Two Declarations, Two Visions
In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), establishing fundamental rights for all human beings regardless of race, sex, religion, or national origin. In 1990, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) — representing 57 Muslim-majority states — adopted the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI) as an explicit Islamic alternative.
The existence of the Cairo Declaration is itself revealing: if Islam were compatible with universal human rights, there would be no need for a separate Islamic declaration. The OIC created the CDHRI precisely because universal human rights conflict with sharia in ways that cannot be reconciled. Understanding these conflicts is essential for evaluating Islam's compatibility with the modern world.
The Cairo Declaration's Crucial Caveat
The most important articles in the Cairo Declaration are its last two:
"Article 24: All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Sharia."
"Article 25: The Islamic Sharia is the only source of reference for the explanation or clarification of any of the articles of this Declaration."
These two articles effectively nullify every right mentioned in the declaration. Any right that conflicts with sharia — and as we shall see, most fundamental rights do — is automatically overridden. The Cairo Declaration does not protect human rights; it subordinates them to religious law.
Freedom of Religion
UDHR Article 18
"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief."
The Islamic Position
Islam categorically rejects the right to change one's religion. All four schools of Sunni jurisprudence prescribe the death penalty for apostasy, based on the hadith:
"Whoever changes his religion, kill him." — Sahih Bukhari 6922
The Cairo Declaration carefully avoids mentioning the right to change religion. Article 10 states: "Islam is the religion of unspoiled nature. It is prohibited to exercise any form of compulsion on man or to exploit his poverty or ignorance in order to convert him to another religion or to atheism."
Note the asymmetry: it prohibits converting Muslims away from Islam but says nothing about converting non-Muslims to Islam (da'wah), which is actively encouraged. The "freedom" is one-directional: you are free to enter Islam but not to leave it.
The practical consequences are severe. In countries implementing Islamic law, apostates face imprisonment (Malaysia, Maldives), death sentences (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Qatar, Yemen, Sudan), forced divorce, loss of custody of children, loss of inheritance rights, and social ostracism. For more on this topic, see Leaving Islam Safely and Famous Ex-Muslims.
Gender Equality
UDHR Article 1
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
UDHR Article 2
"Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as... sex."
The Islamic Position
Islam explicitly rejects gender equality in multiple areas:
Testimony: A woman's testimony is worth half a man's in court:
"And bring to witness two witnesses from among your men. And if there are not two men, then a man and two women from those whom you accept as witnesses — so that if one of the two women errs, then the other can remind her." — Quran 2:282
Inheritance: A daughter inherits half of what a son inherits:
"Allah instructs you concerning your children: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females." — Quran 4:11
Marriage: Men may have up to four wives; women may have only one husband (Quran 4:3). Men may marry Christians and Jews; Muslim women may only marry Muslim men.
Divorce: A man can divorce his wife by pronouncing talaq; a woman must petition a court and prove specific grounds.
Physical discipline: The Quran permits husbands to strike disobedient wives (Quran 4:34).
Muhammad's own statement:
"I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers were women who were ungrateful." It was asked, "Do they disbelieve in Allah?" He replied, "They are ungrateful to their husbands. If you are good to one of them for a lifetime, then she sees one [undesirable] thing in you, she will say, 'I have never received any good from you.'" — Sahih Bukhari 29
"Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?... This is the deficiency in her intelligence." — Sahih Bukhari 304
The Cairo Declaration's Article 6 states: "Woman is equal to man in human dignity" — but then subjects this to sharia, which codifies inequality in testimony, inheritance, marriage, divorce, dress, travel, and authority. "Equal in dignity" while unequal in rights is a meaningless formulation.
Freedom of Expression
UDHR Article 19
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference."
The Islamic Position
The Cairo Declaration's Article 22 states: "Everyone shall have the right to express his opinion freely in such manner as would not be contrary to the principles of the Sharia."
