European Parliament
Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times
Short answer to the ‘when,’ question is as soon as they read this article carefully and share it with all the fellow Muslims, through email and social media. The answer to the ‘how,’ question is a little long and for that you will need to read the rest of the article.
In January of 2013, a British Airways (BA) employee suffered discrimination at work over her Christian beliefs, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.
Judges ruled Nadia Eweida’s rights had been violated under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
She took her case to the European Court of Human Rights after BA made her stop wearing a cross visibly.
British Airways said: “Our own uniform policy was changed in 2007 to allow Miss Eweida and others to wear symbols of faith and she and other employees have been working under these arrangements for the last six years.
London Eye: One of the famous landmarks of London
Following the rulings, Prime Minister David Cameron said he was “delighted” that the “principle of wearing religious symbols at work has been upheld,” adding that people “shouldn’t suffer discrimination due to religious beliefs.” BBC reported.
This drew my attention to the plight of 44 million Muslims in Europe. Who, struggle with their religious identity in different European countries, day in day out.
A few minutes of reading here, may give a new found self confidence, to the 44 million estimated Muslims in the European Union, a better outlook to life and more confident interaction with the fellow citizens.
Brandenburg Gate, the most famous landmark of Germany
If the forty four million begin to enjoy fully their God given rights, articulated by European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and get addicted to them, they may even ask for these in the so-called Muslim countries, for themselves and for others and even begin to influence India and China, who have sizable Muslim populations.
The 18 articles of ECHR are described in a Wikipedia article and else where in the web and I have copied them in the Muslim Times, for the benefit of the forty four million. My two cents of contribution here is that a legal advice by a lawyer is not necessary for a common sense understandings of these articles, unless you or your organization are planning a law suit, to seek these rights for all fellow Muslims.
The forty four million need to know that according to the Encyclopedia Britannica:
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), in full Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, convention adopted by the Council of Europe in 1950 to guard fundamental freedoms and human rights in Europe. Together with its 11 additional protocols, the convention—which entered into force on Sept. 3, 1953—represents the most advanced and successful international experiment in the field to date.
On Nov. 4, 1950, the Council of Europe agreed to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the substantive provisions of which were based on a draft of what is now the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Over the years, the enforcement mechanisms created by the convention have developed a considerable body of case law on questions regulated by the convention, which the state parties typically have honoured and respected. In some European states, the provisions of the convention are deemed to be part of domestic constitutional or statutory law. Where that is not the case, the state parties have taken other measures to make their domestic laws conform with their obligations under the convention.
A significant streamlining of the European human rights regime took place on Nov. 1, 1998, when Protocol No. 11 to the convention entered into force. Pursuant to the protocol, two of the enforcement mechanisms created by the convention—the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights—were merged into a reconstituted court, which is now empowered to hear individual (rather than only interstate) petitions or complaints without the prior approval of the local government. The decisions of the court are final and binding on the state parties to the convention.
The forty four million also need to know that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is also an equally powerful, fair and elaborate document and perhaps one could argue that the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is its first born child. However, in contrast to the European Convention, even though most countries are a signatory of the Universal Declaration, it lacks any tools for implementation and is dependent on the Security Council with its five vetoing members and individual countries for any pragmatic approach.
It is time for the Muslim masses, the forty four million, to stop being constantly confused by the theatrics of Mullahs and medievalist scholars of Islam, to learn about the history of human rights, in the East and the West. If the forty four million learn about the French revolution, about the development of USA constitution, the history of development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and last but not the least the history of European Convention on Human Rights, they will become a lighthouse to the East for human dignity and brotherhood.
If the forty four million learn that these rights are given to them by the West, America or Europe, then they will wake up to be intellectual slaves, who can only display the yokes of submission in their necks in the public square, while the Christians display their crosses in their necklaces.
But, if the forty four million dare to contrast the history of early Islam, of the Holy Quran, of the Prophet Muhammad, of Umar Farooq, with the medieval Islam, which can be bracketed with the present day Mullah they will wake up, from their slumber of a few centuries, free and fresh, without the hangover of their intellectual, academic and scientific inferiority of the last 3-5 centuries, since the European renaissance.
They will know the history of early Islam of the Islamic Empire, Europe and USA and let me say to the forty four million, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) Then the millions will display their human dignity and human values every where in Europe.
With the election of a son of a Kenyan man to the highest office in USA we see gradual perfection of the vision expressed in the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” But at the same time, suicidal bombings by terrorist, the outrageous violations of human rights in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, the indifference to the so called collateral damage in air bombings, have again rekindled the question as to what are the human rights and where do they come from. The events since September 11, 2001 have jolted every citizen of the planet earth with renewed quaking and put them on a quest to look for answers. Is life of an American more sacred than a non-American? What if he or she is a Muslim? Are all humans truly created equal? Where did the words, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal;’ come from? To one exposed to the Western media only these noble words came from the pen of President Thomas Jefferson, as he authored United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. But a more cultured Westerner may know what Wikipedia mentions, under the heading all men are created equal, “Many of the ideas in the Declaration were borrowed from the English liberal political philosopher John Locke.” But that is where Western scholarship ends. Locke lived in the seventeenth and eighteenth century.
