By Farhad Mamdouhi

We are approaching 5th of August, a day which was proposed by Iran as “Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Day” and unanimously endorsed by 57 Member States of Organization of Islamic conference. Iran lunched this diplomatic and outreach initiative to open up an opportunity for the Islamic Ummah to exchange views and reflect on the human rights developments in the world today.
In the today’s world human rights are increasingly invoked and have progressively attracted considerable public attention. However, the status of this noble concept is paradoxically being decreased for its exploitation for political ends. Taking evil advantage of human rights by the west and taking efforts to impose their value-system under the guise of human rights have considerably degraded this lofty notion.
Moreover, the West’s deceiving and hypocritical human-rights approach to Islam not only have impaired conceptual aspects of human rights, but also have presented some challenges to Islam and Muslim world.
In fact, rising to these challenges requires active coordination, collaboration and collective actions, in particular, among Islamic countries. The Muslim world, members of Origination of Islamic Conference, through resorting to their common denominators have to take the provided opportunities, such as “Islamic human rights day” to confront these challenges.
Along with addressing human rights challenges, Muslim world should, on the occasion of the Human Rights day, consider the ways and means to enrich and improve international human rights discourse and promote human rights based on moral values stemmed form divine teachings. Undoubtedly, the immortal teachings of Islam concerning freedom, justice, peace, fraternity and equality among mankind, and the universality and comprehensive nature of the Islamic rules on human rights and the prominent place of Man provides rich and valuable source for Muslim world in order to make outstanding and substantial contribution to the world human rights discourse. The west, which has reached an advanced stage in materialistic science, is still and shall remain in dire need of faith to support its civilization. As a matter of fact, Islam has much to offer to Western societies presently dominated by the anarchic demands of rampant “isms” including individualism, materialism, consumerism and secularism.
We shall not forget that self-belief is a prerequisite for rising to the said challenges and contributing to the international human rights discourse. Passivity of some Islamic states to encounter human rights challenges facing the Islamic Ummah has harmed collective and collaborative action against the west’s aggressive stance towards Islamic values. Seizing opportunities such as “Islamic human rights day” requires adopting a proactive approach and setting asides un-notable differences.
The 5th of August was designated as an “Islamic Human Rights Day”, since it is coincident with the adoption of the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam. A living document of 25 articles that has had considerable impact to enrichment and improvement of international human rights discourse and promotion of human rights values around the world. This is a big achievement that reminds Islamic States that cordial cooperation could play leading and valuable role in all international issues, in particular, in the sphere of human rights.
The OIC Member States, should observe this auspicious day as an opportunity to take concrete measures to rescue human rights from the bitter past legacy and move it to a higher plane of dialogue, cooperation, education and awareness rising according to Islamic teachings and values. This could be realized through dissemination, promotion and preservation of the Islamic teachings and values in the field of human rights, and protection of the true image of Islam, as well as encouragement of dialogue among civilizations and religions.
 

News ID 186949