Human Rights, yes; Allah’s Law, No.

Human Rights, yes; Allah’s Law, No.

Islam is a religion, we are told repeatedly, but we are not told that Islam is also a body of law and a political regime of which God is the lawmaker.

The whole of our political history shows that it is of the highest importance to express rights.But the rights stated by Islamic law is contrary to our fundamental rights on the most crucial points.

According to our principles, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment are forbidden, while Islam authorises men to beat their wives and decrees punishments of mutilation and other barbarous tortures.

According to our principles, freedom of belief includes the right to change our religion, while according to Islam, apostasy is a crime punishable by death, as decreed by numerous Muslim sages and numerous fatwas.

According to most of our legislative systems, inciting hatred of others is condemned, because the lawmakers and the Church itself have drawn the lessons of the nameless horror engendered, among others, by the “teaching of contempt of Jews” (as Jules Isaac named it), ... While Muslim prayers contain the “fatiha”, a Coranic verse that teaches contempt of Christians and Jews...

Finally, according to our principles, none of our basic rights and freedoms can be used to eliminate those rights and freedoms, while Islam orders Muslims to combat so that Islam be the only religion and the only law, i.e., for our fundamental freedoms and rights, which we have just named, to be eliminated by Islamic law, and militant Muslims never cease using the term “freedom of religion” to advance the application of the Sharia.

When will our judges, our magistrates and our politicians consent to apply OUR RIGHT by fully respecting its spirit and its aim: to preserve our fundamental freedoms against all attack, including those that misuse the pretext of a freedom of religion?