Such is the dissociation of the Western writers in terms of ignoring the beauties of Islam, that they can attribute all such liberal ideas with a straight face to Western philosophers, despite the fact the Muslim literature has been replete with mention of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, saying to a crowd of more than a hundred thousand people, at the time of the final pilgrimage, an event that itself symbolizes human equality, “All of you are equal. All men, whatever nation or tribe they may belong to, and whatever station in life they may hold, are equal. Allah has made you brethren one to another, so be not divided. An Arab has no preference over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab; nor is a white one to be preferred to a dark one, nor a dark one to a white one.” The whole of his sermon is recorded in history and has been more famous and cherished than President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, in the Muslim world, over the centuries. This is where human equality began, not only for the Muslims but for the whole of humanity!
Let the forty four million fast forward, the video of centuries of history, to the World War II. Dr. Andrew Conway Ivy was appointed by the American Medical Association as its representative at the 1946 Nuremberg Medical Trial for Nazi doctors. By 1945 he was probably ‘the most famous doctor in the country.’ He wrote, “Only in a moral world, a world of responsibility, can man be free and live as a human being should. Men are truly equal and free only as creatures of God, because only as the children of God and only in the sight of God and ultimate moral law are men truly equal.” In the Nuremberg trial he struggled with the question that if man-made law is the sole source of basic human rights, why condemn the Nazi assault on Jews, Gypsies, Poles, and political enemies; and having shaken by this perplexing trial he concluded:
If God and the ultimate moral law are denied, there can be no absolute argument against slavery, against ‘might makes right’ and man’s greedy exploitation of man. If human beings have no absolute intrinsic value, no absolute intrinsic freedom of decision, no absolute liberty, no absolute duties, they possess only extrinsic value and may be used as chattels, slaves or serfs by those who have the intelligence and power.
It took the catalyst of World War II, after millions of casualties, to propel human rights onto the world stage and into the global conscience. On December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the 56 members of the United Nations. The vote was unanimous, although eight nations chose to abstain. Articles I and II could be considered paraphrasing, in contemporary legal terminology, of what the Prophet Muhammad, may peace be on him, had said in his address at the time of last pilgrimage, in 632 CE, or what President Thomas Jefferson wrote more than a millennium later. Article I states, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” As the Prophet delivered his farewell speech, to an unprecedented large gathering, standing on the back of his camel Qaswa, he raised his hands and joined the fingers of one hand with the other and then said, “Even as the fingers of the two hands are equal, so are human beings equal to one another. No one has any right, any superiority to claim over another. You are as brothers.”
At the time of the Prophet Muhammad there were hardly any non-Arab Muslims, so, when he said Arab has no superiority over the non-Arb, he was proclaiming human equality and universal brotherhood and sisterhood.
Human rights hold the key to our mundane and spiritual salvation; that is what the Prophet said.
If the forty four million focus on religion in private as well as public domain, they are destined to sectarian struggle amongst themselves and conflict with their Christian and Jewish neighbors. But, if they have the wisdom to keep their religion to their personal and spiritual sphere and in the public sphere focus on secularism and human rights for themselves and others, Europe will have no choice, but, to embrace them with open arms.
Now is the time to steer the Muslim ship in the right direction.
Read further in Islam for the West and the Muslim Times (TMT):
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Islam!
Umar Farooq: Who pioneered religious freedom for the whole of humanity!
Umar Farooq versus Heraclius: Who gave us our Religious Freedoms?
Fall of Jerusalem in 638: A Theological Crisis for Christianity!
You are (of course as usual) right, brother Zia. Every one should have these articles handy (if not knowing them by heart).
A very very informative share. Thank you.
Ironically two of the articles, “right to privacy” or the family life and “freedom of expression” are much violated, not only in the third world, but even in the European countries.
What total rubbish. Muslims live and thrive in much of europe – while a few countries are not particularly fond of the rapid growth and excessive expression and dress of Muslims. A tiny piece of jewelry cannot be compared to a human being being covered in clothing from head to toe with only a slit for the eyes. Foreign architecture. Work hours that follow different days of the week than existing mon-fri. Failure to learn the native language. Failure to accept native laws. The discussion of rights here always favours minorities and not the majority. Remind any of us again why any minority NOT native to any country (mostly in the west! as minorities in other parts of the world are often treated like animals)gets to define or redefine the laws of the countries they flock to for a better life? a new life? freedom, personal safety or better standard of living? Seems pretty ungrateful to me – as other cultures and ancestries flocked to western countries and never tried to change them. The term ‘REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION’ means little to people with an agenda.