Human rights and religious values

de ʻAbd Allāh Aḥmad Naʻīm, Abdullahi A. An-Na'Im, Jerald D. Gort

The relevance, indeed urgency, of establishing a clear relationship between human rights and religious values is easily argued. Developments throughout the world have given rise to a number of conflicts caused by disparate interpretations of religious values and basic human rights. This volume demonstrates that religious ideals of human life differ very deeply, and it offers a realistic approach to those deep differences. Focusing on the implications of religious anthropologies for the possibility of acknowledging human rights, the eighteen essays collected here respond to the central question Can human rights be interpreted and justified from within religious traditions such that they are supported, rather than undermined, as the "common core" of a universal morality among these traditions? These responses clearly display the diverse religious and cultural backgrounds of the participating scholars - including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - and serve to further an open, congenial, and critical dialogue on this important topic.