Aims & Scope
Muslim World Journal of Human Rights offers a medium for scholarly debate on various aspects of the question of human rights as it relates to the Muslim World. Edited by an international board of leading Islamic studies, Middle Eastern studies and human right scholars from around the world, MWJHR promises to serve as a forum in which barriers are bridged (or at least, addressed), and human rights are finally discussed with an eye on the Muslim world, in an open and creative manner.
The choice to name the journal, "Muslim World Journal of Human Rights" reflects a desire to examine human rights issues related not only to Islam and Islamic law, but equally those human rights issues found in Muslim societies that stem from various other sources such as socio-economic and political factors, as well the interaction and intersections of the two areas.
MWJHR welcomes submissions that apply the traditional human right framework in their analysis as well as those that transcend the boundaries of contemporary scholarship in this regard. Further, the journal also welcomes inter-disciplinary and/or comparative approaches to the study of Human Rights in the Muslim World in an effort to encourage the emergence of new methodologies in the field.
Muslim World Journal of Human Rights recognizes that several highly contested debates in the field of Human rights have been reflected in the Muslim World but have frequently taken on their own particular manifestation in accordance with the varying contexts of contemporary Muslim societies. Among these debates are:
- universalism/ relativism
- individualism/ collectivism
- positivism/pluralism
- deontology/instrumentalism
- internationalism/sovereignty
In addition to the theoretical debates noted above, a sampling of the substantive areas to be addressed by the journal’s articles can be seen in the following:
- Civil and political rights (e.g., capital punishment, freedom of expression, unlawful detentions, etc.)
- Social, economic and cultural rights (e.g., the right to education, health care, labor rights, etc).
- Women’s rights and their sociological, political and cultural contexts (e.g., discrimination in family and criminal law, political participation, domestic violence, etc.)
- Religious freedom and the rights of religious minorities living in Muslim States (e.g., dhimmah system, apostasy etc.)
- The rule of law, constitutionalism and notions of Islamic constitutionalism.
- The influence of both political Islam and reformist theological and jurisprudential thought on ''Islam and human rights'' debates.
- Refugee rights