Human rights in Islam (Khamenei speech)

"Human rights in Islam" is the name of a speech delivered at the inaugural of the 5th Islamic Thought Conference by Ali Khamenei. It has also been published in the form of a booklet.

Human rights in a key topic in Khamenei's speeches and he has spoken about the issue in innumerable other speeches.

Themes

Khamenei believes the concerns with human rights since the Renaissance and campaigns of later humanists are very belated. He also touches on the ineffectiveness of the United Nations in remedying the human rights violations around the world. In spite of this, he doesn't reject the United Nations and unequivocally supports it. He only proposes ways of remedying the problems through refoms. He advocates reliance on the verses from the Quran and clauses from the recorded Sunnah to rectify the matter.

Best source for human rights legislation

According to Khamenei, the ideal sources to deal with the issue of human rights are the Quran and hadith. He repeatedly reiterates that "this does not need any elaboration" and "there is no need for the scholars to be reminded about this fact," [ [http://www.aghayan.com/hrightislam.htm Human Rights in Islam ] ] However, he does not point the specific "verses of the Quran" and clauses of the hadith. This is only because most people are familiar with the parts of the traditional Islamic writings that promote human rights.

Khamenei strongly favors the interpretation of Islam by Khomeini. In a 2006, he touched on the need to rely on Islamic teachings to solve many problems including human rights. He supports "Genuine Islam, propounded by Imam Khomeini as a teaching [which] purged ... syncretism, bigotry and obscurantism." [ [http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/2006/iran-060414-irna08.htm Full text of Supreme Leader's address ] ]

Khamenei is a staunch exponent of democracy--Islamic democracy; however, he openly regards liberal democracy with disdain [ [http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/1409.htm Clip Transcript ] ] and calls it a "venom." [ [http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/2006/iran-060414-irna08.htm Full text of Supreme Leader's address ] ] He believes the Quran and Sunnah should be used to guarantee human rights based on the interpretation of the Islamic clerics of the state.

Key paragraphs

The following is an important paragraph from the "Human rights in Islam" book.

ee also

*Islamic ethics
*Islamic democracy
*Early reforms under Islam

References

External links

* [http://www.islam-pure.de/imam/books/humanrights.htm Human Rights in Islam]
* [http://english.khamenei.ir//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=705&Itemid=19 Human rights in Islam] at http://english.khamenei.ir/