Since sharia prohibits blasphemy (criticism of Islam, the Quran, or Muhammad) on pain of death, this effectively criminalizes all critical discussion of Islam. As documented in our article on Islam vs. Freedom of Speech, blasphemy laws in Muslim-majority countries regularly result in imprisonment, flogging, and execution.
The right to express opinions "not contrary to sharia" is like the right to say anything as long as it's approved — it is not freedom of expression at all.
Cruel and Unusual Punishment
UDHR Article 5
"No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
The Islamic Position
Sharia mandates punishments that the UDHR would classify as torture and cruel treatment:
- Amputation for theft: "As for the thief, the male and the female, amputate their hands" — Quran 5:38
- Flogging for fornication: "The woman and the man guilty of illegal sexual intercourse, flog each of them with a hundred stripes" — Quran 24:2
- Stoning to death for adultery: Established by hadith and scholarly consensus
- Crucifixion or cross-amputation for highway robbery — Quran 5:33
- Execution for apostasy, blasphemy, and homosexuality
These are not theoretical — they are actively enforced in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, and parts of Nigeria and Somalia. The hudud punishments are considered divinely ordained and cannot be modified, reduced, or abolished by human legislation. For a full treatment, see What Is Sharia Law?.
Equality Before the Law
UDHR Article 7
"All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law."
The Islamic Position
Sharia explicitly discriminates based on religion and gender:
- A Muslim's testimony outweighs a non-Muslim's
- A Muslim cannot be executed for killing a non-Muslim in most schools of law
- Blood money for a non-Muslim is a fraction of that for a Muslim
- Non-Muslims cannot hold positions of authority over Muslims
- Women's testimony is worth half a man's
- Women inherit half of what men inherit
- A non-Muslim man cannot marry a Muslim woman
The dhimmi system — the legal framework for non-Muslims under Islamic rule — is itself a comprehensive denial of equality before the law. For detailed analysis, see Dhimmi Status: Life as a Non-Muslim Under Islamic Rule.
The Right to Leave One's Religion
UDHR Article 18
The right to "change his religion or belief" is explicitly protected.
The Islamic Position
This is perhaps the most stark conflict. Islam does not merely fail to protect the right to leave the religion — it prescribes the death penalty for exercising it. This is not a fringe interpretation; it is the unanimous position of all four schools of Sunni jurisprudence and the dominant position in Shia jurisprudence.
The hadith is unambiguous:
"The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits adultery, and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims." — Sahih Bukhari 6878
Muhammad placed apostasy alongside murder and adultery as crimes warranting death. No amount of modern reinterpretation can change the fact that this is what Islam's primary sources teach.
Forced Marriage and Consent
UDHR Article 16
"Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses."
The Islamic Position
Islamic law allows a father (wali mujbir) to contract marriage on behalf of his virgin daughter without her explicit consent in some schools of law. The hadith records:
"The Prophet said: 'A virgin should not be given in marriage until she is asked for her permission.' They asked: 'O Messenger of Allah, how is her permission [expressed]?' He said: 'By her silence.'" — Sahih Bukhari 5136
Interpreting silence as consent is a fundamental violation of the principle of informed consent. Furthermore, Muhammad himself married Aisha when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine — a precedent that has been used to justify child marriage throughout Islamic history. For more on this topic, see Child Marriage Today and Forced Marriage in Islam.
LGBTQ Rights
UDHR Principles
While the UDHR does not explicitly mention sexual orientation, its principles of equality, non-discrimination, and privacy have been interpreted by the UN Human Rights Committee as protecting LGBTQ individuals from discrimination and criminalization.
