Nobel Laureate: Islamic Countries Use Religion as Excuse for Denying Human Rights

March 18, 2004

Source: Khaleej Times

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2004/March/theworld_March411.xml&section=theworld

On March 18, 2004 the Khaleej Times ran an Agence France Presse article that reported, "Some Islamic countries are using the religion as a pretext for refusing to observe human rights, Nobel peace prizewinner and Iranian human rights campaigner Shirin Ebadi said on Thursday. 'Islam is the religion of equality and has no contradiction with the declaration of human rights,' Ebadi told a seminar in the Indonesian capital. 'Any reference to unchangeable religious and cultural relativity is an excuse to evade observing human rights.' Ebadi, giving the keynote speech at the seminar on Islam and Universal Values, said Islamic countries were signatories to most international rights treaties since there was no fundamental contradiction with Islamic principles."

See also: Islam, International