ounter with traditional Islam in the Middle East.
That continues to be the experience of many African-Americans, along with many peoples of Asia and Africa. Their experience of white Westerners, and of white Christianity, was of a culture and religion that was enslaving and that treated people of different races as inferior, almost inhuman. On the other hand, their experiences of Islam was of a religion which was not racist and which accorded them the identical role in the community of believers as the Arabs who first adopted Islam. In addition, modern-day Islam is not associated with colonialism, even though many of the African countries, at least, adopted Islam originally through conquest by Arab countries.
African-Americans and previously colonialized people represent much of the growth of Islam during contemporary times. Barboza (1995) noted that African-American men continue to move toward Islam - not the Nation of Islam, but traditional Islam - specifically because it embraces people of all colors and does not have philosophical or doctrinal teachings about racial superiority. Instead, Islam emphasizes the community of all believers throughout the world and provides a common path for all believers to follow to live the good life and please God. What are some specific aspects of the concept of human rights in Islam?
The development of the concept of human rights in the West has a long history, with the foundation for those rights derived from natural law. In Islam, the derivation of human rights is religious. Human beings derive their rights from their anthropology; they are created by God, and as such are deserving of particular rights to dignity, equality, and justice because they are the prize creation of Allah. According to Bassiouni (19), the foundation of human rights within Islam is that human beings are not only the creatures of God, but the only creatures who are capable of making the free choice of Isl...