The Islamic Position
Islam categorically condemns homosexuality. The Quran references the story of Lot (Lut) as a condemnation of homosexual acts:
"Do you approach males among the worlds and leave what your Lord has created for you as mates? But you are a people transgressing." — Quran 26:165-166
The hadith prescribes death:
"The Messenger of Allah said: 'Whoever you find doing the action of the people of Lut, execute the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.'" — Sunan Abu Dawud 4462
Homosexual acts are criminalized in virtually every Muslim-majority country, with penalties ranging from imprisonment and flogging to execution. In Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Mauritania, Sudan, and parts of Nigeria and Somalia, homosexuality is punishable by death. The Islamic State openly executed gay men by throwing them from buildings.
There is no serious scholarly tradition within Islam that accepts homosexuality. Modern Muslim LGBTQ organizations exist in Western countries but are rejected by the overwhelming majority of Islamic scholarship worldwide.
Slavery
UDHR Article 4
"No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."
The Islamic Position
Islam does not prohibit slavery. The Quran, hadith, and all four schools of Islamic law accept slavery as legitimate. The Quran repeatedly references "those your right hand possesses" (ma malakat aymanukum) — a euphemism for slaves — and regulates the institution rather than prohibiting it.
Muhammad himself owned slaves, traded slaves, gave and received slaves as gifts, and had sexual relations with slave women (concubines). These facts are documented in the most authoritative hadith collections and are accepted by mainstream Islamic scholarship.
Saudi Arabia did not abolish slavery until 1962. Mauritania did not criminalize it until 2007. Both countries abolished slavery under Western pressure, not through internal Islamic reform — because there is no basis within Islamic law for prohibiting what Allah and His Messenger permitted.
The Core Problem
The fundamental conflict between Islam and human rights is not incidental — it is structural. Human rights are based on the principle that every human being possesses inherent dignity and equal rights by virtue of being human. Islam is based on the principle that human rights are defined and limited by divine revelation as interpreted by Islamic scholars.
These two frameworks produce radically different outcomes:
- Human rights: All people are equal regardless of religion, sex, or sexual orientation
- Islam: Muslims are superior to non-Muslims; men are superior to women; heterosexuals are accepted while homosexuals are executed
- Human rights: Everyone may freely choose and change their religion
- Islam: Leaving Islam is punishable by death
- Human rights: No one may be subjected to torture or cruel punishment
- Islam: Amputation, flogging, stoning, and crucifixion are divinely mandated
- Human rights: Everyone has freedom of expression
- Islam: Criticizing Islam is blasphemy, punishable by death
These conflicts cannot be resolved through reinterpretation because they stem from explicit Quranic verses and authenticated hadith. Resolving them would require rejecting the authority of the Quran and the Sunnah — which would mean rejecting Islam itself.
Conclusion
The conflict between Islam and universal human rights is not a matter of cultural misunderstanding or selective interpretation. It is a fundamental clash between two incompatible systems: one that grounds rights in human dignity and equality, and one that grounds rights in divine revelation that explicitly mandates inequality, restricts freedom, and prescribes cruel punishments.
The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam — adopted by 57 Muslim-majority nations — makes this conflict explicit. By subordinating all rights to sharia, it formally acknowledges that Islamic law overrides universal human rights wherever they conflict. This is not a fringe position; it is the official stance of the world's Muslim governments.
Until Islam undergoes a reformation that explicitly rejects apostasy laws, gender inequality, cruel punishments, and the subordination of non-Muslims — a reformation that would require rejecting clear Quranic commands and unanimous scholarly consensus — it will remain fundamentally incompatible with human rights as understood by the modern world.
For related articles, see Is Islam Compatible with Democracy? and What Is Sharia Law?.
Sources
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Articles 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 16, 18, 19
- Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990), Articles 6, 10, 22, 24, 25
- Quran 2:282, 4:3, 4:11, 4:34, 5:33, 5:38, 9:29, 24:2, 26:165-166
- Sahih Bukhari 29, 304, 5136, 6878, 6922
- Sunan Abu Dawud 4462
- Ann Elizabeth Mayer, Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics (Westview Press, 5th edition)
- Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Islam and the Secular State (Harvard University Press, 2008)