comes to the conclusion that political Islam is a burden for modern Islam and an obstacle to the accommodation of the needs of the Muslim people to the modern age; it is not a promising future prospect in the present situation of crisis.     

Major themes in the Arabic political literature of Islamic revivalism, 1970-1985: The Islamic system of government (al-nizam al-islami), shura democracy and the implementation of the Sharica as opposed to secularism (cilmaniyya)

The analysis of the political literature of Islamic revivalism belongs to the pertinent issues of Muslim-Christian dialogue. Part one of the article, published in ICMR vol. 3, no. 2, came to the conclusion that political Islam is a burden for modern Islam and an obstacle to the accommodation of the needs of the Muslim people of the modern age. Part two discusses two central elements of an Islamic political system: the Shari'a as a legal system, and the shura as the authentic Islamic pattern of parliamentarism.     

Doctored Images: Enacting “Pain-Work” in John Berger and Jean Mohr’s A Fortunate Man (1967)

Journal of Medical Humanities - This essay argues that Berger and Mohr’s A Fortunate Man (1967) – comprising social observation and photographs of the rural practitioner, Dr. Sassall...