Islam and the Secular State May 3, 2008
Posted by wansaiful in Ramblings.trackback
I have been meaning to write more about the Atlas Liberty Forum and, to complete my posts about the trip to DC and Atlanta. Now that I have been back in the UK for a few days and am back at work, it looks unlikely.
But I do want to mention about my meeting with Professor Abdullahi An-Naim of Emory University. He picked me up from Sheraton Atlanta and kindly took me for a short tour around the city. And then we went for dinner a the Red Snapper restaurant near Buckhead. Now, Professor An-Naim is a man with very interesting ideas, which he summarised in his monumental book “Islam and the Secular State”. We discussed some of the main ideas he presented in the book during our 4 hour meeting, but I am afraid I cannot say much more until I finish reading it. So, maybe more comments in a few weeks time.
I first came across Abdullahi an-Naim’s name when I was studying international human rights and Islamic law during undergrad. He’s a proponent of cross-cultural human rights and in fact proposed what he calls “internal discourse” of human rights. He disagrees with the ‘outsider’ approach that seeks to promote human rights by the contention that certain cultural values are incompatible with human rights values and calls for an approach ‘from within’, making use of traditional sources and interpreting them in the light of human rights.
What do you think of his ideas?