JEDDAH, 25 March 2003 — The decades of suffering by the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation, the war in Kosovo and now the attack on Iraq — these and many other armed conflicts raise the issue of human rights in wartime.
After World War II, guidelines were set to protect the lives of innocent civilians at times of conflict and define the rights of all human beings at all times and everywhere. These guidelines were articulated by the countries that won the war and that had recently relinquished their control, grudgingly, over the countries they colonized for centuries.
The concepts they presented in their doctrines might have seemed new and inspirational to them, but a recent research paper entitled “Human Rights in Islam” explains how Islam defined these concepts and implemented them more than 1400 years ago.
Dr. Rawya Al-Thahhar, professor of Islamic jurisprudence at King Abdul Aziz University, Madinah branch, received the Madinah Award for Best Scientific Research in 2000, and the paper was published two months ago.
It documents the human rights defined by Islam and compares them to the International Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. “I looked at the origins of human rights in Islam, their sources and regulations, and compared them to the International Declaration of Human Rights,” Dr. Al-Thahhar told Arab News.
“I find that Islam is more deserving of being described as international than the International Declaration of Human Rights because it does not discriminate and does not favor certain groups of people over others,” she said.
Unlike in the West, the concept of human rights is not new in the Islamic world. Islam declared from the start that all people are equal and free.
“There is deliberate misrepresentation of Islam by some non-Muslims who have studied it,” said Dr. Al-Thahhar. For example, regarding the issue of women’s rights, “Islam treated men and women equally at a time when the West was debating whether women had a soul and treated them as property.”
In war, Islam forbids the destruction of homes, trees and places of worship and the killing of women, children and the elderly. It called for the humane treatment of the dead, the wounded and prisoners. “These are Islamic principles which the West in all its wars has never respected,” said Dr. Al-Thahhar. “The US, the country carrying the banner of human rights, is the first to disregard them when it comes to other people,” she added.
Based on verses from the Holy Qur’an, the words and conduct of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and those of the caliphs after him, Dr. Al-Thahhar identified the rights of humans according to Islam.
“In Islam there are executive laws governing the treatment of people and the conduct of war, but with the International Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention the statements amount to nothing more than recommendations that are not enforced,” Dr. Al-Thahhar said.
