Islamic Constitutions and Liberalization/Human-Rights

Those interested in how Islam--and religions in general--relate to human rights should take a look at these findings from leading international-law scholar Tom Ginsburg and a co-author, concerning "Islamic clauses" in national constitutions, i.e. clauses that make Islam the supreme law. The authors analyzed a data set of constitutions adopted in majority-Muslim countries over decades and concluded, among other things,

that in many cases, these clauses are not only popularly demanded, but are also first introduced into their respective jurisdictions during moments of liberalization and modernization. [Moreover,] contrary to the claims of those who assume that the constitutional incorporation of Islam will be antithetical to human rights, we demonstrate that almost every instance of “Constitutional Islamization” is accompanied by an expansion, and not a reduction, in the rights provided by the constitution. Indeed, constitutions which incorporate Islamic supremacy clauses are even more rights-heavy than constitutions of other Muslim countries which do not incorporate these clauses. We explain the incidence of this surprising relationship using the logic of coalitional politics.

These findings have significant normative implications.... [Among other things, they] suggest that outsiders monitoring constitution-making in majority Muslim countries who argue for the exclusion of Islamic clauses are focused on a straw man; not only are these clauses popular, but they are nearly always accompanied by a set of rights provisions that could advance basic values of liberal democracy. We accordingly suggest that constitutional advisors should focus more attention on the basic political structures of the constitution, including the design of constitutional courts and other bodies that will engage in interpretation, than on the Islamic provisions themselves.